WHAT IS IN THIS POT?
 

                                         By NAMANI J. NHARREL 

A Missionary examines the Controversy about Christianity

and Alcoholic Drinks from a Biblical Perspective and its effect on Evangelism.

Table of content

Introduction

Chapter 1:    What is in this Pot?

-                     Production

-                     Both contain alcohol

-                     Consumption

-                     Abuse and Addiction

Chapter 2:    More than a Food Drink

-                     Religious functions

-                     Commercial Purposes

-                     Ceremonies and Festivals

-                     Community Development

-                     The Social Connection

-                     Pain Reliever

Chapter 3:    The Great Divide

-                     Is it not food?

-                     Is it not sinful?

-                     The debate

-                     The alcoholic Christians

-                     The non-alcoholic Christians

Chapter 4:    Strong drinks and Evangelism

-                     The liberal and indulgence

-                     The moderate and conscience

-                     The legalist and prohibition

-                     Now what?

Chapter 5:    Let the Bible speak

-                     Lets do some Bible survey

-                     Availability

-                     Example of those who used it

-                     Exceptions

-                     Effects of drinking

-                     Warnings

-                     What have we seen?

-                     What do we say now?

-                      

Chapter 6:    What about drunkenness

          -        What is it?

-                     In the bible

-                     So where are we

-                     Effects of drunkenness

-                     Which way

Chapter 7:    Christianity and strong drinks

-                     and who is a Christian

-                     the Christian message

-                     expectations from the Christians

          -        Strong drink and the kingdom lifestyle

-                     Need to get charged?

          -        Eating to live or living to eat

-                     It is gluttony?

          -        To those already hooked

Acknowledgement
 

I sincerely want to thank all those who have contributed in one way or the other in writing and the production of this book.  I am particularly grateful for the encouragement and the support of Laku my wife. She prays while I write and she understands while I steal into her time and that of the children to write. I also appreciate the cooperation of our four lovely children, Yammune, Seramkong, Kamduhl and Yamkwada. They all know when daddy is busy writing. Thanks to my friends who have always asked, “What book are you writing next?” I shall ever remain thankful to all our partners and supporters of our mission work. Finally I thank my publishers for for making this work available to the general public.

I remain yours in Him,

Namani J Nharrel.

Dedication
 

I dedicate this work to all the servants of God working in places where strong drink is an issue. I am praying that God will help them learn how to strike a balance so that the issue does not become an obstacle on the way of the  true seekers after God. 

INTRODUCTION

A story (almost a joke) has it that one of the foremost ‘sins’ the first European Missionaries preached against when they entered a Nigerian tribe in the early 20^th century was the drinking of a locally brewed alcoholic drink called men (MENN). Their not drinking men among other things identified those who became Christians.

          It happened that some of the native unbelievers went to see what those white men and their kinsmen were doing under a tree on a Sunday. They met the Christians praying. At the end of the prayers all the believers in unison said the Amen (E-MENN). It was intriguing to the unbelievers. Nevertheless they dispatched quickly and joyfully bewildered, to spread the news. For all they understood was that the Christians must have changed their minds about drinking men. After all they heard the Christians commanding themselves to E-menn (drink men) at the end of their prayers.

          I grew up to see my people drink men. The Christians didn’t, the non-Christians did. When a person became a Christian people outside the church asked, “Has he stopped drinking”? Or when a person began to get unserious with the Lord, the question usually asked is, “Has he started drinking?” Incidentally drinking secretly or openly was the first visible sign people began to notice in a backslider.

          The fact that those early missionaries and believers associated drinking with evil is vividly illustrated in the following anthem we were taught in the Sunday school.

Mam mo wob Yamba

De ma ilu ma seb Mai gu

A Munung ashin Bailbul

Mam mo wob Shuro

De ma ilu ma seb mai gu

A munung ashin dig men

Translated:          Those of you who worship God

Stand up and see your King

He is carrying the Bible.

Those of you who worship Satan

Stand up and see your king

He is carrying a pot of wine.

          So I left home with the idea that drinking is sinful. If I saw some Christians drink I thought they could not be serious ones.

          The claim that drinking is sinful and that those who drink are either sinners or sinning has been preached from many evangelical pulpits. In personal witnessing that has been the main trust of the message of some too. It goes something like this: “Drinking is sinful, stop it and follow Christ.”  But the question that those being preached to have always asked is, “Where is it in the Bible, that says, drinking is a sin?” One went further to refer me to the fact that Jesus himself turned water into ‘men’ and that Paul asked Timothy to drink ‘men’ for the sake of his stomach. At first that sounded blasphemous. The places he referred to have no ‘men’ but wine in my language New Testament Bible. I admit that wine is a foreign word and I didn’t care to know what it meant then. Now that I know, it’s an English word whose equivalent in my language is men, I suspect that the missionaries who translated the New Testament into my language had their fears. Using men for wine would have undermined their gospel or so they must have thought since our people drank a lot of men.

          The first tribe I worked among as a missionary myself was also very wonderful at drinking. Again the major question my colleagues and I had to grapple with was. If taking alcoholic drink was sinful or not.

          The unbelievers said, “We have been looking and waiting for a good alternative to our idolatrous way of life. But will you allow us to continue in our drinking habit if we become Christians”? An incident brings this question clearer.

