Moody Bible Institute Drops Alcohol and Tobacco Ban for Employees

The world seems to understand that smoking is one of the most harmful habits going. How have Christians managed to tune out that message?

Smoking cause lung cancer, throat cancer, emphysema, and contributes to hypertension and heart disease. It smells up your house, your car, your clothes. It makes your fingers yellow and your teeth brown. It is banned from most public places and transportation. The American Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, universities, research facilities, and a host of medical personnel have been publishing research and successfully getting the message out for decades.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs going.

So, now that we really know what smoking does to people (what Spurgeon, by the way, never knew before he quit the habit), Christians have finally found it cool? and placed it under Romans 14? What does this exactly have to do with Christ? And why would I want a Bible teacher counseling me about overcoming bad habits, who loves his nicotine?

I tried to start smoking three times, couldn’t stick with it.

The world seems to understand that drinking soda and sugary beverages is one of the most harmful habits going. How have Christians managed to tune out that message?

Drinking soda can cause obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, some forms of cancer and psychosocial disorders. It establishes bad precedents for your children and the bottles and cans pollute the environment. It is banned from public schools and some cities have undertaken specific legislation to limit its sale and serving sizes. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, universities, research facilities, and a host of medical personnel have been publishing research and successfully getting the message out for decades.

The average American drinks 40 gallons of soda each year.

So, now that we really know what drinking soda does to people (which Asa Griggs Chandler, by the way, never knew before he started selling it). Christians have finally found it cool? and placed it under Romans 14? What does this exactly have to do with Christ? and why would I want a Bible teacher counseling me about overcoming bad habits, when he’s sipping 12 ounces of death in a can?

Moody’s change is probably not as sinister or as complex as maybe some would read into. In all honesty - my guess is most of us attend churches that do not demand a total ban on wine, smokes…..or soda. This probably has more to do with an approach to higher education that wants to focus it’s attention on the academic and professional away from the personal and what they might describe as “peripheral.” Now don’t bust my chops on that last one. My guess is if you were to get the administration and staff and for that matter most of the student body of Moody - the vast majority of them would encourage you to not smoke, don’t over-due soda and even with drinking - I’m sure a majority would not drink. Oh - Moody teachers and staff might actually say more about the problem of obesity than some of our fundamentalist ministries might. Does that count? Sure - some will drink - but the majority who do drink are probably careful not to cross the line into drunkenness. I’m not sure how that approach is that different from the majority of Type B and Type C ministries that would send their kids to Moody anyway. As far as Type A churches that would make you sign a covenant that to be a member you would never do X, Y or Z - I’m pretty sure Moody wasn’t in the running for possible places to send your kids too anyway…..but Moody would welcome the right kind of kid from a Type A ministry into their school anyway.

For my wife and I - we are hopeful that our young adult who is off to college has his own convictions (because we have done our job when they were in our home) about these and other issues - our prayer is that our sons will live a God-honoring life no matter what these kinds of policies might be - no matter what kind of a college or university he is studying at. Having said that - if I had been the decision-maker, or if the administration at Moody would have asked my opinion (and strangely they did not! :) …. I would have suggested to leave the policy as is.

Straight Ahead!

jt

Joel,

One of my (our) highly-esteemed professors sent his comment to me about the MBI policy change:

Post modernism is taking a devastating toll. Many are being deceived into thinking they can better serve God by accommodating the habits of the world. The changes now taking place are not for a stricter, more disciplined life-style; they are a lessening of standards. The Moody leadership could have said, “Let us be more vigilant over our souls and keep ourselves from even the garment spotted by the flesh. Let us be more diligent is separating from the habits of the world that could blemish our testimony and bring reproach on Christ; let us spend more time in prayer.” Moody began to compromise some time ago; now it has opened the floodgates. Instead of weaning affections from the world; they are inviting the world to take residence. The thinking is—fewer restrictions produce greater spirituality. But it is a falling away from old standards once imposed for strengthening godliness in an ungodly world. And so it goes. The end draws nearer, and I have to ask myself, “Am I really living in the shadow of His coming?” 2 Peter 3:16-18.

Daniel L. Akin comments (President of South Eastern):

I readily confess to a personal bias when it comes to the issue of alcohol. My
wife Charlotte grew up in the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home because her parents were
alcoholics. Her father died a lost alcoholic. Her mother, by God’s grace, was saved on
her death bed. Her body had been ravaged by the twin killers of alcohol and tobacco.
Today her sister and brother are lost alcoholics as is most of the rest of her family. My
sister Joy and her husband Kevin King adopted a daughter born with fetal alcohol
syndrome. She began life with two strikes against her through no fault of her own.
Today there are more than 40 million problem drinkers in America. Alcohol is the
number one drug problem among teenagers. One in three American families suspects
that one or more family members have a drinking problem. Misuse of alcohol costs our
nation $100 billion a year in quantifiable cost. Because of these experiences and many
more, I have often said that even if I were not a Christian I would have nothing to do with
alcohol. There is simply too much sorrow and heartache connected to it. Avoiding this
devastating drug is simply the wise thing to do.

[Mike Harding] Moody began to compromise some time ago; now it has opened the floodgates.

