Dangers of drinking Alcohol

Do you give up alcohol for Lent? Many people do. Two years ago, a Bishop wrote that, while his wife had done so, he had not, "being persuaded of red wine's medicinal value."

"But I recognise," he wrote, "that my reluctance to join her may be rooted in childhood memories. My grandmother, in whose home I was brought up, 'signed the pledge' consigning herself and her household to permanent abstinence from the demon drink. No alcohol was allowed across the threshold, and it was only after she had died, when I was in my early 20s, that for the first time drinks were allowed in the house at Christmas."

As a child in Victorian times, his grandmother had witnessed at first hand the tragic results of alcohol addiction and drunkenness, and she was anxious to protect her own family from the distress and the domestic devastation caused by drink.

It was a deep social malaise of those times and the churches tried hard to redress it. Many Christians took temperance seriously "and officers of the Salvation Army famously braved the insults of drinking-dens."

All that is history, but the misuse of alcohol re- mains a reality. "In this country, now, nearly half of all recorded cases of domestic violence, a quarter of hospital admissions and a third of child abuse cases are alcohol-related, and each week 12 people are killed in road traffic accidents caused by drink driving."

Of course, says the Bishop, most of the men and women who drink alcohol do so sensibly. Few Christians these days are teetotal; most enjoy a drink. And, easing many a conscience, there is that much quoted New Testament verse: "Stop drinking nothing but water; take a little wine for your diges- tion, for your frequent ailments."(1 Timothy V, 23)

But the Bible provides no licence for alcohol misuse. The Epistle to the Ephesians puts the point clearly: "Do not give way to drunkenness and the dissipation that goes with it, but let the Holy Spirit fill you."

The hard truth is that the cheaper and more available alcohol becomes, the greater its consumption is likely to be, leading to more drink driving, violence, hospital admissions and deaths due to cirrhosis. Only recently we have seen a serious increase in all these drink-related problems in young people, including those of school age.

The Bishop writes that, while he does not totally give up drinking for Lent, he exerts a "strict seasonal control". If Lenten abstinence only draws attention to the dangers and temptations, lives will be saved.

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