6.29.2007 | Well, guess we'll throw Jesus out

I'm a Baptist; not the best Baptist, perhaps not even a good Baptist. But I do read my Scripture, and take to heart what I read. And have little regard for those who try to enforce their notions of Christian rectitude on the rest of us.

A case in point is this attempt by the Missouri Baptist Convention to bring back Prohibition. Carrie Nation is tanned, rested, and ready... From Christianity Today, the basics:

Church planters who receive money from the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) must now teach alcohol abstinence.

Well, as the saying goes, in nonessential things we must have Christian liberty. I see no such liberty here, and since I've yet to find a place in Scripture that forbids the consumption of alcohol, it's hard to understand what would make my Baptist brethren in Missouri demand abstinence.

The first thing that came to my mind was that Jesus would almost certainly have run afoul of MBC. That wine-guzzling carpenter's son went about imbibing with all manner of low-class peasants and tax collectors. Why, that man even encouraged others to drink by facilitating their imbibing. I'm shocked, I say, shocked. From the Gospel of John, chapter 2:

1On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." 5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

6Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8And he said to them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So they took it. 9When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now." 11This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

A little gospel goes a long way, and it appears that certain folks in the MBC may claim to believe in Jesus, but, somehow, don't trust the Gospel message that there is a season for all things. Including wine.