coffee and a cold shower

I have been thinking.

In this day and age (and maybe earlier since I wasn't really around to witness) Christians pretty much drink just as much as non-christians. And obviously I'm referring to drinking alcohol, not water/soda. And mostly they are fine with it. Drinking is fun, cool, and [addicting?]. In making an effort to move away from 'checklist' religion (saying no specific actions are going to either get you into or restrict you from eternity) you really shouldn't judge a person's faith by whether or not they drink. And, well, you really shouldn't be judging people's faith anyway. In the words of Clive Staples L, "It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men's hearts. We cannot judge, and are indeed forbidden to judge." And I wholeheartedly agree. Which is why I am not writing a blog saying that anyone who drinks is a bad Christian or any Christian who doesn't drink is just being ignorant (or something absurd like that). If you knew me you would know that kind of thing does not interest me.

What does interest me, however, is one thing I've noticed--and here's where sweeping generalizations start to come into play--about many Christians who may find themselves enjoying some spirits from time to time:
They never get 'drunk.' Sure they will admit that they were fairly buzzed, or slightly tipsy, but never go as far as to suggest that they were drunk. It is totally fine to drink until you have trouble standing as long as you disguise it something else, in this case getting tipsy, which we all know is faaaar from drunkenness. And if one calls them out on it (getting drunk), they will deny it vehemently. The sad thing is they are not denying the act (they were just out doing it), they are really denying the word in fear of the perception others might have (not excluding God himself). Here's my thought, if you're fine with drinking and are going to get drunk, don't try to cover it up with dainty euphemisms. A spade is a spade, right? Instead of denying it, which only comes off as weakness in the fact that you are doing something controversial and you can't explain why, either defend your position on the issue or realize that you can't defend it and don't do it anymore. Those are the only two options I can think of that make any sense.





footnote: I have been reading Salinger again, and he uses tons of commas and parentheses, which may or may not have affected the writing style of this particular blog.