Alcohol on the Mission Field

Many American missionaries carry with them to the mission field a practice and even a biblical position of total abstinence from alcohol. Some, like me, grew up in Christian cultures where drinking wine was considered sin; we never rubbed shoulders with any serious Christians who drank and thus our conclusions have been mostly unchallenged.

Across the ocean, many Europeans have grown up Christian cultures where drinking wine is considered a blessing, and have never rubbed shoulders with any serious Christians like us who abstained as a matter of principle; thus their conclusions have similarly gone unchallenged. One European brother of mine chided the abstinence position as “an American doctrine, not a Bible doctrine.” When I heard that, I got mad, then decided that a more prudent response would be to evaluate my position and his claim.

My primary aim here is not to lay out a biblical defense of the abstinence position, but merely to ramble a bit about drinking and the scenario of an abstaining missionary ministering in a culture like Tuscany or the Albanian mountains where offering a small glass of vodka to a guest is prescribed in ancient kanun law--and not doing so offends his honor! What’s an abstaining missionary to do? Some disclaimers and random thoughts:

• I know I'm generalizing because many American believers drink socially and some European believers abstain; I'm generalizing due to the fact that in my limited personal experience, I've never met a European missionary who abstains, and most of the American missionaries I know do abstain. Of course there are missionaries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Australia too, but my experience is limited primarily to Europe and America.
• I personally hold the abstinence position. Good thing, because 1) anytime I've ever tasted alcohol, I've thought it detestable, like swallowing Listermint (must be an acquired taste); and 2) good wine is expensive. I don't have enough money to acquire the taste.
• I think wine bottles are really elegant and tend to admire wine racks in fancy restaurants. I think it would be fun to pop open a wine-cork, swirl the wine around in a cha-chingy glass and do that smell-test thing they do.
• I have a lot of really good Christian friends who do not hold my abstinence position, and I've decided I can still be their friend!
• I get irked when abstainers judge non-abstainers' spirituality.
• I get irked when non-abstainers charge abstainers with being legalistic, weak, or ignorant (some of them may be, but many of them are deep-thinking, sensitive and submissive people).
• I get irked at both abstainers and non-abstainers who are opinionated but have never actually studied the Scriptures deeply about the matter and looked at the other side of their position.
• Most people are abstainers or non-abstainers based on how they grew up, not based on biblical considerations.
• I've personally observed believers drinking at lengthy social events like weddings or banquets, believers who claim that the core biblical issue is drunkenness, not abstinence, believers who knock the abstinence position as a legalistic American import ... but an hour or so into the banquet, these believers' behaviors strangely change! Sober, I observe their transformation to the clearly tipsy realm, and on occasion, to definite drunkenness.
• If you don't drink the first glass, you'll never have to worry about drinking the second or fifteenth glass which finally pushes you into the state of intoxication. This is not my primary reason for abstinence, but it is pretty air-tight logic, no? (Please don't say, "so don't take your first bite of food lest you become a glutton." That argument doesn't fly because our bodies need food; they don't need alcohol.)
• Good hermeneutics requires delving into history and grammar, so I think there is merit in studying the history of biblical wines and the different Hebrew and Greek words for alcohol used in different contexts. It is hard to make your biblical case about the use of alcohol from the modern use of the English word "wine" and by imposing today's culture and technology upon the texts.
• I have read some fascinating word studies and historical explanations about biblical wines from both an abstaining and a non-abstaining persuasion. I'm afraid I'm not sufficiently qualified in biblical languages and history to judge the conflicting reports. Sorry, I am just not going to be dogmatic about a glass of wine with dinner being inherently sinful.
• I am an abstainer for only one biblical reason: my Christian brothers. Romans 14:21 says that it is good not to drink wine because it makes brothers stumble, offended and weak. Make your long treatises and explanations to argue this point away, but the fact is that alcohol continues to make many a man stumble and weak (which is why the Scripture gives so much warning about the stuff). And the Bible states clearly "it is good not to drink it" for this reason. "Legalism," you say? "Ignorance?" Not "a Bible doctrine"? God wrote Romans 14:21, not me.
• More important to note is that most ex-alcoholic Christians continue to fight fierce battles against the stuff, but few people in the church are even aware of it. These dear brothers and sisters are fighting for their lives, and testify that the very smell of alcohol tempts them, and the sight, and of course the taste. Take a look at the photo of the thyme-based cough syrup Tussavit which says 0.2g of alcohol must not be given to alcoholics! 0.2 grams?! By comparison, a standard drink contains 10 grams and 12-oz can of beer contains about 14 grams. But the cough syrup is required to warn: "Do not give alcoholics 0.2 grams!" Why? Because a little alcohol will make him stumble again.
• Why would a church offer wine to believers at the very Lord's Table instituted to remember Christ's sacrifice for us and His victory over sin? The church leaders can't possibly know all the secret battles being fought in the life of the congregation, but unless you are very naive, you should know that at least someone in the meeting is fighting drunkenness! Why not use unfermented grape juice in church, even if your conscience allows you to drink a glass now and again?! Those who have never experienced alcoholism will never understand this temptation, but imagine how you might feel tempted if those distributing the bread and cup were scantily-clad ladies (or men)?
• Yes, you can tell I'm opinionated about this matter. I take serious the matter of the weaker brother for whom Christ died. The issue of whether drinking is OK or allowed is, to me, a moot point. Insisting on wine-drinking because it is not expressly forbidden may be a more legalistic practice than abstaining from it because of the law of love towards the weaker brother.

