Alcohol and Anguish
Another, of many, great reason to stay away from alcohol.
David R. Brumbelow
Why is this on Sharper Iron? . In light of his sister-in-laws death this blog is just in bad taste and bad form. I would encourage him to climb down off the soapbox and attend to those wounded by emotional and physical trauma. Perhaps he should be encouraged to seek his own healing. This second blog is an example of what not to do after a traumatic event invades your life.
Perhaps there is enough time in a day to tend the wounded and soap box a little as well.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Selected quote:
… unless you’ve looked into the dull eyes of a husband who just an hour ago lost the mother of his two young children to a drunk driver—unless you have some real life experience with the dangers of alcohol—I don’t want to hear about your liberty to drink. I certainly don’t want to hear you encouraging others to drink. It’s time to grow up in your discernment and compassion and to be a warner rather than a tempter. Alcohol abuse is one of the defining sins of our day. It’s life, not theory. We can’t afford to be ambivalent about it.
IMHO, this is on Sharper Iron because Steve Hafler is a missionary/pastor loved and respected by many in the community of faith. It is on SI because the issue of Christian liberty and alcohol has been debated here.
Steve warned about alcohol; his family has been seriously hurt by a drunk driver; he warns again, and rightly so. There is Christian liberty, yes, but there is also foolish selfishness.
May the Lord comfort the Haflers and Tara’s family.
L Strickler
Maybe you are intimate with the situation and Mr Hafler, but I read a blog that makes an accusation yet unfounded by evidence (or even a citation). And I read it with the knowledge that this tragedy has struck Mr. Hafler’s family hours before. I’m having trouble reconciling the need to immediately climb back on the soapbox to say “see, I told you so.”
Posting this blog is an a avoidable misstep. You have used the unspeakable horror of this woman/mother/wife’s death to promote more blather and bother over nothing. Mr. Halfer can be somewhat excused because he is undoubtedly stressed and in shock. SI could have shown restraint.
@Jeff: Not going to debate this aggressively - we may just need to disagree (hopefully agreeably!)
The blog posts are:
- Timely
- Not sourced by S/I … it’s not like S/I invaded a private family situation
- A warning
- Points readers to the need to pray for the family
My 2¢
Jeff — Did you even look at the dates on the two blogs the man wrote or read the content. He wrote one on 9/17 about alcohol and what he and his family had observed/experienced. Then a week later his sister-in-law is injured and later dies in a wreck committed by a drunk driver and he lets people know the news. Soapbox????? I hardly think so. This precious family and many others like them need our prayers and support.
Years ago my husband’s youngest brother was severely injured and later died as a result of his own driving drunk. I was not in the family then, but now as I watch the other siblings drink I can’t comprehend how important alcohol is to a person that they would risk their own life and well-being of their family to partake of a liquid. Tea, juice, water etc work just as well to quench thirst and no wreck, death, abuse, etc have ever been attributed to them.
Michelle Shuman
Pornography may be the rock star issue of 21st century Christianity, but alcohol has been and will continue to be a far greater problem, especially as it is increasingly being accepted in the name of Christian liberty. Don’t tell me what I can’t do, I have liberty.
Is that Christian liberty or Americanist liberty?
V/r
Ashamed of Jesus! of that Friend On whom for heaven my hopes depend! It must not be! be this my shame, That I no more revere His name. -Joseph Grigg (1720-1768)
[JNoël]Pornography may be the rock star issue of 21st century Christianity, but alcohol has been and will continue to be a far greater problem, especially as it is increasingly being accepted in the name of Christian liberty. Don’t tell me what I can’t do, I have liberty.
Is that Christian liberty or Americanist liberty?
V/r
Considering that in the entire history of the Christian church, the only prohibitions against alcohol occurred in the English-speaking world in the modern era, and gained the most momentum in history in the United States, I would say that the prohibition rather than the liberty is conspicuously American.
My Blog: http://dearreaderblog.com
Cor meum tibi offero Domine prompte et sincere. ~ John Calvin
[Charlie]Considering that in the entire history of the Christian church, the only prohibitions against alcohol occurred in the English-speaking world in the modern era, and gained the most momentum in history in the United States, I would say that the prohibition rather than the liberty is conspicuously American.
Why might prohibition have gained so much momentum in the US? What might be so unique about our country that a cry for abstinence became, for a time, a popular solution?
Ashamed of Jesus! of that Friend On whom for heaven my hopes depend! It must not be! be this my shame, That I no more revere His name. -Joseph Grigg (1720-1768)
[JNoël]Mass production? The fact that alcohol became so readily and cheaply available in large quantities, where before moderation was largely enforced by a relative lack of supply would certainly contribute to the idea that outlawing it might be the easier solution.Why might prohibition have gained so much momentum in the US? What might be so unique about our country that a cry for abstinence became, for a time, a popular solution?
Dave Barnhart
Sure Michelle, I was aware of the timing of the two blogs. The first had the same inane content that has been spouted for the last century or two: alcohol is evil. It espoused what essentially is an opinion not in agreement with Scripture. It is an opinion on par with: guns are evil, ban guns.
My objection (and I thought it was clear) is that this man chose with hours of the accident to run back to his blog and post another “I told you so” diatribe on alcohol filled with condemnation and accusation. My further objection is that SI chose to post the second blog which is just bad form. Profiting/using tragedy to push an agenda never smells right.
Turn of the century pamphlets issued by Northern Baptists mention that alcohol and mechanization don’t mix well. Work place accidents were a problem. Also there was no “safety net” for the families made destitute when dad regularly stopped off at the bar on payday and didn’t leave before most of his money was gone. Some books tie the growth of these problems to urbanization. When you no longer live in the ancestral town, but are anonymous in the city, there are fewer people to call you to account for sinful excess.
L Strickler
“First, it’s not about recreation, but about mission.”
Scripture teaches and encourages recreation in moderation and mission.
“Second, it’s not about what’s on the table, but who’s at the table.”
Scripture teaches us concerning who to spend time with and teaches liberty concerning what is on the table.
“Third, it’s not about social liberties, but about needy people.”
Liberty and love for other people are both taught in Scripture.
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It isn’t right to hold certain Scriptural principles up against others. The pain that comes from the harm of sin seems to spur believers to turn to various forms of monk-ism. The flesh is corrupt and drinks to excess, leading to the ruin of life and lives. But the human tendency to ‘deal’ with it is to eliminate the option of any alcohol, even though it may deprive us of something God created for our enjoyment.
“Search their ways and principles to the bottom, and you will find that it had no other root but this mistake, namely, that attempting rigid mortification, they fell upon the natural man instead of the corrupt old man, — upon the body wherein we live instead of the body of death.”
- Owen, John (2010-08-15). The Mortification Of Sin (p. 12). . Kindle Edition.
It might seem that loss of something like alcohol is a very small price to pay in exchange for the prospect of preventing the type of loss that the blogger painfully describes. And I would tend to agree. But it isn’t what God has said. And as monk-ism it is a false attempt at mortification.
Discussion