Dereliction or Dereliction of Duty?
"Lips that touch wine
will never touch mine!"
-Judge Stephens's mother
Al's grandmother Laura Fairless raised by her mother and full blood Cherokee grandmother in a bar in Kansas City, made sure her husband vowed at marriage that he would never bring hard liquor home. During our seminary days in Kansas City, we tried to spend every Sunday afternoon with her, and listened to her stories. She recalled being saved at age four standing up on a cracker barrel at one of Billy Sunday's street services giving her heart to Jesus. However, during the Depression when her husband brought a Progressive Farmer customer of his home one night and pulled out a bottle of whiskey to share, the meek mother of eleven went quietly up to her room, let down her braids that fell to the floor and, without even unbraiding then, took her scissors and cut them off. When her husband saw her bobbed hair, he cried like a baby. Grandma Fairless stated in her quiet, but firm way, "He never brought alcohol home again.
Unfortunately, alcohol still stole from her children, and many battled alcoholism. One daughter as a beautiful teenager was walking home from the movies with a date when he hit her on the head with his beer bottle and raped her. Unknown to them, scar tissue formed and put pressure on her brain causing her to go insane. The Arkansas state mental hospital was no picnic in the forties and fifties. They gave her an operation, separating her brain to wipe out the traumatic experience, also wiping out all her early memories and learning. She had to learn how to walk, talk, and read again, all unnecessary if they had known about the scar tissue pressure.
Another aunt died from a "hangover-the-toilet" from ingesting vomit into her lungs while drunk.
On one vacation when I was about ten years old, my father pulled off the road and took us up on a hillside to have a family talk. This had never happened before and we knew it was serious. He told us of his childhood being raised by a violent alcoholic father. There were times when his father would go to sleep with a knife under his pillow with his stated goal of stabbing his entire family to death. Once police jumped him from behind when he had his family lined up on the front porch threatening to shoot them. His drunken driving nearly killed them as they took picked produce to market going from one ditch on one side of the road to the next on the other. While my father was away in Italy serving in World War II, his mother was killed when she ran from another beating into a road where she was hit by a car. He was scarred for life, but impressed us all for his hatred for alcohol and the reasons why.
After raising three children, we became foster parents, then adoptive parents. Our two young sons have been terribly scarred by the effects of alcohol and drug abuse. Our youngest was born with drugs in his system. What is too little known is that fetal alcohol has a more damaging effect while pregnant than drugs. They will have life-long challenges physically, mentally, and emotionally because of it and most likely will need medicine their entire lives. Alcohol is the number one cause of PREVENTABLE birth defects. 5,000 FAS babies are born every year and 65,000 are born with FES a year, a milder but serious form of birth defects. This creates a tremendous burden on families, schools, and medical care. Unfortunately, a majority of women do not realize when they become pregnant. Drinking during the earliest stages of pregnancy can cause the most damage. Remember, alcohol is a poison that goes directly to a develping fetus.
Alcoholism is responsible for more family problems than any other single factor. Crime and violence are associated with alcoholism including incest and battery (30% of father-daughter incest involve alcohol). 75% of domestic violence is due to the influence of alcohol. One third of American adults (56 million) say that alcohol abuse brought trouble to his or her family. One half of Americans age 12 and older drink alcohol (109 million). One out of four children younger than eighteen is exposed to alcohol abuse living with an alcoholic family. Statistics out this week is that binge drinking is on the rise, one out of six American adults. About thirteen million are heavy drinkers, highest use among 21-25 year olds. 80% of College presidents surveyed site alcohol abuse as their number one problem. In 2005, the health costs for the US was 220 billion (compare combating cancer, 196 billion). 31% of car accidents in 2008 were alcohol related. In 2004, 42,836 traffic fatalities were the result of drunk drivers. 65% of us in America will be involved in an alcohol related accident in our lifetime. 100,000 alcohol related deaths occur annually, one third of the leading cause of preventable mortality (after tobacco and diet/activity patterns). Chronic brain injury, second only to Alzheimer's, due to alcohol is known cause of mental retardation in adults. Three million teens, 14-17, are alcoholics. Half a million ages 9-12 are addicted to alcohol. 18.3 million adults are heavy drinkers while 12.1 million have symptoms of alcoholism, a 8.2% increase since 1980. In Australia where 85% of all adults drink, the average cost is $400 a year per adult, which in and of itself puts a burden on the family. Do any of these statistics touch your life? Does this make alcohol attractive?
I am so glad I belong to a church that takes a stand on alcohol with total abstinence. With drinking on the rise in our nation, so do social issues hurting the family. What about social drinking when someone doesn't have a problem? Here is my reasoning: after reading the following damage done by alcohol to the body, is this something you want to put in your body?
It is a poison not natural fruit of the vine or hop: it is ethanol (sound familiar? gasoline.). Ethanol is the intoxicating ingredient in wine, beer and hard liquor which is a central nervous system depressant. It is in the same drug family as anesthetics and tranquilizers. Alcohol needs no digestion and once in the blood stream it diffuses into every biological tissue of the body taking only moments to reach the brain. Worse, what kind of example is this to your family? Even though you say you may have no problem social drinking, your spouse or children may not be able to have that same control. You in fact are telling them that "responsible" drinking is okay, while their bodies may not be able to stop at responsible. You are supporting an industry that makes billions off of people's weakness, a weakness that may affect those you love most.