Now, back to abstaining missionaries serving in wine-loving cultures. Here are some random thoughts:

• If your position is abstinence, abstain. You don't have to apologize for it. People respect sincere convictions, especially if they are not crammed down their throat.
• Learn about the culture. In Albania, a missionary once told all his short-termers that they must drink the welcome glass of vodka so not to offend the host. As time went on, I began to notice many non-believing nationals refusing the vodka because of health reasons. So no, it was not such an offense after all.
• We offer our guests the finest Coca-Cola and coffee we can find, and no one has been offended that we haven't offered them alcohol.
• If I am a guest and asked if I would like wine or vodka, I simply say no. If I am asked why, my answer depends on who is asking. If it is an unbeliever, I will say "for health reasons" (alcohol consumption is widely-known to be unhealthy, and as I mentioned, this answer is culturally acceptable in my culture). I don't find it helpful for my witness to open up about some of the "dos and dont's" which exist in my life, since the essence of Christianity is not external changes, but internal ones. If a believer in my church asks me why I don't drink, I will explain as much as his maturity will allow me to explain. If a believer from another church questions me, I will be VERY cautious about responding, because I don't want to undermine his church's leadership.
• What if I am just served a glass of wine at the table? There it is, and everyone is raising their glasses in a toast! What do I do? I usually raise my glass and clang everybody's glasses in kindness and respect. I try to get away with simply not drinking it. There has been a rare case or two where I really thought that I might be offensive to an unbeliever by not drinking it at all--a situation where a poor person would be offended by interpreting my not drinking as disapproving his hard labor, as if his table wasn't good enough for me ... in such cases I have put a bit to my mouth and more-or-less wet my lips ... and the man took little notice of how much I was drinking (or not) thereafter. I do this sincerely in order to win the man.
• If an unbeliever gives us a bottle of wine, we do not offend him by rejecting his gift. We simply say "thank-you" (just as we replied to our notary who bought us an expensive painting of a nude woman--not particularly our taste in art but he spent a pretty penny on it for us).
• I don't make this topic a hobby-horse, and at the same time, we prefer expository preaching, and have found the topic comes up from time to time, and I preach the text, trying hard to avoid imposing my cultural bias upon the text.
• I've discovered that many national believers that abstain in front of the American missionary do not abstain in private!
• I've learned to live with the fact that believers will disagree with me on this issue, caricature me as a legalist, and continue to drink and offer drink. Furthermore, I love these believers and, though I object, I am not personally offended at their drink. And surprisingly, some have grown to respect me enough to give me an ear, and are even now putting their cultural practice of drinking to biblical reconsideration.