          My family was to move and start a station in one section of the tribe. Family heads from several settlements in that region learnt about our move. They met and agreed to embrace Christianity with their families. They even decided where the worship centre would be sited. But by the time we actually moved in to start work the people seem to have changed their mind. They learnt that the missionaries as individuals do not drink wine; they therefore concluded that they (the missionaries) are not likely to condone drinking in the church. This was confirmed much later, when one of the natives stopped one of the missionaries and told him, “Look if only you allow people who drink, in your church, that building you have cannot contain all those who are willing to join you on Sundays.” Thus what would have been a mass movement of a section of a tribe into Christianity was stalled because of drinking palaver.

          Though I was beginning to differentiate between Biblical absolutes and the non-absolutes, yet I was not convinced that we needed to throw the door of the church open just to accommodate a crowd who were not willing to forsake what I considered an unwholesome habit that may not help the spiritual growth of the church. Nevertheless there was a struggle raging within me. Secretly I believed that drinking was not a Biblical absolute in most instances. Therefore it shouldn’t be the focus or point of emphasis of the gospel message. On the other hand the reality of experience (doctrine is not built on experience) would not make me say boldly and openly that drinking is not sinful.

          So when new believers come to ask if drinking is sinful or not or when they come to report that that other new believer is still drinking the missionary or preacher who wants to be balanced is thrown into a fix. He is torn between being faithful to the Bible despite popular opinion and giving a blank license for irresponsible indulgence. He is not sure whether to trust the Holy Spirit to do his work of inner sanctification or fear watering down the gospel if he should tell people that taking strong drinks is not sinful. It is a dilemma.

          As I write “What is in this Pot?” I am faced by this dilemma. What will the majority of the evangelical preachers say about it? I also fear a misreading by a people who would have been looking for an excuse to abuse a gift of God to man. In any case I have sworn allegiance to God and His word.

          Preachers of the word of God must face this dilemma courageously, particularly those working among peoples who drinking are literally their lifestyle.

The issue of drinking or not drinking alcoholic drink has been an obstacle to the spread of the gospel in Nigeria since the time of the European missionaries to date. There have been two unhealthy extreme views. At one end most evangelical preachers list taking strong drinks top in the company of adultery, stealing, idolatry, murder and the likes whereas the Bible is not categorical about its sinful nature as it does the others. Then there are those who see nothing wrong in taking strong drinks. They indulge in it irresponsibly. When they are full they give glory to demons in one way or the other. The non-Christian non-drinkers like the Muslims associates’ strong drinks with Christianity. As such some would have nothing to do with a religion that seems to permit its adherents to take intoxicants. Especially, when they see so-called Christians misbehaving under the influence of strong drinks.

The purpose of this book is to explain as balanced as possible the scriptural position on strong drink in the context of becoming a Christian and the demands of its lifestyle thereafter. It is hoped that this book will help both drinkers and non-drinkers of strong drinks put it in proper perspective as it regards to its relationship with Christianity. I pray that the Evangelical preacher, in particular will learn to prioritize the content of his gospel message without necessarily making the gospel look cheap or watering it down after reading this book. Overall I desire that this book will help people make intelligent choices or counsel others whether to drink or not. So that no one feels guilty for drinking or claim spiritual superiority for not drinking consequent of whichever choice one makes. And I pray that this choice is going to be made in the light of clear biblical position and in the context of the totality of Biblical Christianity and the Kingdom lifestyle, so that we do not despise nor pass judgment on one another other.

CHAPTER ONE

 WHAT IS IN THIS POT?
 

What am I?

I am a liquid

Contained in a pot

Sought by Millions

I cheer and gladden the hearts of many

Woes, sorrow and misery I give to more

I flow freely

Yet bind thousands strongly

Loved and hated

An Enigma you may say

Food or poison

Whatever you think

To God and conscience you can appeal

To reveal what I am.

          You are a mix of sadness and joy. A controversial food drink made from grains or fruits. You have as many names as the tribes that make you in Nigeria and the world over. You are presented in pots of various shapes to your lovers in Northern Nigeria, the Middle Belt and other places that love you. In Hausa you are called Burkutu or giya: Your sister from the Palm tree in the South is called ‘tombo’ (palm wine). Then your cousins from abroad either from cereals or fruits comes bottled or canned. They are called beer and wine respectively.

          But let us lump you together and call you strong drink. If you don’t mind we shall from time to time called you alcoholic drink or even use wine interchangeably. However to know you better we must need to examine you closer, through your production, content, consumption and misuse.

PRODUCTION

1.                Beer – Is “an alcoholic drink made form grains.” “It is an alcoholic drink made from malt and flavoured with hops.” The hops are plants, which give the bottled beer its bitter taste. The grains from which the popular Burkutu and other forms of beer are made from include: Guinea Corn (Sorghum), Millets, Maize (Corn) ‘acca’ and sometimes rice.

The production of the locally brewed Burkutu goes through a process that last seven days from the soaking of the grain to drinking. The process involves mainly the breaking of the carbohydrate content of the grain into sugar, which is in turn acted upon by enzymes to produce the alcohol and other content of the drink.

