C078 11/25/56
© Project Winsome International, 1999
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THE BLIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Dr. John Allan Lavender
I Cor. 8:9-13
In his fine book "Customs And Cultures"
Eugene A. Nida, the famous missionary anthropologist, tells of a missionary
who was traveling in Northern Ecuador. In the course of his journeyings he came
upon a village engaged in riotous drinking. All of the natives were drunk. Many
were staggering about in disorganized dancing. A few had fallen into the muddy
gutters along the dirty streets unable to move.One of the tavern keepers, who
was more sober than the rest, explained that all this celebrating was in honor
of John the Baptist. The missionary pointed out that of all the ways to honor
John the Baptist this was not the way since John the Baptist was under
a special vow not to drink.
The tavern keeper replied,
"Ah, but we drink to the saints of pleasure".
Then he reeled off a long list of saints names and concluded with the blasphemous
exclamation,
"All our saints are drunkards and so are we!"
In relating the incident, Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg makes the astute observation
that
"when a nation comes to the point where it sanctifies its drinking habits behind
a facade of religion, and all of its saints become drunkards, it has reached
a sorry state indeed."
Well, we can thank God America not gone quite that far. But this Christmas season,
she will come dangerously close. In the name of the Christ child, and in honor
of His birth, America will engage in a round of social drinking which has become
almost a cult with a socially accepted ritual of toasts followed by the "proper"
cocktail or alcoholic beverage for that particular occasion or hour, and a program
of entertainment which has almost taken on the form of worship.
In the name of Christ, gallons of liquor will be given as gifts and, on the
eve of His birthday, gallons more will be consumed in that annual ritual known
as the office party. Thank God many of our corporations have come to their senses
and have put their foot down against this "Blight before Christmas". In response
to a recent survey, conducted by Chicago's Dartnell Corporation, many company
leaders responded with such statements as, "We wouldn't have one of those brawls
in our place of business," or, "Let them get drunk on their own time."
Some large corporations said they were trying to capture the real meaning of
Christmas and have organized great company-wide celebrations for all employees
and their families. Typical of this more Christ-like celebration about which
I know personally is the one put on by Heinz 57 Varieties of Tracy, California.
Along with Santa Claus, clowns, music and gifts for the small fry, there was
the presentation of the Christmas story followed by a sermon, preached two years
ago by our own Dr. Curtis Nims.
Unfortunately, that kind of Christian Christmas celebration is a pathetic minority
and, according to the Dartnell Survey as reported in bold, black headlines in
the Chicago Daily News,
"OFFICE YULE PARTIES ARE HERE TO STAY. MORE SHINDIGS THAN EVER ARE PLANNED,
SURVEY SHOWS."
The article goes on to say,
"Despite the waves of criticism, the popularity of the Christmas Party is on
the increase…while last year only 55% of the companies interviewed had office
parties, this year 62% of them reported parties are scheduled."
Unlike the pathetic minority already mentioned, the majority of these Christmas
parties, presumably held in honor of the birth of Jesus Christ, will feature
free-flowing liquor and a pattern of behavior which will more closely resemble
the pagan antics of Sodom and Gomorrah than the awesome worship of the shepherds
and wise men on that silent night when our Savior was born in Bethlehem so long
ago.
Well, what should the Christian's attitude be towards this "Blight Before Christmas"?
As Baptists we believe in the freedom of the individual conscience and we thank
God that even in so important an issue as this, no one, not even the minister,
can tell us what to do. We are free to act on the basis of our own deep personal
convictions. The thing we must remember, however, is that freedom of conscience
demands a responsibility of being enlightened. The price of our individual freedom
as Baptists is eternal vigilance. A never-ending search for truth. A constant
seeking out of the facts as they relate to the great issues affecting our lives.
And so, the purpose of this message this morning--as we think about the individual
Christian's attitude toward alcohol, the greatest social problem facing America
today--is to present to you the facts. The cold, hard, unglamorous facts as
they really are. Upon the basis of those facts, the decision up to you.
As we begin, let us remember that when we talk about the drinking of alcoholic
beverages we are not only talking about whiskey and gin, but also dinner wine,
and 3.2 beer. The scientific facts, clearly understood and widely published,
show that "from a physiological point of view, intoxication results from the
intake of alcohol, regardless of the type of beverage in which that alcohol
is contained."
Secondly, let us remember this is no mere straw man we are attacking this morning.
This is no ghost of a problem conjured up in the mind of some prissy prude.
According to the United States Department of Commerce, while adult Americans
drank 19½ gallons of alcoholic beverage per capita for the year 1935, by the
year l955, the rate of consumption had increased to 33 gallons per individual.
