Featured Objections to the Teetotalism view on Alcohol

Does he require your help? If I call you a Calvi, are you getting upset? so if I use Fundi, why should he care?

 

In this day and time of 'John Q. Public' watching our every move, why take a chance at destroting one's witness by imbibbing in public?

I am NOT in the teetotaller camp, but one needs to do their drinking alcohol in the comfort and safety of their home.

 

But back to the subject at hand. Let me 1st preface that I have been around Alcoholics all my life. My Grandfather & I believe my father were but my father at least tried to control himself. Later my brother gravitated to it & I believe wasted many years of his life inebriated. My MIL, SIL & my wife are all alcoholics. I have been to countless AA Meetings, a few ALNON meetings (yuk) & been to court standing next to the alcoholic in support (moral & financial). I have been to hospitals where the alcoholic is jaundice, liver enlarged & obviously ready to drop dead, and here is what they all tell you....."you gotta believe me, I am NOT an alcoholic!" The following week you comeback & you find that that guy is dead & there is another yellow colored drunk telling you the same thing......"you gotta believe me, I am NOT an alcoholic! Just pathetic!!!

So from my prospective, the first path to clarity is not to placate & deny that the alcoholic has a problem, but rather to lay it out, to admit the inability to handle the sauce & build a new life around abstinence. And that takes some clarity of mind & determination of heart & will to not drink. And real world, people can & will drink around them. I didn't when they were first struggling but later on it was they (MIL, SIL, Wife & Brother) that told me that it is just ridiculous for me to abstain when it isn't my problem. My wife being the strictest task master when it comes to food (I'm a diabetic & she isn't)....so she brings in cookies, candy, cake, sticky rolls etc on a weekly basis. Her agruement is that I MUST develop the strength to avoid what can kill me as she had to develop the strength to avoid what could kill her....she sees no difference.

 

John Q. Public does not believe in the Bible, much less Biblical teetotalism, so how can one's testimony by affected? It's only the total abstainers with an errant view of scripture that are going to get twisted up about it.

Why? Because another Christian might see your Christian liberty and want to try it out for themselves?
(BTW, I don't drink.)

 

You know.....that statement is very true..... and surprising to me personally. See I was raised in the old "Shame & Blame" generation when dressing properly, being clean and orderly, caring about ones reputation & that of their families was very important.

And now its merely dust in the wind---evidenced by the way people, dress, talk & generally conduct themselves. Sad, very sad.:tear:

 

What if our "witness" is moderation? I know that in my Baptist church, people are open about going to "have a beer" or a glass of wine with others in public. No one gets drunk and each one of us look after our brothers and sisters.

 

I was too, but I had to get over the idea that I had any control over "my reputation." Concern about one's reputation is a subtle trap that keep people from being socially and spiritually courageous for fear of people thinking bad thoughts about them.

Did Jesus worry about His reputation? His disciples should model Jesus in that regard.

 

Take a flying leap!