The grain is soaked and softens in water. Then it is removed and provided with other conditions of germination, namely warmth and dark cover. By the third or fourth day majority of the grains have sprouted. The sprouted grain is grounded either after drying or wet and later made into paste. The paste is put in large pot to boil, cool and allowed to ferment overnight. The boiling and fermentation processes vary from place to place and with the nature and strength of the beer desired. To increase its intoxicating ability parts of some special plants are added.

On the seventh day the beer is ready for drinking. Depending on the brewed quantity it can last for two to three more days. With increasing days the drinks become more soar and stronger. The expert at it loves it that way.

2.                Wine – This is the alcoholic drink used in the Bible lands and many parts of the world today. “And wine mentioned in the Bible is fermented grape juice with an alcohol content. No non-fermented juice was called wine”³.

Wine is produced from the vine plant whose long stems grows along the ground or fastens themselves to other erect objects by means of long tendrils. The fruits of the vine are put in large containers called wine presses at an elevation. The presses are connected to lower containers by channels. The juice is expressed by squeezing the fruits in the larger containers, which flow into the smaller lower containers. This is later collected and put into pots or other containers like wine skin in the Bible times.

The main action in the process here is fermentation. It is set into motion as soon as the skin of the grape fruits is broken. “Fermentation requires only sugar, some micro-organism and time. The sugar is in the grape, the yeast that produces fermentation clings to the skin of the grape and the time begins the minute the skin is broken and the two are brought together. It can happen still with the grape on the vine. In refrigerated liquids, the process begins within hours and can produce noticeable alcoholic content in a very short time”⁴.

After the juice has been expressed, collected and put into jars it is now strained, sieved and ready for consumption.

BOTH ARE ALCOHOLIC.

Wine from grapes and other fruits and beer from grains and roots both contain alcohol at varying levels of concentration. Alcohol is defined as “the colourless liquid present in wine, beer and other liquor that can make one drunk” ⁵.

The alcohol content of strong drinks varies with several factors. These include the level of sugar content in the source material, the degree to which the sugar is acted upon by microbial activities; the atmospheric condition conducive for the microbial activities and the addition of additives, which may have intoxicating abilities in themselves.

The level of alcohol or its concentration determines how strong a drink becomes. This in turn determines the intoxicating potential of the drink. “In Biblical times wine had a practical alcoholic content of 10-11%”. There are several bottled drinks in the Nigerian drink market that certainly have higher alcoholic content. In some places the pure distilled alcohol meant for other purposes are bottled and consumed undiluted.

From all intent and purpose the alcoholic content of strong drinks are if not all, to a very large extent the motivation for the consumption of wine and beer.

CONSUMPTION

          In most communities that take strong drinks, they are seen as mere food. One has seen whole communities whose life can be described as virtually depending on wine as ‘food’. One has heard people say that drinking is indeed their life. Meaning they cannot do without drinking. In communities where people live like this the burkutu is brewed on daily basis, from one compound to the other. Instances have been observed where a whole family goes out drinking from morning till night (not in one place). Sometimes the very young ones are left behind to fend for themselves, if they can.

          Strong drink is hardly served as a family meal even in places where the people claim drinking is their way of life. Even in large families and compounds strong drinks are hardly made for the immediate members’ consumption alone. So when people claim that beer or wine is food, it appears that it is more of ‘communal’ food that they mean. When it is sold and bought outside it is often ‘eaten’ in-group or individually where people are. It is taken on the spot. Hence the existence of beer parlours, drinking joints, bars and restaurants. Burkutu markets are scattered in remote settlements and villages. People go to all these places to drink and enjoy themselves. When bought and brought home it is often to a special guest, an invalid or an old elderly member of the family. Alcoholic drinks are also served as the main or one of the main food items in social functions such as wedding and festivals.

          If some people take strong drinks as food, many more take it for other reasons. It appears the alcohol content and its intoxicating effect are some these reasons.

          This is confirmed in the fact that those who drink heavily will feel insulted when offered say ‘kunu’ (a form of gruel more like the alcoholic burkutu and may even be denser than the latter in quenching hunger and thirst) and other forms of liquid food when they have a choice to drink burkutu. Or when fanta or coca-cola is offered to one who drinks bottled beer. Here the aim becomes not to fill the stomach with strong drink as food but to get something different from it. Such thing could be the desire to get drunk, proving ones prowess at drinking or generosity with drinks. Some desire to get drunk in order to get even with adversaries they have been too timid to approach in sober moments. Sometimes it is just to feel belong to the status quo.

On this last point, a male adult may not be considered a man in certain cycles if he is not drinking. People have wondered aloud to the hearing of this writer that, “How on earth can a grown up man not drink?”

ABUSE AND ADDICTION

“If alcoholic drink is taken for the sake of the stomach, then it ought to be just food for the stomach and nothing more. But a man boasted that he could drink from 6 ‘O’clock in the morning to 2 ‘o’clock the next morning. Another man said he could drink a carton of beer at a sitting. So in most instances this ‘food’ is taken without restraint or moderation. It becomes an abuse. Often this abuse leads to a tragic enslavement or addiction. The author the book, Where there is no Doctor captures the effect of this addiction:

“If alcohol has brought much joy to man it has also brought much suffering especially to women and children of men who drink. A little alcohol now and then may do no harm. But too often a little leads to a lot. In much of the world, heavy or excessive drinking is one of the underlying causes of major health problems even for those who do not drink. Not only can drunkenness harm the health of those who drink (through diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver…), but it also hurt the family and communities in many ways. Through loss of judgment when drunk and have self respect when sober-it leads to much unhappiness, waste and violence often affecting those who are loved most.

