The Teetoler Mandate

I would like to use this post (my first in too many months) to talk about how the current view that abstinence is the only legitimate position towards the consumption of alcohol for the Zambian evangelical Christian is harmful to the cause of Christ. As you read this I request you not to assume that this or subsequent posts are an endorsement of the current Zambian drinking culture. This post is merely an attempt to look at how something that was started is good faith has developed into something it was never intended to be.

As you may know, in Zambia, evangelical Christians are not supposed to drink. Society in general and evangelical Christians seem agreed on this point. While no evangelical Church I know of calls the consumption of alcohol sin, it is informally known to be strictly “against the rules”.
Sermons, blogs and Christian in casual conversation regularly discourage and stigmatize the consumption of alcohol. According to this viewpoint there is no meaningful distinction between drinking and drunkenness. Therefore, while drinking is technically not sin, taking more than is sip is effectively sinful. Further, this viewpoint, I must confess to having held it, presents the decision to drink alcohol as careless at best and as guaranteed to lead to spiritual, social and sometimes physical destruction. Rhetorically, such Christians ask why on earth anyone in their right mind would want to take the risk of drinking when the stakes are so high. This stance against drinking alcohol can be so serious that a Christian caught drinking will be stigmatized as a backslider and will sometimes be subjected to Church discipline. To Zambian evangelical alcohol is in effect as spiritually unclean as pork was to the Old Testament Jew.

Even in society in general, while the consumption of alcohol is permissible, it is felt that the cleaner and in some ways morally superior option is to abstain from alcohol. The abstainer is looked at as a decent person, particularly if the abstainer is female. According, to society as you grow older, the dignified thing is to cut back on your drinking and if possible by all means put away “childish things”.
I however, have come to the conclusion that to maintain (even at an informal level) that abstinence from alcohol is the ONLY legitimate option for Christian is gravely wrong. Allow me to share my reasons.

1. Insisting on the abstinence ONLY option imposes an extra biblical requirement on Christians. NOWHERE in the Bible is exclusive abstinence required of a believer. To expect Christians to universally abstain is to add to God’s commandments, a practice that the Bible condemns. “You may not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you” Deuteronomy 4:2.

2. The ban of alcohol causes confusion in the minds of believers and non believers about the nature of sin. The current position creates the impression that alcohol is sinful in and of itself sinful. This is contrary to the teaching of Christ that clearly reveals that sin comes from the hearts of people and not from material things. (Mathew 15:11) In the case of substance abuse, whether it is alcohol or another substance, the sin lies in the person’s willful decision to use the substance in abusive patterns and not in the substance itself.

3. In effect the alcohol ban requires or at least creates the impression that in order to be a ‘real’ Christian one must add to repentance and faith in Christ a man made principle: abstinence from alcohol. This is a practice that has been soundly condemned by the Apostle Paul. (Colossians 2:20-23).

4. The ban on alcohol ban suppresses several scriptures that present alcohol consumption in a positive light. Examples of such scripture include; Psalm 104:14-15, Ecclesiastes 10:19, Deuteronomy 14:22-26 and Isaiah 25:6-9. Further, in the New Testament wine was used in the ordinance of the Lords Supper, an act of worship no less. This is to subtract this view point from the Bible is a practice that God does not approve as we have already seen in Deuteronomy 4:2.

5. The ban on alcohol tends to promote questionable handling of the Bible. Persons promoting the no alcohol policy tend to promote questionable interpretation practice. For example, (to my shame I have done this several times myself) on tactic frequently used is to argue that Biblical wine was non alcoholic grape juice or grape juice with the merest traces of alcohol. This position can be shown to be false by substituting grape juice for wine in several passages. Do any of the sound right? The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘here is a glutton and grape juice drinker!’ everyone brings out the choice grape juice first and the cheaper grape juice after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best to now!’John 2:9-10.’Drink no longer water, but use a little non-alcoholic grape juice for thy stomachs sake and thine often infirmities’. Here’s my favorite. ’Be not drunk with grape juice’ Ephesians 5:18. I think you get my point.

6. Many arguments for abstinence (but not all) are a bad witness to the world as they imply Christians are intellectually dishonest, at worst, or not clear thinkers, at best. Take for example, the argument that the abuse of something is an argument for abstinence. This argument is easily demolished (would anyone honestly argue against eating due to the high prevalence of obesity) and does not leave the non Christian with a high regard for the Christian mind. Another practice in this category is the equating of alcohol consumption to drunkenness. Put another way, the argument that moderate alcohol consumption is a myth. While this argument might work in Christian circles, in non Christian circles their experience alone disproves the argument. Not everyone who consumes alcohol is a hopeless drunk.

