The only alcoholic beverages available in my early days were obtained at a "speakeasy," out in the boondocks away from town. When I learned of saloons from western cowboy movies, I feared that gun shooting and fights would happen when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was repealed. Then, no billboards, magazines, taverns were evident with alcohol displayed and available. Yes, my dad drank 3.2 beer, called near beer. I took a drink of his. Yuck!
When alcoholic beverages came in, I was in high school. One night I was awakened from sleep by yelling and fearful voices in our next door neighbors' house. I got up, went over, and found a drunken father ranting and threatening his wife, and three children. He became calm, and asked me to drive his car into his garage, since he didn't believe he could without damage.
A fellow high school basketball team player was in an alley as I drove by, weaving and vomiting from drinking one day. He was kicked off the team. What a picture, he was. As you read, my opinion was formed long ago and continues today, regardless of what others write about "a little tippling doesn't hurt you," and that the Bible has reference to "a little wine is good for the stomach," and that Jesus turned water into wine. Remember in that instance, the wine at the wedding feast had been consumed for three days, nobody was drunk and they recognized the good wine (or fruit of the vine) that Jesus made.
Winona Lake has stayed comparatively free from alcoholic beverages, and the negative evidences they bring to families, communities, to children, and to job performance. Think of what has happened since the repeal of the 18 Amendment. Think of people walking on Winona Lake sidewalks with wine glasses and getting refills along the walk from other places of business. I think about this as I detail a few of sad happenings I have known.
Will you and I do what we can to stop the continual down hill moral slide? Morality results from Christianity, the real thing. May God help us!
