Posted on 10/30/2005 9:10:08 PM PST by Between the Lines
CLEWISTON — Hurricane victims who wanted water had some difficulty finding it at a relief station in Clewiston Friday. The volunteer group running a supply center doesn't like the company that donated the water, so they decided not to give it to those in line for help.
Twenty-two pallets of the canned water, distributed free by beer company Anheuser-Busch, bears the company's label – and members of the Southern Baptist Convention refused to hand it out to those in need.
Resident lined up for miles to receive food and water at the distribution point. But the water was left on the sidelines by the Alabama-based group.
"The pastor didn't want to hand out the Budweiser cans to people and that's his prerogative and I back him 100-percent," said SBC volunteer John Cook.
The SBC felt it was inappropriate to give the donation out, and they weren't happy when NBC2 wanted to know why.
"Why do you want to make that the issue? That's not the issue. The issue is that we're here trying to help people," Cook said.
No one disagrees with that, but the Red Cross says Anheuser-Busch is also trying to help.
The water has been available all along, but the SBC volunteers set it aside and few people knew it was available.
While the SBC is standing its ground, the Red Cross says water is water and they're now handing out the supplies.
The vice-president of operations for Anheuser-Busch, Mike Harding, released a statement on the donation Friday reading:
“As we have seen numerous times in recent years, safe drinking water is a critical need following natural disasters such as Hurricane Wilma. At the request of various relief agencies, Anheuser-Busch and its wholesalers have donated more than 9 million cans of drinking water since Hurricane Katrina hit in August, and when called on, we’ll continue to provide water to all victims of Wilma as long as it’s needed.”
"I don't think it makes a difference who gives it out. It's going to a good cause. It's going to help everyone," said storm victim Lisa Simmons.
And many victims are grateful Anheuser-Busch is stepping in to help.
You will find posters on FR who make that very argument.
I don't want to rip Baptists, because most people I know are Baptists. But Baptists are almost as likely as Catholics to be drinkers, they just don't do it or talk about it at church. Shoot, most Baptist weddings I've been to have two receptions. The first one is a short little boring one at the church, and then the second one is at the country club or somewhere where there will be plenty of booze and dancing. There always seems to be a lot more people at the second reception.
See my post 93 in this thread.
If you are going to pretend to preach the Bible, at least get the context right. You are pretending that the Baptists didn't know that there was other water available. You are also pretending that the Baptist did not know there were others available who could pass out the water.
That scripture can be twisted anyway you want for the immediate political point you are trying to make.
You could even make that verse say that if a man was thirsty and only one of his two friends gave him water one day, because one friend was all it took to do the job, the other man was disobeying that verse. You would then be guilty of a false accusation.
The people were not denied water.
BTW, by ignoring the contextual details of that verse you end up with any meaning you want. In fact, your open rendering of that verse would mean that any living person on this planet that day who did not give those thirsty people water that day are in violation of that verse.
Your exposition is nonsense and you ignored the context in order to make a cheap political point.
I found it surprising how many in this thread were blinded to the media bias in this story.
Post 93 does not answer my question.
What evidence do you have that anyone -- one single person -- went to the Baptists for water but was turned away?
They were probably afraid tha the Coors water was secretly Coors Beer.
Anybody could confuse the two.
Coor's is the nadir of bottled brew.
Excellent job missing the point.
Excellent job evading the question.
You posted this:
"The "good work" in question being their determination to keep water away from thirsty people because the SBC doesn't approve of who donated the water."
I asked you actually name ONE THIRSTY PERSON denied water by the Baptists. You obviously cannot.
Therefore, your statement is utter BS.
Bout the same evidence there is that they were handing out water from some Baptist approved source?
The "What would Jesus do" question is one of the dumbest things going around today. It presumes that we can do what Jesus is able to do or that Jesus would limit himself to what we can do.
As seen in the story of the loaves and fishes, Jesus has his own way of dealing with distribution problems and did not rely on the distribution systems of man.
You're right. When the party ran out of wine, Jesus gave them more.
Well, seeing as the Southern Baptist Convention has prepared over 9 million meals for hurricane victims since Katrina hit, it is safe to assume a few bottles of water were distributed with those meals.
If anyone went without water because of this, it would not be a local story on channel 2 but instead a national story .
Arguing from the general to the specifc? Not safe
And yet no one died of thirst - if they had, we would have heard.
And he didn't have to rely on Busch. We on the other hand cannot do what Jesus can, so it is silly to ask ourselves to do what Jesus would do.
A better question would be: What would Jesus have me to do?
Not at all.
The question remains unanswered:
Do you know of anyone denied water by the Baptists?
No. You don't.
And post 110 was a pathetic attempt at changing the subject to avoid the truthful answer.
BTW did Coors, Coca~cola, Pepsi or any other beverage company can/bottle water to donate?
They should look at it this way, they were busy canning water and not beer.
Your question is better. I think Jesus would have me hand out the water.
This story reminds me of my father, who was Southern Baptist. He stopped at the liquor store and bought two beers, one for him and one for my mother. He then told me, "Don't tell anybody . . ." This would have been in the mid-1970s. I still think it is funny.
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