“How many fathers have spent their last money on drinks when their children were hungry? How many sicknesses result because a man spends the little bit of extra money he earns on drinks rather than on improving his family’s living conditions?

How many persons hating themselves because they have hurt those they love? Take another drink and forget?”⁶

More questions.  How many divorce cases there are due to uncontrolled drinking? How many children have had no parental love, attention and training because one or both parents were drunkards? How many lives and property have been lost in vehicle accidents driven by drunk drivers? How many street fights, home fights, theft, rape, murder and a host of other crimes have been committed under the influence of strong drinks? Certainly the abuse of alcoholic drink has led to untold hardship, pains, loss and death.

          When strong drinks are taken solely for the alcohol sake it naturally leads to its abuse. The unwarranted use or alcohol by those who have given themselves to it  ‘habitually’ or compulsively is addiction. It becomes a lifestyle dependent on alcohol. Once people are hooked on alcohol it becomes difficult to stop it. If they try to stop it, they become miserable, sick or violent.

I have seen people being ‘dragged’ on foot over ten kilometers by the irresistible urge to drink. I have seen and heard of people who once they receive their salary will not return home until they have spent their last Naira on drinks. I have lived with a neighbour who abandoned his family for most part of the week rotating from one drinking spot to the other in the neighbourhood.

On one occasion we sat dawn to analyze how much an average drinker spent on drinks per week. The amount was staggering relative to the income of most people in that subsistence farming community. When I looked at the man as being an above average drinker I marveled. His cloths barely covering his body, his family feeding poorly, his bed a flat form of mud, his room has no fixed door and yet he was a giant at drinking non-free drinks. I wondered. In sober moments he confided his desperation. He wants to stop drinking if only he could get the ‘medicine to stop drinking’ he told me he would stop.

          So when chronic alcoholics try to get out of it, often they cannot help themselves, rather they go deeper, thereby creating more problems for themselves, their families and the whole community. In some of these communities the people don’t know what to do with their addicts especially in the youth category. Beside stealing goats, live fowls, money, breaking into grain stores such youths have constituted themselves into social menace-fighting, raping breaking all known societal laws and orders and making nonsense of all traditional norms and values.

          Abuse and addiction to alcoholic drink is sadly a vicious enslaving habit. The prisoner himself is the prison warden. Only he has the key of unlocking the prison gate to be freed from its captivity. Though he moans, “I am chained strongly” yet when he wakes up he goes for more.

          There were such addicts in the Bible times too. They had woes, sorrows, strife, complaints, and needless brushes, bloodshot eyes. Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine’. They “gazed at when it was red, when it sparkled in the cup, when it goes down smoothly in the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper” when drunk their ‘eyes saw strange sights’ and their minds, “ imagined confusing things.” In such conditions they become like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. “They hit me. You will say, but I am not hurt. They beat me but I do not feel it. When will I wake up so I can find another drink?” (See Proverbs 23:29 – 35).

          A bad habit is like a soft chair, easy to get into, but hard to get out of it. People in this habit and or those around them only need to know that “A changed life is the result of a changed heart”. The only surgeon that does this heart transplant perfectly and permanently is the Lord Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER TWO

MORE THAN A FOOD DRINK

There are few foods that are so controversial and yet find acceptance and broad use than alcoholic drinks. It has religious, social and economic significance. Its consumption and use goes beyond being mere food

The strong ties people have to strong drinks can better be appreciated if we look further into the various ways it is used. Understanding these uses can help us see those who use it with eyes of love and empathy. Those who do not drink may disagree with the habit of drinking itself. But that is a different thing. There is no doubt, strong drink meets deep felt needs of its users.

Those who feel that there are better ways of meeting these needs must first know why alcohol is so important to its drinkers. Then they can objectively and lovingly proffer such alternatives. The alternatives must be good and convincing.

Shared By Both Man And The Divine.

In African Traditional Religion (ATR), there is hardly any religious function in which strong drink is not served. People pour libation to ancestors and spirits or demons in the belief that the latter are appeased or pleased. The drinks are offered in appreciation for perceived goods done by the ancestors and the spirits. Such good things include the arrival of rain, a bountiful harvest of crops, the gift of children, a family member who died at a very ripe age, the removal of devilish sickness (epidemic) and the like. Drinks are also used to appease the ancestors or the gods when they visit the living with calamity; result of the latter’s disobedience.

Men on their own part drink in their communion with the spirit world. They drink as a matter of fulfilling religious obligations. In cases where the drink is offered in divining a cause of a mishap that has befallen the community all are expected to participate. Those who refuse are suspected as culprit. For drinking proves one guilty or innocent of any complication in the case being divined.

In some cultures the dead are counted as members of the family. They must be fed regularly. An incident illustrates this:

Two men who apparently have heard the gospel of salvation preached wanted to declare their faith formerly. They trekked some ten kilometers to invite me to their village so that together with their families they can declare for Christianity.