And, for this five billion--that's right, I said five
billion, five hundred forty million gallons of alcoholic beverages, Americans
spent nearly twice as much as they did on all of their public and private schools,
colleges and institutions of higher learning put together!
The result in terms of broken homes, shattered lives, highway tragedies, reduced
pay checks, and all-around social anxiety is beyond comprehension.
A ten year study in Cleveland, Ohio, for instance, shows that alcohol was a
factor in 50% of all automobile fatalities. More startling still, this study
revealed that "the largest number of killers at the wheel were not the alcoholics
or heavy drinkers, but they belonged to the group of so-called 'moderate' drinkers.
It was the men of distinction who became men of extinction".
According to Judge Matthew W. Hill of the Supreme Court of the State of Washington,
no one really knows how many times the charges of "reckless or negligent driving"
have been used to cover up actual cases of driving under the influence of intoxicants.
Well, the name of the offense can be changed, but the results cannot.
Is there anyone here this morning who hasn't heard the tale about the man who
was told by his doctor that he was suffering from acute alcoholism. The man
said, "Doc, I can't tell my wife I am suffering from alcoholism. Isn't there
one of those big medical terms that I can give her?"
The doctor said, "As far as I'm concerned, there is no other term for it but
alcoholism."
As the man left the doctor's office he passed a music store and in the window
his eye caught the word "syncopation". That word seemed to strike a responsive
chord somewhere. When he got home he told his wife the doctor had said he was
suffering from acute syncopation. That was all right until she looked up the
word in the dictionary and read: "Syncopation - an irregular and erratic movement
from bar to bar."
Well, as I have said, you can change the name but you cannot change the effect.
And what is the effect of alcohol in American life? Records show that
bootlegging is far greater now than during the period of prohibition. Florida
State Crime Commission records show there never was a year under prohibition
when as many bootleggers were arrested as have been arrested each year since
the Repeal.
The records in our own city are just as bad. Figures show that 80% of the city's
crime is committed under the influence of alcohol. One Chicago judge has stated
that 75% of all divorces in his jurisdiction result from alcohol.
The Rockefeller Foundation reports that one out of every five patients in our
mental hospitals today is an alcoholic. And according to Bruce Ashby, formerly
of the Department of Justice,
"over twenty-eight million working days, not hours--days!--twenty-eight million
working days are lost each year because of drinking."
No, this is no ghost of a problem which some minister locked in an ivory tower
has conjured up. Statistics now report there are 14,589,000 acute alcoholics
in the United States, of whom more than 700,000 are women, and the number of
alcoholics is increasing at the rate of one quarter million per year.
Don't think for a moment the problem of alcohol is just on Skid Row, or that
it only involves the few unfortunates who are "allergic to alcohol". We are
just playing the ostrich when we think alcohol only captures people with personality
disorders. Right here in Morgan Park and Beverly Hills, not over a month ago,
your Pastor was in one of the most beautiful homes of this fashionable neighborhood
counseling with as fine a person as you'll ever meet. Wonderful education and
personality who is, nonetheless, an alcoholic. How did it start? Through social
drinking!
As Edwin T. Dahlberg points out,
"You cannot see these people fallen down, helpless by a living room lamp and
unable to get up; their children crying, frightened and embarrassed; their homes
mortgaged because of drink bills and loss of employment…you cannot see those
things, as a minister does, without knowing the problem of America is not just
alcoholism, but alcohol…period."
In the United States today there are more victims of alcohol than of the diseases
of cancer, tuberculosis and polio put together. But even that is not the real
issue, for Dr. Dahlberg goes on to say that more is at stake here than
mental health,
or holiday accidents,
or loathsome social behavior,
or the problem of absenteeism in industry.
What is at stake here is nothing less than the soul of America and the eternal
salvation of each individual. For the Apostle Paul put it bluntly,
"Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God" (I Corinthians 6:10).
That does not mean they will go to hell. The Kingdom of God is the will of God
done here on earth, as it is being done in Heaven. And it's simply impossible
to be in the will of God, and be drunk at the same time!
The records show there are 67,000,000 people in the United States who drink.
14,000,000 of these are alcoholics, or approximately one out of fifteen, and
yet we seem to have a peculiar mental block on the issue of alcohol. Even though
we recognize the disastrous effects it has on at least one out of every fifteen
who use it, we twiddle our thumbs…close our eyes…sit back and do nothing for
fear of stepping on someone's toes. How tragic!