Another factor of "being under the influence," is the question as a Christian, under whose influence are you under? Give the enemy of your soul an inch and he'll take a mile. If ethanol immediately is dispersed throughout your body, is one drink exempt from being under the influence? One of the worst affects of alcohol is the losing of inhibitions. Though some think this enables them in social situations, Virginia Tech. says while under the influence, cognitive abilities are affected by even small amounts, most vulnerable: memory, attention, REM sleep, coordination, and JUDGEMENT ("regrettable sex" when under the influence or unsafe-sex --including homosexual activity--). While a few drinks might dull inhibitions and anxiety over sexual activity, larger doses, .06%, will lead to loss of sensation, inability to reach orgasm, and temporary impotence. Besides impairing motor coordination, the inhibitions removed also makes you say and do inappropriate things.
The bottle often times becomes "the other woman" in a marriage, the most important significant other chosen over the spouse. Sometimes it becomes the anethesia to numb out undealt with emotional pain.
Another article said the first part of the brain alcohol affects is the cerebrum, the sense, speech, understanding and judgement. It depresses the part of the brain that normally inhibits or controls activities and emotions. The drinker feels liberated from moral and legal restrictions. It causes exhilaration and loss of inhibitions, depresses brain functions resulting in slurred speech, unsteady walk, blurry vision, loss of co-ordination. One only feels like skills improve because judgement is impaired. Various exaggerations of emotions go from violence and aggressiveness to tearfulness and withdrawal in others. The body may protect itself by passing out. Alcohol in any amount destroys brain cells which are irreplaceable.
I know that my children with our family history have little chance of a happy life if alcohol becomes a part of it. I'm a tea-totaling mama! When I was in high school in Morro Bay, there were probably three of us, in my graduating class who didn't drink and/or do drugs in my graduating class. I know that it means a social life that stands alone sometimes, but I have no regrets.
There is finally the argument about the weaker brother. I know there are many Christians who drink in our community, but I know that it is hindering their witness with other new Christians, some who are fighting the battle to overcome alcohol abuse. Is a social drink worth that to you? The weaker brother or sister could be sitting by you in the pew or sitting with you at your own dinner table.
Health Effects to the Body of Alcohol Consumption according to the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Addiction and Virginia Tech Report...
*Arthritis: increases the risk of arthritis
*Cancer: increases risk in liver, pancreas, rectum, breast, mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus.
*Fetal Alcohol: leading cause of PREVENTABLE birth defects with physical and behavioral abnormalities.
*Heart Diseases: raises blood pressure, blood lipids, and risk of stroke and heart disease in heavy drinkers.
*Hyperglycemia: raises blood glucose.
*Hypoglycemia: lowers blood glucose, especially in diabetics.
*Kidney Disease: enlarges the kidneys, alters hormone function and increases risk of kidney failure.
*Liver Damage: causes fatty liver, liver alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis (liver can only process 1/2 oz an hour).
*Malnutrition: increases risk of protein-energy malnutrition. Alcohol is empty calories. Unused energy fuel is stored as fat while nutrients are unable to be absorbed.
*Nervous Disorders: neuropathy, dementia, impairs balance, and memory. Adulteration and death of brain cells.
*Psychological: causes depression, anxiety, and insomnia.
*Heart: even a small amount can be harmful to the heart: can progressively destroy heart muscle so heart can't pump efficially and also starves the heart by decreasing blood flow in the coronary articles. Increased rate of hypertension, fat levels in the blood can be raised by alcohol. Calories create obesity and greater chance of heart disease.
*Immune System: impairs immune system, the ability to fight infectious disease, more colds, long term susceptibility to infectious disease and cancer.
*Circulatory System: decreased blood pressure, pulse, and respiration while under the influence. Long term, chronic high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy (deteriation of the heart muscle)
*Skeletal-Muscular: can reduce muscle mass in heavy doses.
*Alcohol can cause hair loss, affect night vision and depth perception.
*Difference in Men and Women: Women have less water and more body fat then men, and it is absorbed differently. Women also have less of a stomach enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the stomach, thus are intoxicated more than a man of similar size with the same amount taken.
*Reproductive System: can lead to infertility in men and impotence. In women, estrogen metabolism in the liver is decreased boosting estrogen levels in the body. Can cause menstrual irregularities and potetially infertility.
*Digestive System: alcohol can damage cells lining the stomach and intestines which can block the absorption and break down of nutrients. Can cause anemia. Alcohol can irritate the stomach lining inducing gastritis (inflamation of the stomach lining), ulcers and acid reflux, can erode stomach lining and cause chronic blood seepage into the stomach.
Finally, alcohol can be lethal in large doses causing alcohol poisoning or ingestion while vomiting (like Al lost his aunt), or prove deadly in a vehicle. One out of five alcoholics who attempt to stop drinking dies when not under medical care from the DT's.
Sum of Virginia Tech Study:
Alcohol can become addictive, lead to alcoholism. Prolonged use causes memory loss, personality changes, increased susceptibility to diseases, cancer, alcohol hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver (what my grandfather died from), high blood pressure, heart disease, reduced muscle mass, and anemia. Drinking while pregnant can cause fetal alcohol syndrome, mental retardation and physical abnormalities.
A drunk driver kills one person every thirty nine minutes and injures one person every two minutes.
Does a drink still sound romantic? Any comments?
"Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:15-18
