Is It a Sin to Drink Beer?
Since I work with college
students you might expect I get the sorts of questions in this list:
Most of my students were
raised with “church rules” against some or all of these things. Indiana
Wesleyan University, where I teach, bans virtually all of them. So, students
ask, “Well, are they sin? Really sin? This column is not about
those things themselves, but about the question: “Is it a sin?”
This question is by no means
limited to my students. In most debates in my denomination about “membership
commitments” (“church rules” for members) the same question comes up. Those who
want to relax the rules say that drinking a bit of wine is obviously not a sin
so they can’t see how a denomination can tell members they can’t do it.
Students over the legal drinking age ask the same thing about my University’s
rules. What right do you have telling me I can’t do something if it isn’t a
sin? The assumption is that rules for
denominations (or for University campus life) can only disallow things that are
sin—everything else should be up to individuals. This is such a wide assumption
that the question is hardly ever challenged.
I challenge the question. At
least historically I’ll challenge it. The vast majority of the “church rules”
my denomination has (as well as my University) were not established using this
question. The past leaders who made
rules for students (or for church members) were not asking “Is it sin?” They were asking a completely different
question.
If the question was not, “Is
it Sin?” then what was that question? It
was this: “Does it contribute to godliness?” Years ago when my denomination was founded it
was a specialized community of Christians committed to becoming as much like
Christ as they could become. They weren’t asking “How much can we do without
sinning?” but were asking, “What are the things that don’t contribute to
holiness and godliness?” They didn’t have to argue that drinking beer, attending
movies, or dancing and gambling were sin—they only had to argue that these
things did not contribute to godliness.
But the “master question” people
ask about behaviors changes over time—church members, pastors and college
students alike. Quietly and slowly the
original question (Does it contribute to godliness?) died
out. It was replaced with a new one: Is it sin?
This leaves denominational leaders (and college student supervisors) trying
to defend answers to a question few people are asking.
So I’m wondering what you
think. Do you think a 21 tear old college student should have requirements that
are more strict than church members have? Less strict? Or about the same?
So what do you think?
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Keith Drury February16, 2010