On the appointed day, I rode together with a dear brother on bicycles to the village. On reaching the village we were told that the two men were still on their farms. We got a young boy who led us to the farms. Fortunately for us the farms bordered each other.

The two men received us happily. We retold them the message of salvation, explaining to them how people get related to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just at the point the two men were bowing their heads to invite Christ into their lives an old woman suddenly appeared from nowhere.

          “What?” she shouted. “You want to become Christians? Who will be giving food to your fathers?

The two men looked at the woman embarrassed. They excused us, “till another time”.

On our way back, the brother that accompanied me hold me that the fathers of the men died long times ago. The old woman who interrupted the declaration of those men for Christ happened to be the mother of one of them. Even if the fathers were alive, mothers are disobeyed at a great risk of being cursed in that culture.

The belief in life after death is behind the practice of offering food and drinks to dead people. Even the recent dead are sent to their final place of rest with wine and other foods. Thereafter they are remembered yearly depending on how rich the family the deceased left is.

Sadaka in which prayer for the repose of the soul of the decease is made is done with abundant supply of wine. This is mandatory for the relations of the dead in a particular tribe. Failure to meet this obligation attracts a penalty of fine in addition to still having to do the Sadaka.

This pagan practice is modified and christened in several Christian denominations today.

Alcohol drinks appear to be the only food men and the spirits share in common.

An Item Of Commerce.

Two men were passing through a town one of them drew the attention of the other to a new house by the roadside.

 “Look at the house we built for this woman” he said.

“You are neither a builder nor a relation of the woman, how and when did you build this house?” queried his companion.

Remorsefully the first man said, “It is the money we spend drinking from her that she used to build her house.

The woman referred to was in Liquor business.

The alcohol Business is a flourishing one. As far back as 1972 it was reported that, approximately six million gallons of wine are produced annually. About 75% enters international trade. “And the world produces about twelve million gallons of beer annually most of which does not enter world trade”.

Since the above figures were given more breweries have come up the world over. Research has broadened the scope of raw materials in the alcohol industry. Most tropical countries for instance depended on imported malt from the temperate countries. But now tropical crops like maize, Guinea corn, millet and cassava are used to produce bottled beer.

The alcohol industry certainly contributes to the  gross national income of Nigeria.

          Beside its contribution to the international and national economies, the local industry is a main income generator to the local brewers. In many rural communities beer is the main item of trade. The women folks are more prominent into the business. As a source of income many would not stop the alcohol business for anything.

          Working as a church planter in such places one has heard many a woman comment, “How will I survive economically if I stop brewing burkutu?

Indeed the business meet the clothing, feeding and medical needs among other needs of these women and their families. Some women do not drink but are into the making of the drink for sale.

The business seems to pay off quickly. It is hardly in need of customers. A people who believe that drinking is their way of life or culture will always demand for the drink. Those who can make it, supply it in exchange for money.

Surprisingly the customers always get the money to drink in one way or the other. They literary drink up the sweat of the toils of the cropping season. The farm produce is squandered on drink. Some people go to hire their labour to rich persons or communities and return to drink with the money so earned.

Looking at the rural set up it becomes easier to understand why the liquor business thrives. The level of initiative, creativity and industry of the people leaves little or no options for making money. They may be in their own worlds. But they need and do interact with the other worlds, which do involve financial commitments.

However not everyone in such communities is involved in the alcohol trade.

The excuse that brewing is the only means of economic survival comes only from those who are in it. Many missionaries have testified that the women converts who formerly brewed burkutu and had stopped it after their conversion survived. They lived healthier and more prosperous than their counterparts who still made alcoholic drinks. With counsel and determination they had their creativity and industriousness enhanced. They were able to find other income generating avenues. When they took the pains to reach the outside world they found markets for their local products. Items that were before then overlooked, suddenly had value and highly demanded.

The alcohol business at the local level has a peculiar characteristic. Except in few cases hardly do those involve have much to show for it, by way of improved standard of living. The trade seems to keep both the supplier and the customer at low levels of financial prosperity and stagnation. The former drains the purse of the latter while the later seem to silently curse the former so that the profit made become less beneficial and worthless.

In Ceremonies And Festivals.

Strong drinks are served at occasions, wedding engagements and ceremonies, parties, meetings; and regular festivals, religious or cultural. The drinks serve as refreshment.

On these occasions the celebrants provide the drinks with great concern.

On the surface the reason for the concern might appear to be the need to satisfy the feeding needs of the guest. But on probe, one sees that often it is the reputation of the celebrant that is perceived to be at stake. In the world of show off and competition people will like to seize every opportunity to display their competence and wealth. So the main question at the back of their mind as they supply the drinks is that of rating: “What will the invitees say if they do not drink to their satisfaction? They fear disgrace and shame.

Therefore, in away, meeting the drink needs of the participant at a social function that serves it is equated to the success of the function itself. People will continue to stay for as long as the drink flows. Some can stay overnight or for few more days depending on the occasion and the availability of the drinks.

If it was, say a wedding ceremony, people will return praising how generous the family of the groom or bride (whichever hosted the occasion) is, with food to feed a large crowd at a time and having people say so. This help to boost the celebrant’s ego. It is a thing of real joy to the family so praised. On the other hand, people will gossip about and slander hosts who were not able to provide enough drinks for their guests.

In some cultures strong drinks are listed as part of the dowry.

