On Tuesday March 1st I was blessed with the opportunity to participate on a panel with some of our Protestant brothers and sisters on the issue of alcohol use and abuse. The panel discussion took place at the Point Loma Nazarene University and included a pastor from The Rock Church, a Lutheran minister, an Anglican Priest, a Church of the Nazarene minister, another non-denominational pastor and myself. We each were given 5-7 minutes to express our theological, scriptural, and traditional views on the issue of drinking and drunkenness. As the cards fell to the table it became clear that there were two main camps one that promoted strict abstinence and another that sought moderation as the answer to the problem. As I saw this develop it became clear to me that the solution to the problem of binge drinking and drunkenness did not revolve around moderation or abstinence. Those were two solutions indeed, but they were solutions to a different problem. The solution to the problem of binge drinking and the college campus culture was a deeper one, one that cannot be effected by external rules, I am speaking of conversion. Conversion of the individual, yes, but more importantly the conversion and transformation of the culture itself. The problem is that in American culture we have come to see the end of drinking to be getting the buzz or the effect that it has on our minds, that is, how it loosens us up. If this is the goal of one who drinks then moderation or abstinence is superfluous because it doesn’t lend itself to the goal desired. A new goal, a different goal, must become the desired end.
Traditionally as Catholics the use of alcohol is closely connected to our European culture (Italian wine, French wine, Bavarian beer, Irish drinking songs). But yet in a culture like Italy, binge drinking is only a recent development for its young people. The influence of English pubs and the American culture on Italy has begun to lead it’s cultural use of wine and strong drink astray. In the more developed cultural outlook wine or other alcoholic drinks serve morally acceptable purposes; either 1) to have a hearty conversation at the end of the day, that is, grabbing a pint and sharing conversation, 2) to celebrate and honor an important occasion, that is, weddings, promotions, or what have you and in some instances even 3) to settle the stomach for digestive reasons, for example in Italy the meal ends with a ‘digestivi’ drink, more to the point St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 5:23: “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” Only in the context then of these morally acceptable cultural uses of alcohol does moderation and abstinence make sense. Thus, the first movement towards preventing abuse of alcohol, say for yourself as you go off to college or for your children who are going off to college soon or are in college already is to change the reason for drinking and to teach these morally acceptable ways.
With all that said drunkenness itself is a grievous sin. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that if you willingly and knowingly choose to deprive yourself of the use of reason by drinking you sin mortally, because in depriving yourself of the use of reason, which is what enables you to perform virtuous deeds and avoid sin, you run the risk of falling into more and more sins. Any college party should be enough proof for the plethora of sin that comes with binge drinking.
Don’t just ‘Drink Responsibly’ drink for the right reasons, that is, to celebrate or enjoy a good conversation. If you can put this as your reason for having a drink every now and then you should have no problem drinking in moderation and avoiding sin.