Judge Hill, who spoke at the Seattle Convention, illustrated this amazing attitude
in a most graphic way. Let me apply it locally. Suppose we had 67 boys in our
scout troop. We don't have that many, but let's pretend we do and let's say
that our scout master announced that next Saturday they were going to explore
some caves and rocky territory which would present an intriguing and challenging
experience; and that, while there were some dangerous snakes in the territory
through which they would pass, experience indicated that only one out of every
fifteen who went through there would be bitten and that, while on the law of
averages, the chances were that at least four of our boys would be bitten, he
would not deny the other sixty three boys the privilege and thrill of the experience.
You know as well as I that before next Saturday arrived the parents of those
67 children would be on that scoutmaster's neck inquiring as to just what kind
of an idiot he was and what he meant by taking that kind of gamble with their
children.
Yet, that is exactly the same kind of gamble you take every time you introduce
your boy or girl to the use of intoxicants at home by your example. There is
no means of determining whether your child is one of the fourteen who can handle
it, or if he or she is one who can't. There are no scientific tests which can
prove a given person is not a potential alcoholic.
So certainly the first place we must begin to fight this insidious evil is in
our homes.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to investigate juvenile delinquency recently
made this tremendous observation:
"We often criticize our churches for failing to instill moral values in our
children, but we forget that we send our youngsters to Sunday School for one
hour a week to learn about honesty and clean living and then permit them to
spend six days and twenty-three hours a week in a society that, too often, puts
more emphasis on getting ahead than how you got there.
"The truth is that we tend to be a nation that preaches one set of moral standards
to our children but uphold another set of standards as perfectly all right for
adults. Cocktails and high balls are considered indispensable to almost every
adult social gathering, particularly among the well-to-do. Yet we are shocked
by disclosure of wide spread drinking of intoxicants among imitative teenagers."
A little over a year ago I picked up a copy of the Beverly
Review and read in the teenage column of a group of our high
school kids who were going to have a cocktail party prior to their dance. I
immediately called Kermit Long, who was then at Trinity Methodist Church, and
he was as alarmed as I. We tried to find out whether this was true. Fortunately,
it proved to be a typographical error and the youngsters were going to have
a "coke-tail" party.
Well, there is a tremendous difference between a coke-tail party and a cocktail
party. Or is there? You see, those imitative teenagers were trying to come as
close to the behavior of their adult parents as possible. And while they were
not knowingly allowed to use alcoholic beverages, they were trying to achieve
the apparent sophistication of their parents by using a play on words.
Well, as I said, we are Baptists and we can do with our children as we please.
But let us not forget that teaching our children the Christian graces is much
more important than educating them in the social graces. Our real aim in life
is not to raise youngsters who "can hold their liquor", but to raise children
who know the real meaning of love, joy, peace, self-control and self-sacrifice.
Remember also that alcoholism is both a physiological and psychological problem.
Not only is it impossible for you to know whether or not your child is one of
the one-in-fifteen who is physiologically allergic to alcohol, but it is also
impossible for you to know whether or not your child will ever develop psychological
needs which he or she feels must be satisfied with alcohol. Your kids may see
you take an occasional drink to let yourself down after the rigors of a particularly
hard day's work, and begin by doing the same. But the trouble with the problem
drinker is that sooner or later all business days become hard days. All problems
become insurmountable without the aid of "a quick one." And no one in all of
God's green earth can tell who will develop those psychological needs for alcohol.
As a matter of fact, Alcoholics Anonymous can give witness to thousands upon
thousands of people who drank socially for years until one day a given set of
circumstances arose which seemed more than they could bear. They began trying
to escape from life through the neck of a bottle. Every alcoholic was once a
social drinker. For you see, this is a subtle poison whose effect is not necessarily
apparent with the first, the hundredth, or the one thousandth drink.
Surely in the light of these physiological and psychological facts we must combat
this vicious evil in our homes.
And then through legislation we can begin to move toward the limitation, restriction
and ultimate abolition of liquor advertising.
Bishop Oxnam tells the story of his four-year-old granddaughter who, at a party
given by one of her young friends, was asked
"What'll you have, my dear?"
The Bishop's little granddaughter replied,
"Pabst Blue Ribbon".
The child didn't know what Pabst Blue Ribbon was, but she knew the answer to
the question,
"What'll you have?"
If you will watch your newspapers and magazines in the next few weeks you will
find them saturated with Christmas whiskey advertisements. Last year in a single
issue of one popular magazine there were twenty full pages of advertising to
promote the purchase and holiday consumption of liquor.
I think it's high time we had a lobby that speaks for the majority. For while
there are some 67,000,000 Americans who drink to some degree--a little or a
lot--there are 100,000,000 Americans who don't drink at all. That majority has
a perfect right to be incensed and to resent vehemently having its children
subjected to the most insidious kind of advertising which glamorizes America'
s number one social evil and America's number four health problem.
