Since Prohibition days the liquor and beer industries have been conducting a well planned, costly advertising campaign to convert the public to "social" drinking by attractive ads, subtle statements and large contributions to worthy causes. Through such means they have so effectively lowered moral standards, deadened consciences and changed concepts that today the young and old, whether infidel or religionist, freely drink without shame; and for the first time in 22 years women's pictures are now permitted in liquor advertising. It is no longer needful to sneak into the forbidden corner tavern to drink; one can now buy and drink it at church! Religious leaders who once opposed and condemned social drinking now pronounce God's blessing upon it! The following paragraphs reveal the trend toward gutter religion as preached and practiced by preachers and priests.

The triennial general convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which met at Miami Beach (Oct., 1958), said in its 28-page report on Alcohol, A1coholisin, and Social Drinking, that rnan can drink alcohol with "thanksgiving to Him for these blessings." (N.Y. Times News Service article, Oct. 14, 1958.) This convention has officially endorsed social drinking!

At the Monastery of La Grange Chartreuse in France, Catholic Monks make 86 proof and 110 proof liquor for export and sale to the public. It is frequently advertised in the Brooklyn Tablet, official Catholic paper of Brooklyn, N.Y. Further, the Catholic "Order of Christian Brothers of the Christian Schools," founded in France in 1680, have a distillery at Napa, California. Examples could be given of many other Catholic Orders making liquors. (Catholicism Against Itself by 0.C. Lambert, pages 105-113.)

In Kentucky there are about 30 Catholic churches possessing licenses to sell intoxicating drinks. And not long ago, Pope Pius XII ordered a bar opened in St. Peter's Catholic Church in Rome, where visiting clergymen can relax with intoxicating drinks served by a barmaid after their trying ordeal in worship. (Article The Vatican by Aubrey Henen, Holiday Magazine, Curtis Publishing Co., May, 1958 issue; Vol. 23, No. 5, Pg. 123.) It was this same wicked Pope who liberalized Catholic rules to allow priests and members the right to drink alcoholic drinks up to only three hours before attending mass and receiving Holy Communion! (AP release from Vatican City, March 22, 1958). That seems to be such a short time to sober up! The Catholic Church even has a formula for "Blessing" liquor. (Sacramentals, 40.) In Hatley, Wis., a priest was fined $350 for illegally selling liquor without a license. (AP dispatch, Hatley, Wis., Sept. 2, 1958.) Space forbids the use of other similar examples in Catholicism.

McCall's Magazine (Nov. 1954) reports Graham as saying: "I know ministers who smoke, have an occasional drink, dance and play a mild game of gin rummy. Doesn't make them any less devout than I am. It's all in the childhood training and how You come to look at it."

During his Louisville (Ky.) crusade in 1956, an aide was asked whether Graham was going to preach against liquor. The aide replied, "Mr. Graham is going to preach the ministry of love. He aims for the center of the heart and doesn't always touch on specific issues. To drink or not to drink is for the individual to decide." (Louisville CourierJournal, Sept. 30, 1956.) Graham allowed this report in the local paper to stand as his view. And he did not preach against liquor in the city noted for its liquor industries!

A Louisville (Ky.) Times article (April 2, 1957) states that the Louisville Ministerial Association was divided over whether to have prohibition or moderate drinking. The "Rev." Frederick A. Springborn, chaplain of a local hospital, said, "To ban production and sale of beverage alcohol would be infringing on the rights of others . . . For thousands of years society has found alcohol to be good, not a curse. It does relax a person."

"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." (Prov. 20:1.) Also read Proverbs 23:29-35; Isaiah 28 :7; Habakkuk 2:15 ; Gal. 5 :19-21 ; 1, Cor. 6:9-10. The preachers and priests who say alcoholic beverages are looked upon with favor by God, have been "good, not a curse" for thousands of years, are either woefully ignorant or deliberate liars. In either case they serve Satan.

The corruptible fruit of "social drinking" proves it to be a deadly threat to the safety of society and to the salvation of souls. Listen to the dying screams that piercingly come forth from broken bodies writhing in unbearable pain on the blood-soaked ground or amid twisted steel! Can you hear the pitiful whimpers of hungry, scared, fatherless children and the heartbroken sobs of helpless widows caused by liquor? Do you see the "man of distinction" as he becomes the man of extinction, wallowing in his own filth in the gutter, the result of "social drinking"? What of the warped minds, ruined lives, filled prisons, broken families, and doomed souls bound for hell? Are these the blessings for which we can thank God when we drink? Is this the "good" in drinking? Surely such scenes prove that the tree of "Social Drinking" is corrupt, and that churches which engage in this ungodly traffic in human misery are born of hell and serve Satan.

It is reported that some changing gospel preachers now endorse and engage in social drinking. We must speak out against this evil, exhorting Christians to abstain from all appearances of evil. (I Thess. 5:22.) Denominationalism is rotting within from moral decay; let us not likewise be destroyed. Let us exhort one another daily, lest any of us be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Heb. 3:13.)

Truth Magazine III:5, pp. 1, 21
February 1959