Posted on 02/24/2002 3:48:41 AM PST by TomSmedley
James Dobson's crusade against TV ads for booze is misdirected
For years, Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family has been a ministry dedicated to the preservation of the Christian family. In the course of its mission, it has often advocated, in the name of the family, boycotting various television shows, networks and companies, especially Disney. Its latest boycott is of television network NBC and parent company General Electric.1 The reason? NBC is now airing hard liquor ads. Oh, the sinister evil.
After a 50-year voluntary ban on liquor advertisements, NBC has decided to lift the ban and enjoy the show. The ads would begin airing at 8 p.m., central time. Dr. Dobson is "extremely concerned" about this new action, and is convinced that the initial ban "protected kids to some degree at least, from manipulative liquor ads that would entice their young minds and, for that matter, entice older people."
To help think through the "tough" issues of the day, recently Dobson had alongside him his protégé, John Fuller, as well as big government Republican Rep. Frank Wolf from Virginia. Fuller, says Dobson, has "consistently fought for moral values and the family in the Congress," valiantly battling the evils of gambling and porn.
According to the cast of characters, these "manipulative ads" are "another snake in the grass" and the result of "raw, unbridled corporate greed." These greedy corporations, say Dobson and Co., are going to cause a great moral upheaval in our country. Catching a bad case of the slippery slope, Wolf predicted that if NBC continues airing these ads, it will not be long before they are seen "on all the shows" and all the networks, which will lead kids into premarital sex and drunk driving (Whoa! Did I miss something?). Within two years, says Wolf, you'll be seeing these ads at sporting events such as the Olympics with "former ball players" (not current ones?) advertising hard liquor. "I think it will bring about a lot more death, Jim."
Curse that deathly evil bottle. Curse every milliliter of it.
"Even though the ban is voluntary," says Fuller, "I've got a teen and a pre-teen son at home, and this makes me angry because this is obviously motivated by corporate greed, a desire to put the money in, without any regard to the consequences to the viewers and the people who are affected by those who drink that hard liquor."
There's a little problem in the logic here. Focus on the Family apparently believes that ads which say "Drink Responsibly"—at least those are the only ones that I've seen on NBC so far—are going to cause your children to have sex and die. Whoa, Dobson, whoa. What about parental responsibility and education of children? What about parents teaching their kids right and wrong?
Whatever happened to focusing on your family liquor cabinet? After all, mine is quite all right.
Dobson thinks that the real solution to all our liquor ad problems is to boycott General Electric and NBC. God-fearing families should "bombard NBC and GE with telephone calls … absolutely bury them in complaints." Yeah, and tell 'em Jesus sent ya when you call.
To most outsiders, Christians are the folks who don't drink, don't cuss, and don't have much fun. Oh yeah, and did I mention Christians don't drink? It's hard enough being a Christian in America with the stands that the Bible demands we make. But by the grace of God, I can handle that. If God said it, well bummer if I take heat for it.
The problem I have is when we start making our little clubhouse rules of all our taboos and things that we don't do, even if Scripture nowhere denounces the things that we do. We're known as the goody guys who don't do this and don't do that, yet how many outsiders can tell us what Christians really stand for? And even if they could say that, how many outsiders can say they've ever seen us live what we stand for?
Instead of rallying the troops for battle, Dobson's listeners should be encouraged to instruct their children in thinking biblically about all of life, including alcohol and its proper use. Children should be taught both the Bible's warnings about alcohol abuse and the its praise of alcohol. Employing a Christian worldview in all of life is much more important than focusing on why bumming bottled booze is bad.
But we'd rather spend our time on the phone with a minimum wage employee of General Electric—who couldn't care less about the so-called evils of the bottle—than spend our time with our kids instructing them to think biblically.
In his critique of the Religious Right, Cal Thomas rightly notes, "Only God has all the truth. To the extent that we quote him accurately, we are loaned this truth. But when we begin adding things to his agenda, we diminish his truth and are onto something else entirely."2 Once again, Dobson thinks he has God's agenda figured out, and a million fingers will be dialing GE and NBC demanding a removal of these inherently evil ads.
But how can the ads be inherently evil if the actual product is not?
As Ken Gentry notes, "the biblical record frequently and clearly speaks of alcoholic beverages as good gifts from God for man's enjoyment."3 In Deuteronomy 14:22-26, the people of Israel were instructed to set aside a tithe for celebration and rejoicing. There, God tells them to "spend the money for whatever [their] heart desires, for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink." This, says Moses, is to be done rejoicing with the whole household, and "in the presence of the LORD your God." Teaching children the value of doing all things in the presence of God is going to go much farther in the long run than any boycotts ever will.