I happened to be privilege to represent the family of a cousin marrying from such a culture. We had bought all the items demanded from us. We were ready to present them to the bride’s family, only to be told by a sympathetic lady that our items weren’t complete. We hadn’t bought the bottled wine and beer. I was hesitant about buying and presenting these particular items. Though the cousin does not drink too, what I couldn’t measure was his level of conviction about presenting strong drinks to in-laws. I had to be careful with how I felt.

Strong drink is so important in social functions such that those concerned are levied in cash or kind to provide it. Distant relations take it upon themselves to contribute and friends and well-wishers assist to buy or make. Its importance is also seen in the nature of the occasion in which it is served. They are often lively and joyful moments. The strong drinks enhance these the more.

After drinking the people often rise to singing and dancing; back patting and congratulating. These are delightful and desired effects.

But alas! In many instance the opposite of these desired effects result. After drinking, people quarrel and fight. Unrestrained flirtation, fornication and adultery take place. A man told me that he normally doesn’t stay late night outside. But he is forced to attend late night wedding parties his wife attends.

Strong drinks definitely connect People and communities too. It makes them to rejoice with one another. But sometimes these joys turn to sadness depending on the tide of the cherished liquid.

Motivator For Communal Labour.

Interdependency is a mark of homogenous communities. To develop themselves and the community at large members would have to deal with one another. Strong drink is a strong binding force to reckon with in this interdependency.

In addition to other equally important motivations, people participate fully and actively in any communal work where strong drink is involved.

An individual can invite a section or a whole village to his farm and the pay for their labour being ample quantity of wine. It is served before and or after the farm work depending on the quantity of the drink.

A new family compound with two to four round houses can be built up in 2-3 days. It is possible where wine is provided and the people invited.

Farm produce can be conveyed en mass from the farm to the house or market if wine is provided.

Intra and inter village road networks are constructed or repaired, public building are built with wine served as food or refreshment for the work. In Urban centers, cultural and tribal groupings meet to discuss ways of developing their villages back home over strong drinks.

Though a good motivator in making people participate in communal work, the emphasis however, is not on the drink itself. The work is the focus. But serving the drink is not taken for granted either. People here drink from others with the thought that they will someday have people come to drink from them. If they don’t go to drink from others nobody will come to drink from them.

The Social Connection

Man, sociologist tell us is a social animal (I prefer a social being). He does not like to stay alone but to associate with others. This association with or without a necessary common agenda or focus is often desired at his leisure time. The times that he is less busy.

As a missionary one goes to meet his audience where they are. On one occasion I went to a drinking spot. There I met a primary school teacher who lightheartedly invited me to join him in ‘eating’. I politely declined the invitation on the ground that I do not ‘eat’ that kind of food. However, wanting to discuss further with him, I asked, “What kind of food is it that doesn’t seem to satisfy people who eat it from morning till evening? And why do most people prefer to eat it outside the home?”

He looked at me with a smile and then said, “This is more than a matter of food. It is the heart of our social life and interactions! If it were only to be a matter of food I would just drink and go home to sleep or buy it and take it home to my family”

Strong drink is therefore the social magnet that attracts people of different background to interact. It is a leveler as people forget their status, class, position or possession and mix freely with one another.

I know of some farming communities that the farmers are so religiously attached to their farms. But once it is the weekly market day they take leave of the farm to attend the market. They go with the purpose of seeing (interacting with) people where they ‘see’ the people is the drinking places.

When they interact and relax over drinks they talk freely, loudly and loosely. They exchange the latest news, gossips and boast about all there are to boast about. They laugh off their heads silly patting one another.

Some see avenues for recreation in drinking in the market. Others drink there to while away the time, yet others go to drink to forget their miserable life. Still some go to drink to meet old acquaintances or make new ones.

On the other hand are those who go to public drinking places for some diabolic intentions. Such go to settle scores with their real or imagined enemies. They drink and start quarreling or fighting with other people. Some, pretending to be friendly and generous with drinks have gone to the wicked extend of poisoning others. They secretly put poison in the drinks and then offer it to their friends.

I guess this is the reason why well meaning people would have to taste first any drink they offer to visitors or strangers. This is to assure that there is nothing harmful in the drink being offered. Some of those who perpetuate wicked acts on others do so under the pretext of being drunk. People have been verbally or physically assaulted and some have even been killed under this pretext.

To Escape From Reality.

 Some people use drink as a pain reliever. Quite a number of people live under emotional stress. In fact we should rather say that some drink as an escape route from reality.

Many people I have observed or interviewed were not drinking until they reached a crises point in their life.

These crises inflicted wounds and left pains in their hearts. To ease the pains they started drinking.

A quiet and gentle man has a wife that has a good dose of nagging. He is not given to too much talking. To avoid facing his sharp-mouthed wife he resorted to drinking till late nights. He closes from work and goes straight from office to the beer palour. There he drinks and idle away the time till, the bar attendant signals its time to close.

He heads for home that late hoping the tigress has gone to sleep. Early the next morning he slips up to work. The cycle continues.

Another man says he drinks because it helps him to forget all the problems of life. Indeed without drinking the man is depression personified. But after drinking he is the most cheerful and lighthearted person one would love to keep company with. Some people have low image of themselves. They seem to find worth and self-esteem after they have drank. Thereafter they talk big, arrogantly boast about and challenge others.

