To continue to argue as you are doing also clearly shows that you are straining at a gnat to swallow a camel, Ie. ignoring the obvious to find fault.
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I’d be interested in hearing what you think my point is. Mainly because I don’t think you have yet unearthed it. It’s a big thread, lots of posts, hard to keep things in context.
I’ve consistently stated that it is within the school’s rights to have whatever rules in place they want. If the school wishes to disallow their staff to drink beer in public, hey, if you can live with that rule ... go for it.
But folks like you, who confound drinking a beer in public with a lack of high moral standards (how else should I read your statement: “I really do not see it as a problem to ask someone who is in a position of leadership to have high moral standards”?), yes, with that I take issue.
You may want to examine your gnat and camel in the context of your own statements.
The intended context of my statement is a religious college, hence the note to the moral standards. That is what sets a religious college apart from the pack, the promise or at least hope of a moral structure to be included in the curriculum. If I had kids in that college, I would have paid the extra fees for inclusion in that ‘place of higher learning’ so that they could be instructed not only in knowledge but also wisdom. Morality is wisdom, not mere knowledge.
This is a great discussion as it allows the shining of light on the weakness of freedom over the strength of faith. Freedom does not require much self sacrifice for the sake of others, but Faith does. Interesting eh? That is what I meant by the gnat and camel comment, that to cling to selfish freedom, in the face of the moral standards to be demonstrated as an elder is to ignore others freedom for your own. In this case, I can have a beer when I want, in their case, I use my freedom for a beer, yet cause them to stumble in far more than just beer.
For we all know, kids need little excuse to justify excess, yet a whole lot of teaching to stay away from it.
I do drink beer now and then in public, but I am not a teacher of youth or an elder in any church. It is not the lack of beer that is a high moral standard, its more like a high moral standard can cause a lack of beer. Some times, in the context of the place I am at, I skip the beer for something less liked.