Imagine “six waterpots of stone …. containing two or three firkins apiece”.

I know the Baptist argument is:

• Couldn’t have been alcoholic
• Wine then is not like wine today
• Water then was polluted unlike water today … hence … et cetera

Some aren’t so sure it is that black and white

Jim,

1. They were not my words

2. Jesus commanded the pots to filled with water

3. The wine was fresh

? for Mike (or others who preside over an organization with staff):

• Presuming you have some sort of staff standards that detail “thou shalt not drink”
• If you let down that standard and “emphasize[d] values, not rules”
• Would your people rush out to the liquor store or tobacco shop? If not why not?

For pastors:

1. Do you direct your flock with rules? And then have some sort of process(s) in place to oversee and correct if they violate the rules?
2. Or do you teach principles and let the Holy Spirit apply those principles?

My church (4th Baptist Church) is a type 2 church.

[Jim]

For pastors:

1. Do you direct your flock with rules? And then have some sort of process(s) in place to oversee and correct if they violate the rules?
2. Or do you teach principles and let the Holy Spirit apply those principles?

My church (4th Baptist Church) is a type 2 church.

I don’t think it’s an either/or situation. I’m sure 4th has some rules even though it focuses primarily on principles. I’m also sure there are processes in place to oversee and correct violation of those rules, probably including reference to the underlying principles involved.

[Chip Van Emmerik]

I don’t think it’s an either/or situation. I’m sure 4th has some rules even though it focuses primarily on principles. I’m also sure there are processes in place to oversee and correct violation of those rules, probably including reference to the underlying principles involved.

• Yes 4th has rules for leadership (deacons, deaconesses, et cetera. I’m sure they have rules for the staff - not sure if I’ve seen them
• I can say that in 40+ years as a Christian and the vast majority of that time in a Baptist-in-name fundamentalist-in-name church, I’ve never seen anyone removed from church membership for either drinking in moderator or smoking. While I do not keep a list and am not always in the know, I believe that in probably every church I’ve been in, there have been some who have privately used alcohol in moderation.
• Observation: We (4th) recently planted a church in the NW suburbs of Minneapolis. I know the pastor, I’ve been in that church. And I know for certain that that church purposed to not include the standard phraseology of “abstain” in their church covenant.
• 4th’s church covenant has that phraseology … as far as I can tell the behavior of 4th people is really not any different than the behavior of those in the new church plant. That is to say .. the church plant people (and some actually came from 4th) are not rioting in drunkenness.

Jim,

It is not an either/or situation. One can teach values and have policies regarding the conduct of those in places of leadership. Your seminary has values, policies, and rules. Your Christian school has values, policies, and rules. I am personal friends with several of your professors at Central and I know that your schools have this policy in writing. With so many Christians taking up drinking, I think it is necessary to have the policy. Here is an interesting quote from one of the former presidents of the SBC on the issue:

Adrian Rogers said,
“Moderation is not the cure for the liquor problem. Moderation is the cause of the liquor
problem. Becoming an alcoholic does not begin with the last drink, it always begins with
the first. Just leave it alone.”

You are convinced that Jesus turned water into grape juice (or unfermented wine)

Please admit that Bible scholars (evangelical, fundamental) are not unanimous in this conclusion.

I am glad to read Dan Akin’s and Adrian Roger’s personal opinions on the consumption of alcohol. Neither of their positions is a logical (in the formally argumentative sense of the word) reasons for abstinence. In that, for every family of alcoholics, there is a family with a rich legacy of controlled consumption of a glass of wine at dinner or a cold beer after work. One’s personal experience is not a valid basis for blanket statements. I again point to 1 Corinthians 7-10.

Some people were so scarred from their time as idol-worshippers that they would not eat any meat (at least meat that was sold behind the temple). Paul said “good for you!…Don’t eat the meat!” But to other (and he terms them stronger) brothers, he says, “We know that the meat is not inherently bad…eat the meat!” To both he orders, “Whatever you do, do it for God’s glory in a way that brings him glory.”

I believe that a proper interpretation of the principles of this passage will lead to a modern application that reflects the subtleties of liberty. You can believe alcohol (or whatever) to be wrong…and we’ll avoid it around you. But don’t try to extend your conscience as a delimiter for my conscience when you’re not around. I’ll do you the courtesy of not bringing alcohol to campus (or church) and you do me the courtesy of not nosing around my fridge.

[Mike Harding]

Your seminary has values, policies, and rules. ……. With so many Christians taking up drinking, I think it is necessary to have the policy”

• Admittedly the seminary has rules (noted above I haven’t seen them but I presumed they were in place)
• But these men that you and I know and you and I respect … do they NOT DRINK because of the rules? Or because they have arrived at convictions of their own. Hypothetically were Central NOT HAVE the rules … would these men go out and drink? I’m sure not!

Re the Adrian Rogers quote:

• Surely you must know that there are Christians who drink in moderation
• And somehow they are able to self-regulate that they do not: drink & drive, or become drunk.
• Some call it “social drinking” but for some it is having a glass of wine with pasta or a beer with a hamburger.
• IF they are careful to not partake before one who might take their liberty as an opportunity to abuse alcohol, who is harmed by this?