What are you doing on Saturday night?
Is it possible to enjoy a night out without alcohol? I'm in the middle of filming a documentary for the Ö÷²¥´óÐã exploring our relationship with alcohol -- from binge-drinking to social drinking, from alcoholism to teetotalism. On Saturday night, I'll be hosting a party with a difference in Belfast's Black Box (18 Hill Street). Good music and good company, but no alcohol. If you'd like to come, admission is free (as are the alcohol free drinks) and the only condition is that you won't mind the presence of a camera crew. Doors open at 8pm. Drop in or stay for the evening. The Northern Ireland Soul Troop goes on stage from 9pm. Then we try to have fun while staying sober. I know, I know: it will be a challenge for some of us. But I have a wild card up my sleeve. Brian Henry Martin and Ronan Feeley, my esteemed director and producer respectively, have given me the power to open the bar after 10.30 p.m. if I decide that the party needs rescuing. See you there?
Comments
LOVE this concept. This may be my favourite of all your projects thus far with BeebNI.
I am glad that you are trying a non-alcoholic evening. The Bible is very clear that drinking alcohol is a sin. If only our society would follow the Bible in all matters, we would not have binge drinkin gon or streets, or drug dealing, or murder, or war. Starting by removing the bottle from our society is a good place to start.
Drinking alcohol is not a sin it is the sinner drinking the alcohol that is committing the sin because he becomes drunk by abusing a gift of God, now the Bible forbids drunkenness rather than just drinking.
As the Chancellor of the Exchequer hit alcohol in Wednesday’s UK budget in an effort to curb the sin of binge drinking amongst those who have become a scourge to British society, a blot on our landscape, I leave a few thoughts of Charles Haddon Spurgeon with you to ponder regarding drunkenness.
DRUNKENNESS EXPELS REASON, DISTEMPERS THE BODY, DIMINISHES STRENGTH ,INFLAMES THE BLOOD; CAUSES INTERNAL EXTERNAL ETERNAL INCURABLE WOUNDS; IS A WITCH TO THE SENSES, A DEMON TO THE SOUL, A THIEF TO THE PURSE, A GUIDE TO BEGGARY, LECHERY, & VILLAINY. IT IS THE WIFE’S WOE, ANDTHE CHILDREN’S SORROW.MAKES A MAN WALLOW WORSE THAN A BEAST, AND ACT LIKE A FOOL. HE IS A SELF-MURDERER; WHO DRINKS TO ANOTHER’S GOOD HEALTH, AND ROBS IMSELF OF HIS OWN.
I would challenge the Chancellor to set an example to the rest of our Nation and to remove the hypocrisy of selling cheap drink in high places by brining the price of drink in the Palace of Westminster into line with the rest of the our nations watering holes, Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. I wonder how prevalent alcoholism is amongst the members at Westminster who have the luxury of cheap drink, For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
George Whitefield, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and C.S. Lewis are some of those Christians that had a tipple now and again.
PTL,
I agree with the sentiment of much of your comments - especially the need to have the Bible as our authority in life. And I agree that if many today avoided drink, life, and society at large would be a whole lot better. However to suggest that the Bible says drinking alcohol is a sin, is simply wrong. The Bible doesn't say that. It says that drunkenness is to be avoided, not drink itself (issue being one of losing self control etc). Some might object with the hoary suggestion that the 'wine' Jesus made from water at Cana wasn't alcoholic - it was. Likewise, the wine that Paul proscribes for Timothy at the end of one of his letters.
Chris and Billy,
Wine is a mocker, says the Bible. It is dangerous to see intoxicating drink as a gift from God, just as it is foolish to see drugs like cocaine as a gift from God. You seem to think that everything that exists must exist because God wants it to exist and it is therefore a divine gift. Pornography exists. Is that a gift from God? No. It is a corruption of something good. So is intoxicating drink. The wine spoken of in the letter to Timothy is essentially grape juice, not the liquor of today. Be careful that you don't lead people astray.
PTL- Are you for real?
Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no
more.