One Beer, and Only One.
Monday, May 4th, 2009I’ve always been thankful that I grew up in a tee-totaling home. My grandparents (on my mom’s side) and my parents raised me with the idea that “if you never have the first drink, you’ll never become an alcoholic.” I can’t prove it, but I suspect that might be true.
A couple of weeks ago, my mom sent me an e-mail about the “King Gamberinus” statue that stands in front of the La Crosse City Brewery. When I was a kid, we always referred to this particular statue as “The Devil and his Cup,” and it turns out that this marks the 60th year that he has been holding forth in front of the brewery.
My non-drinking caused some interesting situations. For a while when I was in college, the rumor developed that I had once been a “really bad drunk,” but somehow got sober. That, so the rumor went, was why I never drank. Great theory, but dead wrong. The friends who knew me well straightened that out, and I never had to defend myself: “I’ve know him since high-school, and he never drank.” Considering that I grew up in a drinkin’ town, most people found it amazing that I could grow up where I did and not drink. When I went out with friends, I was always the built-in designated driver. I must have had 40 job offers to be a bartender, since owners knew that I wouild not drink up the profits.
While I’m still not a drinker by any stretch of the imagination, I do enjoy an occasional Stout. And when I say occasional, I mean one or two a year. My favorites: A seasonal from Great Waters Brewing Company, their Oatmeal Stout, and Schells Stout. I’ll never understand why anyone would bother with a mass-market brew. Here’s Sam’s quotable quote on that: “Life’s too short to drink lawn-mower beer.”
While I’ll never be a six-pack and a pizza kind of guy, I might be the “pint of stout twice a year” sort. A few years back, I heard Os Guinness speak, and yes, he has roots in the Guinness brewing family; he explained that beer was the drinkable alternative to hard liquor, and most European breweries were founded by Christian families to provide an option in times when drinking water was more like a “pitcher of plague.” So despite the fact that I generally avoid alcohol, there is something joyful in a glass of well-brewed stuff. It turns out, I’m not the only committed, Bible-believing Christian to take such an approach. A good friend of mine, a mentor to many and now a minister, used to hold a weekly men’s Bible study that he called “Brews and Bro’s,” and it consisted of serious Bible study, followed up with a discussion over one glass of beer. I think that his one beer approach saved a lot of young men from the excesses of alcohol that are all over our culture–he taught them how to enjoy a beer, and no doubt saved some from a life of alcohol abuse.
All that as a lead-in to this. I just read an article from Comment Magazine, from Cardus in Canada, about the connection between good beer and good Christian fellowship. In my experience, I’m inclined to agree: Yes, a Christian can drink, but never to excess. You’ll find the article here.
And King Gamberinus, aka “The Devil and his Cup,” is presented for you below:
