As
Christians, our decision to drink alcoholic beverages should not be
based solely on scientific data, but also on the moral and spiritual
implications. With my world view as a Christian, I do not consider
my life to be merely a series of chemical reactions which can be tested
in lab experiments and reported in the medical literature. Aside from
the physiology of my body, I believe my existence has spiritual and
mental dimensions which are intricately linked together. Medical science
increasingly recognizes that the patient should be treated as a complex
being with a intricately connected body, mind, and spirit. Recently,
I attended a Harvard Medical School conference entitled "Spirituality
and Healing", which dramatically documented this holistic view
of man. It becomes clear that decisions I make about my body have a
major influence on my mental and spiritual dimensions. Here we will
discuss the moral and spiritual implications of alcohol consumption.
In the Health section of this site, we reviewed in detail the medical research surrounding the medicinal value of alcohol consumption in preventing heart disease. We explored numerous recently published findings on the harmful effects of alcohol on many other body systems and compared them to the cardiac protective effects.
Now some would argue that alcohol's adverse effects come from excessive amounts and that moderate use is relatively harmless. So let's discuss the consequences of moderate or recreational drinking. First, the carcinogenic and osteoporotic effects as well as the increased incidence of traumatic death are seen even in light drinkers. While it is true that liver cirrhosis and severe brain damage such as outright dementia are primarily associated with heavy drinking, personally, I have enough concern about the damage that the aging process is doing to my brain without adding the effects of a known neurotoxin!
This
is a listing of the general effects on the individual based on blood
alcohol levels:
0.05% Euphoria and minor motor disturbance
0.08% Impaired driving ability
0.1% Gross motor lack of coordination
0.2% Amnesia of the experience
0.3% Coma
0.5% Death (Medical Pharmacology: Lange, pg. 246)
Fortunately, most people pass out before they can drink a lethal dose, but the fact remains that it is a drug that can lead to death and has significant physiological impairment at even the lowest measurable blood levels.
Well, what about the effects of alcohol on human relationships and behaviour? Do you want to talk about domestic violence, spousal and child abuse? Do you want to talk about rape, murder, suicide, or other areas of violence? You talk to any policeman, any social worker, any counselor, and they can tell you story after story of violent and abusive acts committed while intoxicated.
I'm going to write plainly. There is hardly a man on this planet who does not know that when trying to seduce a woman, his chances will vastly improve if he can get her to drink first. Why? Because her reasoning will be clouded and her willpower reduced. A gynecologist recently told that he frequently has women come in with a similar story. "Well, I went out and had a few drinks and wasn't thinking too clearly and ended up in bed with a stranger. Now I'm scared about AIDS and I want to be tested for HIV."
Once I heard a prominent Christian leader publicly state that "...alcohol is not a moral issue. It is not an issue of weak character... It is not a moral right or wrong. It is not a 'yes' or 'no' issue. It is not a moral negative to drink." Now you may say that alcohol use is not a moral issue, but when a substance reduces my inhibitions, impairs my judgment, and facilitates my decision to engage in immoral behaviour, then that is getting dangerously close to being a moral issue. Is that a fair statement to make? Even a female secular political science professor writing on the growing phenomenon of "date rape" on college campuses stated, "We can talk all we like of consent, but as long as we are applying that concept to situations in which human beings have reduced themselves to states of drunkenness in which they can barely form words, I don't know how consent can have any meaning." (Diana J. Schaub, Loyola College - Department of Political Science)
by Dr. Rick Westermeyer, M.D.