7. Lastly, this route avoids the responsibility of showing the world how to handle elements of creation including alcohol in a redemptive fashion. As Christians we are not to despise creation due to the way rebellion against God has twisted it. Take for example, sexuality is widely abused. Think of pornography, homosexuality, polygamy and fornication. All of these are horrible abuses of sexuality and sometimes make sexuality seem kind of dirty since this kind of abuse is the norm in most societies. However, as Christians we are clearly taught not to abstaining from sex rather we are to display to the world the proper use of sexuality in the context of marriage. Similarly, with regards to alcohol, Christians ought not to ban the use of alcohol outright. Rather, an allowance ought to be made for the proper use of alcohol. I hope to start discussing the proper use of alcohol in the next post.

So there we have it, seven reasons why I believe abstinence from alcohol can not be a rule in Christian circles. As I end, I want to say that this is in no way an argument that Christian MUST drink, or an argument in favour of the WAY people in Zambia drink, it is certainly not an argument that Christians should JOIN their non Christian relatives and associate in drinking, rather it is an argument against unchristian tendencies and viewpoints that have emerged in our circles. It is an argument for the Church to reform its general practice towards drinking and better align it with scripture. I hope to begin to discuss how I believe a more Biblically balanced attitude to alcohol can be developed.

Initiation- 21st century style – The measure of a man

He felt like this was the proudest day of his life – he had become a man. Long ago, this would have been marked by when had ploughed a field, killed his first antelope and brought meat home or undergone a circumcision ritual. But instead, the 21st century youth stared at the bottle in-front of him, the mixture of orange juice and ‘tujili-jili’ that his friends had mixed at the back of the hall, during the ‘teen bash’ at school. He had taken the ‘hard stuff’, and two of his friends had blacked out before him. They were going to be the talk of the school the following Monday.

This is the new rite of passage, combined with the number of ‘sexual exploits’ to his name. In the eyes of so many in society, these are the marks of a modern man. These are what the modern youth takes to be the mark of a man, and sadly, many elderly people as well.

This is compounded by the fact that many women have picked up on this, and the men they look for are those who fit the modern ‘champion’ mentality. (I once heard a woman say she will only accept a man who drinks and has a hairy chest… if that is what women are looking for nowadays, rather than virtue and reliability, where are we headed?) This in turn leads other men to try and fit the image that is on demand. And so; “Due to the increase of wickedness, the love of many grows cold” (Matthew 24:12).

A few weeks back on Independence Day, I went to one of the popular Lusaka recreation centres, and was saddened to see the number of youth, (on average 14 years old, I would estimate), drunk. One girl could hardly walk and two of her friends had to support her. One boy had to be carried (literally) by his friend to the bathroom. A girl was pouring some spirits over the chicken she was roasting. If you don’t see something wrong with that picture, I am even more worried. Has this become so normal? The “stuff that teenagers do”?

How did our values shift from productivity (an ability to ‘protect, provide and lead’), to consumption and loose living? Some would link this to a colonial hangover, after restrictions on freedom and almost forced labor, the liberated people go to an opposite extreme; hating and avoiding work as much as possible rather than just hating cruel labor. They life of the former master looks good, but not the work that maintains that life. But this is only a guess.

The book of Proverbs describes the wise man as fearing God, having an honest vocation (not lying in wait to rob others or too lazy to lift his hand from the plate to his mouth), sticking to ‘the wife of his youth’ (not the adulterous woman), upholding justice and compassion. Is this how we view ‘a real man’?

Every child aspires to adulthood, and their ‘aspiration’ is molded by observing and imitating the adults. Long ago, there was a system of apprenticeship, where the family works together much of the time, and the sons learn the trade of the fathers. The family pride in the children’s maturity centered on how they work as opposed to how they play. The child’s expectations of adult life were centered on real responsibilities on not just liberty and leisure.

What is the measure of a man? What is the Bible’s measure of a man? Our Biblical mandate of dominion involves initiative, hard work, planning and endurance. It also demands sacrificial leadership like that of Jesus, the ability to live for others and give everything we have to protect, provide and lead. Somehow, I am not sure that’s what comes to mind when we ask ’What are the marks of a man’. And our society is poorer because of it. Where does the turn-around begin?