Comments on: Beer & Christianity Redux

By: Wilson

Wilson — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:52:31 +0000

I’m in the midst of a series at brewvana called The Gospel According to St. Arnold, which will run for the next few Wednesdays. I’m taking a close look at Christians and Beer. Here’s the link to Part 2 (there you can find links to the Preface and Part 1 to catch up):

http://brewvana.wordpress.com/2007/12/12/the-gospel-according-to-st-arnold-part-2/

I invite you to check it out and contribute your thoughts.

Yours is a view that needs to be expressed, but I think that statements like, “let’s take this threat seriously,” sound like something a neo-prohibitionist would say (regarding any number of topics: alcohol, terrorism, Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, our border with Mexico are just a few examples). I’d hate to close their ears to the reason I believe we have on our side by a delivery that mirrors theirs (which effectively closes our ears to their views).

By: Stonch

Stonch — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:22:52 +0000

The Bible also condemns gluttony just as it condemns drunkenness, does it not?

Yet no-one would suggest that eating food is un-Christian per se.

Indeed, would anyone suggest that the odd bout of over-indulgence, for example on feast days, is un-Christian either?

I doubt it.

By: Keith Brainard

Keith Brainard — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:45:24 +0000

Great post, J!

I used to work with a fundamentalist, and he would talk about how he likes to drink, appreciates Sam Adams, but has never been drunk. Now I think I understand why he would say that. It is amazing the power of the shepherd over the sheep.

The average American doesn’t really understand Science enough to discern the bad science from the good science. For any person to believe that drinking more than one beer would create an alcoholic is just ludicrous. Are they talking about Miller Lite or Sam Adams Utopias? Or somewhere in the middle? Five beers = binge drinking; which beers are they talking about? They probably don’t know that there’s any variety among beer. Even my wife isn’t clearly understanding the falsehoods of the anti-beer terrorism that American mass-media projects.

At a deeper level; nothing is really “wrong” except for that which you belive to be wrong. So in a way, we should just let “them” hate the beer – it’s more for us! And if they want to try to make us feel like we’ll go to hell for drinking beer, then it is their problem, not ours. Really, there is no hell, except perhaps for that which we live now.

I wish I could make a conclusion for this comment, but it is just so deeply a divide in America that it defies a single paragraph wrap-up. J – keep fighting the good fight, but also remember to focus on that which you want, as opposed to focusing against that which you do not want. Beer is good. They used to call yeast “godisgood” before they understood what it was. God is good. Yeast is good. Beer is good.

Peace