If alcoholism is a disease to which one out of every fifteen people is susceptible--and
it is--there is something viciously evil about advertising the cause of that
disease to the tune of almost $130,000,000 a year. You see, "The crux of the
whole problem lies in a liquor and brewing monopoly with a sales and advertising
program which multiplies drinkers faster than we can cure them."
In his stirring address, Don't Collide
With Science, Judge Hill refers to an old rule-of-thumb test which used
to be applied to borderline mental cases. The individual whose sanity was questioned
was placed before a tub of water with water running into the tub from a faucet
and was given a tin dipper and told to empty the tub. If he turned off the faucet
and proceeded to use the dipper to empty the tub, it didn't prove a thing. If,
however, he dipped and dipped and never turned off the faucet, it was pretty
good proof he was missing some of his marbles.
The force of the analogy is obvious, for while we must take care of the problem
represented by 4,500,000 acute alcoholics who have been robbed--robbed of their
names, their health, their jobs, their money, their self-respect--while we must
be concerned about them, we must also be concerned with the faucet!
While we are not able to turn the faucet off for someone else, we can turn it
off for ourselves. So, finally, we must attack this problem of liquor in our
own lives as individuals.
Even though you may "think" you derive some temporary benefit or enjoyment from
an occasional drink, for the sake of those multitudes of people who cannot take
liquor and leave it alone, you will willingly forego that small pleasure. Instead
of aligning yourself with the forces which would destroy them, you will put
yourself on the side of the forces which would save them.
Furthermore, you can express your conviction by refusing to give liquor as a
Christmas gift. Should you receive a gift of alcoholic beverages, you will not
try to be a "good Joe" by giving it to one of your hard drinking friends. You
will actually do him much more good if you pour it down the drain.
And, when your particular office party is being planned, you can suggest that
Christmas is, after all, a Christian holy day honoring the birth of Christ and
any celebration should fit the occasion. You might even refer to the new organization,
"Christ-like Office Parties, Inc.", which was started in Florida by a group
of office workers who rebelled at the traditional party with its free-flowing
liquor.
Because the vast majority of people who drink socially do so, not because they
want to, but because they feel they have to, you can help by not subjecting
your guests to the weight of social pressure and refuse to serve liquor in your
homes. Oh, to be sure, you may lose a few of your heavy drinking friends, but
the vast majority of your associates will then be able to look forward to visits
in your home, knowing they will not be subjected to the pressure to drink alcohol
when they do not want to drink it.
Actually, the majority of people are just as happy with ginger ale, punch, or
coffee and cake. The glamour of the cocktail party with its "loud talk, flushed
faces, and injudicious conversation" has begun to fade.
One of our fine members, whose position with his company requires him to do
a tremendous amount of entertaining customers, told me not too many months ago
how he has finally come to the position where he informs his customers he will
be happy to take them out to dinner and to the finest show in Chicago, but that
he, by personal conviction, cannot take them to places where liquor will flow
freely. The interesting thing is that instead of losing customers, he has gained
them! The vast majority of those people he is asked to entertain heave a great
big sigh of relief when they discover they will not be subjected to an evening
of making the rounds.
Across the street from our former home in California lives one of the most successful
salesmen I have ever met. He has a beautiful home, a cadillac automobile, and
a fabulous income. Prior to his conversion he would tend bar at the office Christmas
party because he didn't particularly care to drink himself. But following his
conversion he stopped doing that because he felt it was a hindrance to his Christian
testimony. When the time came for the office party, he would politely excuse
himself. Later on when his customers would visit his fabulous home for the accustomed
Christmas drink, he would invite them in graciously, give them a little gift,
and say, "Gentlemen, I don't drink and have no liquor in my home, but come on
in and have a cup of coffee on me." Again and again and again those people with
whom he did business would pat him on the back and say, "Good for you, Glenn
Jones, I wish I had guts enough to do it myself."
Well, to put it bluntly, it does take guts. It takes real moral fibre to resist
the trend of social pressure which is sweeping across America today. Great living
always comes at a great price. But the man or woman who pays that price will
be richly rewarded. Not only with real inner personal satisfaction, not only
by gaining the admiration of his associates, but also with a smile from God.
"God wants a man - honest and true and brave.
A man who hates the wrong and loves the right;
A man who scorns all compromise with sin,
Who for the truth courageously will fight.
"God wants a man of action and of faith,
Whose life is something more than creed and talk;
Who lives each day as though it were his last,
And proves his creed by a consistent walk."
God Wants a Man!
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