One Final Word on Alcohol

My colleague Jon Pratt suggested I offer one more piece on alcohol with other reasons why I don’t drink. In the last piece, I offered some biblical rationale. I do not expect that what I say here will necessarily carry any more weight, but this is at least food for thought. I wondered what the “world” has to say about the use of alcohol.

1. There is no precise definition of what drinking in moderation entails. Factors such as age, weight, race, gender, rate of consumption, medical condition, all factor in. Nor is wine or beer “better” than hard liquor. Alcohol is alcohol. The amount of liquid may vary but the effect is the same. The world generally calls moderate drinking no more than one drink per day if you are a woman and two if you are a man. The size of the drink depends on what is being consumed. For wine, the amount is 5 ozs. and for beer, its is 12 ozs. But remember, other factors may affect what moderation is.

Application for the Christian: There is no safe way to determine when my moderation becomes excess. Even if I only drink 10 ozs. of wine (two drinks—normally considered moderation for a man) other factors may make that amount too much.

2. It is not safe to drink and drive—any amount of alcohol. Of course, the more one consumes, the greater the risk. The blood alcohol level to be considered impaired across the US is .08% or higher for people over 21. Those under 21 may have 0 alcohol in their system. Alcohol “slows reaction time and impairs judgment and coordination.” There is no way to measure impairment short of a breathalyzer. How would anyone know he/she is impaired?

Application for a Christian: Why would I do anything that would potentially be dangerous for driving?

3. “Alcohol affects every organ in the body. It is a central nervous system depressant that is rapidly absorbed from the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream. Alcohol is metabolized in the liver by enzymes; however, the liver can only metabolize a small amount of alcohol at a time, leaving the excess alcohol to circulate throughout the body. The intensity of the effect of alcohol on the body is directly related to the amount consumed.”

4. Below is a list of people who should never drink

• Children and adolescents.
• Individuals of any age who cannot limit their drinking to low levels.
• Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant.
• Individuals who plan to drive, operate machinery, or take part in other activities that require attention, skill, or coordination.
• Individuals taking prescription or over-the-counter medications that can interact with alcohol.
• Individuals with certain medical conditions, e.g., persons recovering from alcoholism.

Application for the Christian: If I fit into any of these categories, I cannot drink biblically nor should I.

Two final thoughts.

First, the problem of excessive alcohol consumption on the college campus is growing. Binge drinking is at record levels. Granted that Christians who support the limited use of alcohol would never sanction such behavior, I fail to see how a “drinking in moderation” position can possibly be applied since no one really knows what “moderation” is for a particular person and the dangers of alcohol addiction are great. Why run the risk? For more on the problem of alcohol on the college campus, read numerous articles here. It is the website of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Second, the alcohol industry is dedicated not to moderation but to consumption. Any advertisement of the various beverages should be enough to convince the unbiased observer of this reality. They make money when people drink, not when they abstain. Why would I want to support such an unbiblical business when even the world thinks that moderation is practically unattainable and argues that few people can drink in moderation?

So I end this piece and this series with my conclusion from my previous post. I choose not to drink. For me it is a wisdom issue. I see no good reason to drink and lots of reasons why drinking is a poor choice for a Christian. By the way, the above quotes are not taken from a Christian temperance website. They come straight from the world—the Center for Disease Control. Don’t like their conclusions? Read them here.