The pain of rejection and ridicule is another reason why people drink. I have heard people ask if a man is a man because he does not go out drinking with other men. There are instances that wrong assumptions have been made against such a men. “His wife has him in her pocket” or “She has a foot on his head” or “He is a woman wrapper” or any or those idiomatic expressions that says a man is influenced and controlled by his wife.

Only few men have the heart to take this insult. So to be seen as  ‘real’ men they go to drink.

Whether drinking actually solve the problems of those who drink for that reason remains to be answered. Based on the following observations often than not the problems remain unsolved.

1.                 If any, the solution provided by drinking is temporary. For example the man who wants to escape depression by drinking is back to it after the hangover of the previous drink.

2.                 In escaping from one problem, more problems of greater magnitude are created. The man who is fed up with his wife’s nagging becomes an irresponsible absentee father and husband. The function of both of these God-given positions are abdicated to the wife or grown up children.

3.                 Many of such people live double life. They are irresponsible in the home but pretend to be something else outside. Though their irresponsibility soon becomes obvious to outsiders yet not many people will be willing to correct such people.

4.                 Their whole approach to solving life’s problem rather looks cowardly and often leads to tragic ends.

Oh how I pray that those who think that drinking solves life problems will see its deceitful nature. Only the Lord Jesus Christ in the believer’s heart provides a lasting solution to life’s problem. Only he can meet any need purported to be met by strong drinks.

CHAPTER THREE

THE GREAT DIVIDE
 

          I was settling dawn among a new tribe my family and I were to begin a pioneer mission work. To acquaint myself with the people I visited them in their homes. Once when I was passing in front of a house I saw two young ladies sitting by a fire, on which sat a very large earthen pot.

          Seeing that the ladies were well dressed compared to the other ladies of their age in the village, I became curious if they could be the ones brewing what I suspected to be the local wine. So I branched off to see and talk with them.

          After we had exchanged greetings I asked what they were doing, just to confirm and satisfy my curiosity. From their looks I knew that they know that I know what they were doing. Nevertheless they answered.

“Do you drink it?” I asked them.

“Yes we do”

“And do you?” They chorused, both looking at me with some light and healthy suspicion.

          “I don’t drink it,” I answered lightheartedly. Then I quickly turned on them the next question I knew they were going to ask me,, “But why do you drink it?”

          Smart ladies. They threw the question back at me “Why don’t you drink it?”

          I evaded the question because I knew they were driving me to a tight corner, just as I was trying to pull their legs.  For some time both of us insisted to know each other’s reason for drinking or not drinking. Knowing they were not going to bulge until I answered them I requested that we both agree on another time that we could discuss and answer ourselves, properly. They agreed.

          The day of the “great debate” came. The two ladies came and we sat in front of my house.

 “Now you start”, I began, “Tell me why you drink this strong drink that you were brewing”. The more amiable of the two looked at me and smiled. Then she asked, “Is it not food? Is it not made from dawa” (guinea corn the popular staple food in the north and most parts of the middle belt of Nigeria)?

          I expected her to continue after what I thought were her preambles. I waited. But after some moments she looked at me and said, “I have finished”.

IS IT NOT FOOD?

          In the above encounter I couldn’t have answered either of the questions in the negative. That people drink it and get satisfaction (my personal feelings notwithstanding) from it must be food. That the wine is made from guinea corn (which I myself eat in several other forms) is indisputable. Thus my opponent in that ‘debate’ actually summarized her points in two implicative rhetorical questions.

 Most people will and actually have given the same answers in one form or the other when asked why they drink. Some have gone to ask the third question I am sure the lady would have asked if I had given her a definite yes or no answer. That is, “Who gave or created the “dawa”?

          Until the coming of Christianity and Islam to Nigeria, most tribes had no problem drinking burkutu or palm wine. They saw it as food. It was one main ‘food’ that united peoples and communities together on the one hand and the people and the gods on the other hand. The people were happy drinking wine together and the gods were pleased or appeased with wine supplied by the people who revered or feared them. Then, people drank without any sense of guilt or any externally motivated inhibitions.

There were of course those who didn’t drink. But those exceptions were for functional reasons and purpose and they were temporary.

In some communities for instance, the village priest was not expected to drink before he went into the shrine for fear of making mistake while performing his duties. A very recent incident, which violated this exception to drinking, had a devastating consequence for both the chief priest and other idol worshipers.

          A community was having it annual festival of sending away all the sicknesses with the fading harmattan. The ceremonies in the shrines were normally held in the evening with the offering of food and wine to the gods. The chief Priest had earlier in the day gone to a distant market away from the community. He surely must have forgotten, for he returned drunk. It was time to go to the shrine. All the worshippers headed for their different clans’ shrines. In the mist of the ceremonies swamp of bees broke from nowhere, entered the shrines and one by one scattering all the worshippers. This writer reliable learnt that only one shrine was left untouched. That was because the priest in that shrine realized what had gone amiss and he pleaded on behalf of his own clan that the bees pass over.

          Some other exceptions, to drinking are women and non-initiates who were not expected to drink wine made for some religious purposes. Also, there were individuals who abstained from drinking for fear of getting intoxicated even with a little drink and getting into trouble, sickness or breaking the society’s laws and orders.

