Posted on 06/15/2006 12:56:52 PM PDT by Kahonek
GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP)--Messengers to the 2006 Southern Baptist Convention adopted resolutions on such currently controversial topics as immigration and the environment June 14, but the debate time was dominated by an issue addressed repeatedly in the convention’s 161-year history -- alcohol.
A lengthy debate on a recommendation concerning the use of alcoholic beverages consumed the Resolution Committee’s report in the morning session. In a departure from recent years, the committee needed the evening session to complete its report.
When the back-and-forth on alcohol finally ended, the messengers passed with about a four-fifths majority a resolution not only opposing the manufacture and consumption of alcohol but urging the exclusion of Southern Baptists who drink from election to the convention’s boards, committees and entities. Like other resolutions, it is not binding on SBC churches and entities.
The resolution’s supporters contended the action was needed because some Christians believe they may drink based on a wrong interpretation of the believer’s “freedom in Christ.” They said abstaining from alcohol preserves a Christian’s purity and testimony, while drinking can be a “stumbling block” for others and has destructive results.
Opponents argued that the resolution promoted a position based on Southern Baptist tradition instead of Scripture, which describes the use of wine in the Old and New Testaments. Concern also was expressed that a resolution excluding those who drink alcohol could be the start of a list of sins that would disqualify people from serving in the convention.
The passage of the resolution marked the first time the SBC had approved an alcohol-related recommendation since 1991, according to the records of the convention’s Executive Committee. The 15-year gap is the longest between approved resolutions on alcohol since the convention adopted its first such recorded measure on the topic in 1886. In all, the SBC has approved 57 resolutions related to alcohol since that year.
T.C. French, chairman of the Resolutions Committee, acknowledged afterward that the panel was a “little surprised” the alcohol measure dominated debate, considering some of the other issues addressed in the 15 resolutions.
“We felt like since we had not presented [a resolution] on alcohol in a number of years, we felt like we needed to get that done,” French told reporters.
The committee offered the resolution without recommending any restriction in SBC life for those who consume alcohol. Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and a messenger from First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas, introduced on the floor an amendment calling for abstinence among those serving in the SBC, and the Resolutions Committee endorsed his recommendation.
The amendment, which also passed with about four-fifths of messengers in favor, said: “Resolved, that we urge that no one be elected to serve as a trustee or a member of any entity or committee of the Southern Baptist Convention that is a user of alcoholic beverages.”
“While there may be liberty, we cannot violate [the admonition in 1 Corinthians 8 that] says our liberty can become a stumbling block. … [T]he use of alcohol as a beverage can and does impede our testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ,” Richards said in support of his amendment. “[O]ur leaders should take the high road in our walk with the Lord Jesus.”
Voicing opposition to the amendment, Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., and executive director of Founders Ministries, a Southern Baptist organization that advocates reformed theology, referred to an New Testament account of Jesus at a wedding as his rationale.
“Christ turned water into wine,” Ascol said.
Speaking against the resolution, Benjamin Cole, pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, said he does not advocate the drinking of alcohol but he feared the convention was in danger of “misstepping” if it adopted “a position that is contrary to what the Bible teaches in the flexibility of the scriptural admonitions as they relate to the consumption of alcoholic beverages.”
Cole’s father died at the age of 39 from a liver disease brought on by alcoholism.
“My father did not die because he drank alcohol; my father died because he drank alcohol in excess,” said Cole, who said as a 13-year-old he cared for his father during the last six months of his life.
In defense of the resolution, committee member Dwayne Mercer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Oviedo, Fla., said while he appreciates “the fact that people become alcoholics because they drink too much alcohol, my parents always taught me, ‘If you don’t take the first drink, you don’t have to worry about taking the last.’”
In opposing the resolution, Jeff Young, pastor of Corinth Baptist Church in Ravenna, Texas, said the older members of the SBC had won the battle to proclaim the Bible is “authoritative and sufficient, but when we pass extra-biblical resolutions such as this, we pull the rug out from underneath that teaching.”
"The question is would the God of the Bible council drinking alcohol in moderation after he called it poison?"
