Dry January (And Other Months, Also)
Apparently, according to the Internet, there really is such a thing as Dry January. Perhaps it began for many as a New Year’s Resolution. Having imbibed a little too freely over the holidays, some made a determination to do without alcohol for the entire month of January. To be sure, many fail to make it the whole month, but at least they tried. However, for those who succeeded, the question might be raised, “If you could do without booze for an entire month, then why don’t you just continue to abstain the remainder of the year?”
According to J. Matthew Knight, M.D., drunkorexia is on the rise. Say what? Drunkorexia is defined as “undereating combined with alcohol abuse” (December 31, 2017 Orlando Sentinel). Many alcoholics do not eat properly or get the nourishment they need because they are more interested in quaffing alcoholic beverages. The problem is that those devoted to the bottle will experience health problems due to their excesses. According to the doctor: “Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to cancer, heart disease, and permanent liver damage.”
He also claims that those who make it through the entire 31 days of sobriety “report weight loss, better sleep and increased productivity,” which is hardly surprising. Again, if one can do without alcohol for 31 days and feel this good, why would anyone want to go back to it? Alcoholic drinks are nobody’s friend—except for those who sell them for profit.
Doonesbury
Garry Trudeau has been drawing this comic strip since 1970. Because of its liberal viewpoint, this writer usually finds it neither amusing nor helpful—with a few exceptions. Trudeau over the years has published several strips in opposition to tobacco. The one he prepared for Sunday, December 31, 2017 is both factual and humorous.
Two characters are sitting in what looks like a bar. People in the background are sitting at tables or standing and talking to each other. One of the characters is a cigarette with eyebrows, eyes, a nose, a mouth, cheeks, and arms. He wears a red bow tie and red gloves on his hands. Smoke ascends from his head.
On the next stool over is another character who is a green and silver can of beer. His top is popped open, and suds are overflowing from his head. He has the same expressive features as the cigarette—except that he is wearing blue gloves. On the counter between them are a bowl of cherries with stems attached, a pack of cigarettes, some pieces of paper and some cocktail stirrers. These two are speaking to each other while the can of beer is holding and drinking from a mug. They are bragging about how successful (destructive) their products are.
The beer begins: “You can look it up, dude—the top 10% of all drinkers consume 50% of all alcohol sold! In other words, fully half our sales are to alcoholics! How’s that for a business model?” These statistics are probably correct. Estimates from Internet sites are that 30% of Americans do not drink at all. Another 30% drink less than one drink a month. And then there is this statistic: The top 10 percent of American drinkers—24 million adults over age 18—consume, on average, 74 alcoholic drinks per week, which is more than 10 drinks a day!
We live in the era of marketing research. Is there any way that the liquor industry does not know these facts? Of course, they do. They know that they would not make a profit if people drank responsibly. Ads to that effect by liquor companies are a farce. If all Americans were like those in the 60%, they would all be out of business, and they know it. Although they may say they are concerned about people exercising good judgment with their product, they do not mean it because they know that the first thing alcohol does is affect the brain and the ability to make rational decisions. Any high school health book will point out this truth.
Decades ago, Jim McGuiggan (who is no longer as sound as he was then) wrote a tremendous book: The Bible, The Saint, and the Liquor Industry. He pointed out that any Christian who buys alcoholic beverages in any form is actually supporting the liquor industry which is ruining so many lives. He pointed out that the men who drive the beer trucks that deliver the product to various locales will be fired if they are caught drinking so much as one beer while they are working. They certainly know how their product affects the human body.
Daniel Sommer (1850-1940) was a well-known evangelist who wrote an interesting book, Hector Among the Doctors. It concerned a man who had recently moved to a community and his conversations with men who possessed Doctors of Divinity. Primarily, its purpose was to show that the Scriptures are sufficient to teach people the gospel and that advanced degrees do not necessarily impart truth to those who hold them. A side point was made when Hector delivered a speech on July 4th against the evils of alcohol and what could be done about it. Later he was asked:
“If it were not for making whiskey what would we do in this country with all our grain?”
“Do you wish that question answered?” inquired Hector pointing directly at the man by whom it was propounded.
“Yes, sir,” was his response.
“Then,” said Hector, “I would say that you might raise more HOGS and CATTLE and less DEGRADATION and MISERY (245)
People have known of the devastating effects of alcohol since before the 20th and 21st centuries. Recently, this writer read a biography of Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn poet who wrote so many memorable songs, such as “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” “Blessed Assurance,” and “To God Be the Glory.” In the course of her life, she met many well-known public figures, including William Harrison Hadley.
