Culture Wars
Carrie Nation in San Diego
by Clay Staggs
So I guess everyone has heard about the brouhaha on the beach in San Diego over the holiday weekend. In case you missed it, a fight on the beach escalated to the point where the police had to be called in. Read all about it here.
And guess what’s to blame? That’s right, Carrie, it’s demon rum. Nevermind asking anyone to take responsibility for their own actions, even if they have been drinking. People aren’t to blame. Booze is.
So, because alcohol is so clearly to blame, what’s the natural course of action if you’re a craven politician? You propose a total ban on alcohol on all public beaches, natch. Thus has SD City Councilman Kevin Faulconer stepped up to the plate and done just that. Surely this will make the beaches family-friendly again, right? If we just ban the alcohol, it’ll be a swell place - a place where Ward and June could take Wally and the Beav without fear of them being exposed to that most wicked of substances, corrupting their immortal souls.
What garbage. And, not only to I have my own opinion to back me up, I have that most coveted of things in our postmodern American culture - a study! According to a 2004 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, kids whose parents allowed them to attend unchaperoned parties where drinking took place were twice as likely to binge drink as other kids. No shocker there. However, the study also found that kids who drank at home with their parents were one-third as likely to binge drink as other kids. Who could have foreseen this? I mean, alcohol is so evil - how can this be? When children are taught to drink responsibly by their parents, they become responsible drinkers as adults. It’s craziness, I tell you.
An excellent piece citing this study appeared on the Wall Street Journal ’s opinion website on Monday. I recommend all of you read it here.
Now, the oh-so-cocky Councilman Faulconer laid down this challenge regarding his proposed ban:
For those who believe an all-out ban is too extreme, I invite you to convince me otherwise.
Well, I submit this scientific study in response to Mr. Faulconer’s challenge. It’s good public policy to encourage families to drink together to reduce binge drinking. Pour up a beer for Wally! It’s good for him!
Somehow, I still don’t expect Mr. Faulconer to be convinced.
Posted by Clay Staggs at September 5, 2007 11:18 AM
Would it work to tell our children that they really don’t need alcohol to have a good time?
From John T. McNeill’s book, The History and Character of Calvinism: (Calvin’s witten contract/call with his Geneva church) “he was given ‘the substantial annual salary of 500 florins, together with twelve measures of wheat and two bassets (250 gallons) of wine.’”
From the Heidelberg Catechism: “Wine which sustains this temporal life…”
Maria,
That’s a good point, and I’d like to be clear about what I mean and why this issue has particular salience for me.
I spent a my junior year of undergrad living in Germany. One of the many things that really struck me as a major cultural difference was the attitude they have toward drink. There is, functionally, no such thing as a drinking age there.
Now, conditioned as I was to the American attitude toward alcohol, which is to this day largely shaped by prohibition and the religious tones that movement took (a la Carrie Nation), I expected to see rampant alcoholism and certainly alcohol abuse (I was in college, after all).
What I actually saw shocked me. It wasn’t a big deal. I had seen (and continued to see upon my return) WAY more alcohol abuse at UA than there. And it really changed the way I see the issue.
I’ve come to belive (and this is nothing more than my view - it and a buck will buy you a coke) that our society’s, and in particular the American church’s view of drinking is actually counterproductive for our young people. Moreoever, and in my view, worse, I can find no scriptural support for this attitude.
Now again, I do not want anyone to hear what I’m not saying. It is surely possible to have a good time without alcohol in the mix. We all had a great time a the pool last night, and no alcohol was served. But, at the same time, the presence of alcohol is not the presence of evil. Just as a good time can be had without it, a good - and, importantly, a wholesomely good time can be had with alcohol too.
I think it’s that last point that most American Christians would be shocked at. But, I think scripture, the history of the church, and the study cited in the WSJ, prove that exposing young people to drink in moderation at a (comparatively) young age and in a family context is good, healthy, and beneficial.
One of the blessings of the Reformed Faith is that our views are formed and reformed according to the Scriptures. Alcohol is one of God’s good gifts to us to pleasurably enjoy in this life just as the Heidelberg Catechism states. Because God gave it to us I cannot and do not condemn its proper use. I hope we are teaching our children a Scriptural view of the purpose and use of alcohol.
I really appreciate the Heidelberg quote and would like to know in what section of the Catechism to find it!
This may sound like a book table plug from an expatriate member, but I think it does speak to the subject at hand. I like the Martin Luther quote from the back of God Gave Wine: What the Bible Says About Alcohol which has been available on the book table
“Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?”
Sorry for the delay, I have been out of town and preoccupied with several fires.
The Catechism question is #79, Maria (when it expounds on communion and the attributes of the elements)#75 I think touches on it, as well (?)
Clay, This is from Peter Marshall’s Light and Glory. It’s a report about ministers from all over coming to dedicate a meeting house and install minister Thomas Shepherd. This is circa 1682:
“Dainty meats were on the table in great plenty, bear-steak, deer-meat, rabbit and fowl, both wild and from the barnyard. Luscious puddings were likewise had in abundance, mostly apple and berry, but some of the corn meal with small bits of suet baked therein, also pies and tarts. We had some pleasant fruits, as apples, nuts and wild grapes, and to crown all, we had plenty of good cider and the inspiring Barbados drink. (rum) Mr. Shepherd and most of the ministers were grave and prudent at thetable (except, of course, when flinging apples at the chickens), discoursing much upon the great points of the dedication sermon and in silence laboring upon food beore them. But I will not risk to say on which they dwelt with most relish, the discourse or the dinner.”
Kenny, This is a great read. It is by no means a handbook for debauchery…this book was the first time I saw the beauty of alcohol within the safe constructs of the heavenly kingdom. Let me know what you think, when you read it.