One Town Keeps Its Head

When I opened my digital newspaper this morning, I found the following heart-warming item. Yes, there are places where people have not sold out to dollars and the demands of conventional wisdom cannot sweep away an enviable quality of life. By WAYNE PARRY The Associated Press OCEAN CITY, N.J. — The same disdain for alcohol that drove Christian clergymen to establish this Jersey shore town that calls itself America's Greatest Family Resort led voters to overwhelmingly reject a proposal Tuesday that would have let restaurant patrons bring their own wine or beer to enjoy with dinner. A referendum on whether BYOB should be allowed was soundly rejected by a 2-to-1 margin. Final unofficial tallies showed the referendum received 3,137 "no" votes, and 1,425 "yes" votes. Turnout was heavy in what one polling worker compared to the number of voters who would turn out for a presidential election. The question had divided this family friendly resort, where beauty pageants, hermit crab races and french fry sculptures are highlights of the summer. "The charm of this town is being dry," said Edward Dolceamore, owner of the Tradewinds Motel, where an electronic message board flashed "No BYOB in Ocean City" on Election Day. "There are less crimes and drugs here because it's dry. Leave it alone; don't mess with it." I add the following to Mr. Parry’s item. Our family has visited Ocean City more times than we can remember. In addition to visiting for recreation, the New Jersey District of the Assemblies of God convened annual business sessions in that quiet hamlet. The mood and ethos of the village will continue for the foreseeable future! Solomon addressed the slippery invitation of alcohol. “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.” (Proverbs 20:1) A longer, more colorful warning is found in Proverbs 23:29-35. Who are the people who are always crying the blues? Whom do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot? It’s those who spend the night with a bottle, for whom drinking is serious business. Don’t judge wine by its label, or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor. Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with— the splitting headache, the queasy stomach. Do you really prefer seeing double, with your speech all slurred, Reeling and seasick, drunk as a sailor? “They hit me,” you’ll say, “but it didn’t hurt; they beat on me, but I didn’t feel a thing. When I’m sober enough to manage it, bring me another drink!” The church periodically experiences a spasm of “intellectual maturity” which rebels against established mores. Someone says, “The Bible doesn’t forbid drinking alcohol,” and points to Jesus making wine from water and Paul’s suggestion to drink wine for stomach ailments. “Legalism,” that overworked item from the church’s lexicon, is bandied about in the name of personal conscience and freedom. I grew up in an alcohol free home and church. Neighbors were free to drink and wage earners reeled toward home long after they should have with slurred speech oiled by alcohol, betrayed sorrow, a sense of failure, and were greeted by weeping spouses and frightened children. The altars of our small Pentecostal church were places of deliverance and where people testified to the faithfulness of God to restore the years the canker worm had destroyed. As a pastor, I have spent too many hours comforting those abused by the drinker and trying to reason with one whose mind had been so twisted by the ungodly lubricant that right and wrong, truth and lie were impossible to determine without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Pat and I have taken the abused into our home while the abusers sobered. I am an eyewitness to too much wrong to be liberated to anything but total abstinence. So, Pat and I are celebrating that a small piece of God’s American landscape has voted to maintain her sobriety. P.S. Isn’t it interesting that where Muslim populations abound in the United States, alcohol consumption declines and sobriety becomes more common?