Actually, in the verse you quoted, He called the wine of the Enemy poison, not wine, in general:
27 but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
lest the adversary misunderstand
and say, 'Our hand has triumphed;
the LORD has not done all this.' "
28 They are a nation without sense,
there is no discernment in them.
29 If only they were wise and would understand this
and discern what their end will be!
30 How could one man chase a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the LORD had given them up?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.
32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,
and their clusters with bitterness.
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.
34 "Have I not kept this in reserve
and sealed it in my vaults?
i think you win the prize!
me and the wife (25 yrs next month - whew!) are southern baptists, cuz that's what we grew up with, and therefore basically all we know. we were lost sheep for 20+ years, and came back in december (thank God!).
i don't claim to know enough about all my church members or all s/baptists for that matter. our pastor (whom we love) is anti-alcohol, and that's fine, because of the dangers. we are (cut-back) drinkers, and believe me, i researched it long and well in the Bible before i came back. i agree the Bible NOWHERE i could find sez "no drinking". numerous times sez be careful and moderate. He's helped me do that, so I'm okay.
i agree with not adding to the Scriptures - they're perfect as they are.
one of the few things i disagree with s/baptists about - i came back to that particular church BECAUSE they're so conservative!
Me too. Having several...
"It was also common in Jesus day to cut the wine with water."
Sure. But not for the Passover Seder.
The Talmud calls for kosher red wine to be used for Passover. (I may be a Christian, but I am also a Jew; I could hunt this for you, if you need to.)
The Last Supper was a Jewish Passover.
Hence Jesus undeniably used old wine.
Oh, please. Moronitude like that deserves a hearty guffaw.
Good, let them have a problem with us. Our pastor was elected to a leadership position at this convention. I have never understood the need to drink alcohol beverages. I had rather have iced tea or water with some slices of lemon in it.
p.s. i LIKE southern gospel - i quit listenin to everything else!
"I have never understood the need to drink alcohol beverages."
No one is saying you have to.
Merely an observation that the position that "having a drink is a sin" (as opposed to drunkenness) is theologically incorrect.
"I agree with not adding to the Scriptures - they're perfect as they are."
Third from the last line in the Bible:
"18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."
(May be just talking about Revelations, but I don't think so.)
It's fine when ya'll are just doing this amongst yourselves, but it becomes a problem for me when I look and see that we have the highest alcohol taxes in the region, a state dispensiary system that belongs in a Communist country, not America, we don't get to have a lottery, and Milt McGregor can't even set up those little video poker machines. I have no problem with people living by their own moral code, the problem arises when people, who know that many disagree with them decide that, because they number whatever they number, decide they can impose their moral will on a state. That, I find troublesome.
Actually, it is not theolgy at all. It is a "code of conduct." Theology is knowledge of God. The alcohol debate harkens back to the Pharisees, in our Lord's days, those who strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel. That is still the temptation these days.
Of course, the Baptists are free to roll it up any way they want. But, read your Bible and see that one (of many charges) the power brought agaist Jesus was that He associated with whores and drinkers.
Hmmmmm. He never denied it, did he?
fyi - It is The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Not Revelations.
I think you misread my post (or it was badly written).
I pretty much agree with what you posted.
In fact, I was the one who posted the scripture related to "associated with whores and drinkers" above.
Um, it's called an abreviation.
Like "FYI"
I reckon there is lots on the net about the history of the temperance movement and how it rolled into the Christian Church. Certainly a 19th century American phenomena, I'm pretty sure
I'm glad to see the swindlers called out there. I'm going to court tomorrow to try and get my money back from just such a one.
***Oh, please. Moronitude like that deserves a hearty guffaw.***
Well, I was there, my friends were there, and about 90-100 other people were there when he said it.
I can tell you the year, the church, and where this "Interum" preacher came from.
His name escapes me but I can ask around and find out if you really need to know.
Nah - I'm Episcopalian, so I can drink up.
I'd just have trouble containing at least one burst of good laughter at something that stupid.
***I'd just have trouble containing at least one burst of good laughter at something that stupid.***
We laughed about it afterward. that was 1997, and we still laugh about it today.
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