He was a former Union officer during the Civil War whom everyone called Colonel. He had a distinguished record, but at age 45, in the year 1886, he had become an alcoholic. Being concerned with social issues, he was instrumental in “having public water fountains installed all over Manhattan in an effort to encourage city employees to drink water rather than booze” (160). The author of the biography, Bernard Ruffin, then added these words:
At first the Colonel thought he too could learn to drink in moderation, but he was forced to conclude that for people of his type a “moderation society” was useless. He had managed to stay off the bottle for a while, but in trying to drink socially he became addicted again (160).
The Colonel found he could not give up alcohol, either gradually or otherwise. He began taking more than 40 drinks a day. He was eventually “converted” and in the last sixteen years of his life he “founded sixty rescue missions” (160-61).
Tobacco
Not only have the addictive effects of alcohol—especially on some individuals been known for centuries (see Proverbs 23:31 and surrounding verses), but the bad effects of cigarettes have also been known for decades. Occasionally, one finds references to its addictive properties in movies dating from the 1940s—long before the Surgeon General’s warning began to be printed on every package.
Returning to the Doonesbury comic strip, Trudeau gives the cigarette character a chance to boast about his product. He gleefully informs Mr. Brewski (the other character) that “nicotine is even more addictive than alcohol!” He adds, “It’s right up there with heroin.” This statement agrees with what others have determined about tobacco. Mr. Brewski is impressed with the claim and decides, “I really should give tobacco a whirl—see what all the fuss is about.”
In the next-to-last frame, he takes a puff, which is followed by a pronounced Cough! and Hack! Then Mr. Brewski says, “That’s… That’s AWFUL!” Of course the irony is that many people have the same reaction when first tasting beer (which, by the way, seldom happens when people try Mountain Dew or Code Red). The comic strip end with the cigarette saying to the beer can, “Give it a chance.” “No way!” He says, while continuing to smoke. “I’m quitting…someday.” Say, that addiction really takes hold fast, doesn’t it?
The fact is that both are addictive and very difficult to break. Paul wrote in the first century in answer to arguments made by the Corinthians: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Cor. 6:12). As Christians, we should avoid anything addictive—especially alcoholic beverages or smoking and chewing tobacco products. The best way to eliminate potential future problems is, “Don’t ever begin.”
Additional Insights
Having brought up the biography of Fanny Crosby, it is interesting to note that she fought against alcohol’s influence, although most of the book concerns her personal history and hymn writing. Some of the same sentiments expressed above are found in this section.
She had seen what a curse the regular consumption of beer, wine, and whiskey, was from living in the tenements of Lower Manhattan, where so many of the residents were constantly drunk. She had seen alcoholism in all its horrors at the missions on Water Street and on the Bowery. And she had experienced its effects in working with the railroad men and streetcar conductors. She knew how it led to disastrous marital problems and broken homes….
Her solution to the problem of alcoholism was the temperance pledge. If one never used liquor, there was no danger to becoming a slave to it….
She did believe, however, that total abstinence in the use of alcoholic beverages was a goal which any intelligent Christian should aim for—not merely for himself but for others. For even if a given individual could drink in moderation, his example would be detrimental to those about him who could not. Therefore, for the sake of the potential alcoholic, she felt it was a good thing for even the man who could drink temperately to abstain (138).
These thoughts agree precisely with what the Bible teaches—not only about abstaining to begin with (Pr. 23:31)—but also in refusing to be a stumbling block to others (1 Cor. 8:10-13). Even if drinking were legitimate in and of itself (which it is not), it would still be wrong to cause another to fall because of one’s “perceived” liberty. This final incident occurred at the Bowery Mission. A drunk stumbled in during worship. He was moved by the singing of “Rescue the Perishing.” The speaker referred to experiences he had in the Civil War, even mentioning the company with whom he served. The drunken man “reeled up to the speaker” and asked if he remembered the name of his captain in that company. The speaker told it to him, and he responded, “You are right.”
“I am that man! I was your captain! Now, look at me to-day and see what a wreck I am! I have lost everything in the world that I had—through drink—and I don’t know where to go! Can you save your old captain?” (150).
How heartbreaking to see a once-valiant human being reduced to living constantly under intoxication! He was described as “unwashed and unshaven, and his clothes soiled and torn.” Remember, those who make this product available know these results as well as anyone. Nevertheless, they continue to market and advertise the “product,” which Hector Munro called “degradation and misery.”
P.S. A little over a century ago it was common to write the words to-day and to-morrow with a hyphen in them.