"Here comes another, uhh, you know, problem for parents to deal with," says Dobson.
"Train up a child, uhh, you know, and he will not depart from it," says God.
Notes
1. Focus on the Family Radio Broadcast, Jan. 31, 2002.
2. Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson, Blinded by Might: Why the Religious Right Can't Save America. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), 124.
3. Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., God Gave Wine (Lincoln: Oakdown, 2001), 147. See Gentry's helpful discussion on the biblical term for "strong drink," 59-62. Also, check out the website.
Reread my original post, then your reply, then my reply to you. I think you misunderstood me just then.
I read somewhere that Iron City might be going out of business. On a related note, I was recently in Richmond and the restaurant had Yuengling on tap. I didn't realize that beer had spread so much.
To me, those arguing in favor of Prohibition are no better than those arguing for gun control. Proponents of gun control always point towards tragedies involving children to make their case that guns should be taken from everybody. Well here we have prohibitionists using the welfare of children as a tool to take away alcoholic beverages from everybody. It is really contemptible, these tactics.
It's precisely the same thing. Liberals want gun control. Conservatives want alcohol control. Both of them want tobacco and drug control.
I daresay without beer there'd be a lot less of that going on.
Can't argue with that statement. It's a shame that many conservatives undermine their moral authority by taking these untenable positions that undermine our liberties and freedom.
I don't take illegal drugs in any shape or form. Yet I do not support the war on drugs. Here's why. For example, I don't smoke marijuana and wouldn't know a marijanua plant if I saw one. But do you know that if somebody didn't like me, they could sneak into my yard at night, transplant some marijauna plants into my garden and call the police? I would then, under federal law, have my property seized. What if somebody planted a bag of cocaine into my suit jacket when I wasn't looking as I was standing in line at the airport? Maybe I am just being paranoid but I resent the fact that it is so easy for somebody else to destroy my life because of these repressive drug laws. It is just too easy to frame somebody up. This is not what America was supposed to be.
Thank God we hav a government to make decisions for the masses and to limit people's choices for them. To hell with those who can handle life with responsibility, we need a government that rules for the least responsible among us.
So imported beer is not the inferior product it used to be. I guess travel times across the Atlantic have been much shortened. For example, I picked up a case of Czechvar that was just brewed in November over there. It used to be that import beers would take many months to reach our shores by which time they were usually not very fresh.
My advice to buying imported beer: Go to a store with a good reputation and a lot of traffic. Otherwise you might be buying beer that has been sitting on the shelf a year or more. Also buy beer by the case, especially if the beer comes in clear or green bottles. Once the six-packs are pulled from the case, they become exposed to light and are likely to get "skunked."
I agree with you. I do not use illegal drugs either, but I think we overreact to them. And our children see it. We say 'Drugs are bad' one day and give them an aspirin the next day. Rather than teach children to behave responsibly with alcohol, drugs, etc., we legislate against them.
Really. I knew of an alcoholic once who would drink rubbing alcohol from CVS. He was even known to pry the top off an AquaNet (hairspray) can and drink that. It is sad to see somebody ruin their lives over alcohol. But trying to deny alcohol to everybody else isn't going to help those people. The fact is, most people who drink alcohol do so moderately and have little or no ill effects from it.
In fact, the only major civilization and/or religion to make serious inroads with Prohibition is the Muslims. And that makes you think. Why are Muslims so hateful and so damn uptight about everything? If Muslims were able to let off a little steam every weekend at the local pub or tavern, you think they might loosen up a little? I'm being totally serious. I think the lack of alcoholic beverages is a major contributor to the Muslim problem. When I think of civilization, I think of a major city where you can go to a restaurant with friends or your significant other and have a nice dinner with a bottle of wine or a good beer. Or going to a sports bar on a Sunday afternoon and watching a football game over a few mugs of beer with several hundred others. The Muslims have never known that. Maybe that's why they hate us so much.
Yep, even the cheap bar stuff I had there was pretty damn good... I tell ya what, that weissbier goes straight through ya though... Y'knowwhatImean?!
Yeah sure. And if we let that Elvis Presley get up on TV and wiggle and gyrate in a sexual manner, our young people will start having premarital sex and dressing wierd and all kinds of wierdo freaks will take over the music world and. . .oops bad example. Nevermind. parsy.
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