His name was Arthur Guinness. The setting was mid-18th-century Ireland. Arthur was a young Christian who was deeply concerned that alcohol consumption was killing his nation. Men, women, and even children of Ireland were poisoning themselves on a daily diet of whiskey and cheap gin— devoid of nutrition as well as toxic. The culture was disintegrating. The culture was not only addicted to alcohol, it was drowning in an addiction to drinking. Because of the pub culture, and what was being consumed there, the nation was experiencing death by starvation and death by poisoning, simultaneously.
Guinness grieved over this. According to one Irish author, “Guinness was once walking the streets of Ireland crying out to God, ‘God do something about the drunkenness on the streets of Ireland.’”
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Do Christians need movies or alcohol? No. We are not on earth to amuse ourselves, or divert ourselves with those things that dull the senses. We are here to be as alert as we can be, to wage war with the sharpest attention to the needs and afflictions of the perishing. When entire cultures are enslaved to corrupt institutions and customs that can be overturned, or turned to Christ’s advantage, we must not flinch where we can set captives free. The question becomes “who needs us?” not “what do we need?” ~Geoff Botkin
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