          So outside these and other exceptions nobody seems to feel anything wrong in drinking wine. 

          Today strong drinks serve the same purposes or are rather regarded in most instances as it was in pre-Christian and Islamic Nigeria-namely as food by those who drink it.

          It is with this background (that wine has ever served as food) that the drinkers don’t seem to understand when non-drinkers say drinking is bad. What they consider as food, “How could others feel bad about it and would even want to make them feel guilty”. The drinkers argue.

          If wine has all the while served as food how did people began to see it differently?

IT IS NOT SINFUL?

          Apart from few considerations, most of the arguments against taking strong drink today has religious connotation. So we could be right to say that people began to feel differently about drinking in Nigeria because of religion-namely the two relatively younger religions in the country.

          Now religion is man’s effort and way of reaching out to relate with a deity-a supernatural being he reveres and fears. Man gets to know how to relate better with his deity either by direct revelation from the deity or by instructions from the intermediary between the deity and man. Generally these revelations or instructions come in forms of “dos” and “don’ts” which governs the relationship. Religion, many have argued is a private affair. Man, however, would rather prepare practicing it in a group. No wonder that in the course of practicing his religious dos and don’t the more religiously minded would love to see every member of the community doing it well. Though it ought to be the prerogative of the deity to see man observes his dos and don’t well. But too often other men are concerned for the same reason that the deity is concerned.

          However sometime man goes a step further to police his fellow man for other selfish or irrelevant motivations.

          In the African Traditional Religion (ATR) still in practice in many parts of Nigeria today, taking strong drink is surely not one of the dos and don’ts. The adherents have no problem taking wine. As in many cultures and age’s wine or its raw material (grain or fruit) are considered divine blessings to mankind. They are taken and offered in appreciation to the deities credited with these blessings. Fertility gods existed in some Bible cultures. They still do today and are worshipped with the offering of the fruit of the harvest.

          With the advent of Christianity in Nigeria the story as regards to strong drinks began to change. The early European Missionaries of the 19^th and 20^th centuries came with their opinions as different as the beliefs of the missions or denominations they represented. They were divided on the things that were not Biblical absolutes. One of such was drinking. The effect of the different teaching on alcoholic drink is evident in the beliefs and practices of the members of the National daughter denominations and churches today. Broadly speaking the church in Nigeria is pitched into two camps of the drinkers and the non-drinkers or what I want to call the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic Christians

The ‘Alcoholic’ Christians

          Christians in this camp see nothing wrong in taking strong drinks. They see so not by way of choosing to defend the taking of strong drinks after becoming Christians, but rather in defense of a brought forward lifestyle they don’t wish to forsake. Coming from the A.T.R. background and its attitude towards wine many people find it difficult to agree with those who say drinking is sinful or those who belief that the habit should be stopped before or after professing the Christian faith.

          However there are instances where the new believers wanting to be true to their new found faith have had to stop drinking after a lot of struggle. It is a struggle, because while they were not convinced from the inside of themselves that drinking is wrong, but because the person who led them to the new faith has an eye on them. Some people in the course of this struggle go underground not wanting to be caught in the ‘sin’ of drinking thereby displeasing their mentors, while at the same time not willing to stop drinking either. So they resort to drinking at secret spots or far places where they are not known. Some believers I helped lead to Christ have told me that it took them one to two years before they stopped drinking after their conversions. And that anytime I spoke about drinking (while they were still drinking secretly), they felt I had seen or someone informed me on them. I have heard Christians doubt the genuineness of a believer’s conversion because he didn’t stop drinking after it.

          But the believers who drink are not letting themselves to be intimidated by the non-drinking believers. Some strong proponents have argued their case backing it up with scriptures. Very often they refer those who frown at their drinking habits to John 2:1-11. That is, where Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana in Galilee. “If Jesus himself did that, why then say drinking wine is wrong?” they ask. Then they go on to quote 1 Timothy 5:23 where Paul asked Timothy to “Stop drinking only water and use a little wine because of your stomach and frequent illnesses”. Some advance their argument further by citing what Jesus Christ said in Matthew 15 that it is not what one eats that is sinful, but what comes from the heart that defiles a man.

          A well-known cliché of those who argue for drinking is that “Christianity is a matter of the heart and not what one does externally. By this they appeal that judgment as to what is wrong and right and or sinful or not should be left to the individual’s conscience. In the consciences of drinking Christians taking alcoholic drink is not sinful. Since the dos and don’ts of Christianity are spelt in the Bible, then “Where is it stated that drinking is a sin?” they rest their case.

          One must agree that they have a very strong defense. As far as those quoted scriptures are concerned they cannot be faulted. From those scriptures we see that drinking is obviously not a Biblical absolute. But that is not where Christianity all begins and ends. Having observed the life of believers who argue and stand for drinking alcoholic drinks one is left with many wishes and questions.

          I wish such believers were truly sympathetic to being faithful to the purity of the scripture. I wish they were truly inclined to obeying all scriptural injunctions. If not all, at least those that point believers to a healthy relationship with Christ and victorious Christian life. I wish that the argument for drinking were done in the context of our call and purpose of living the Christian life here on earth. But alas, most of the people I have heard or seen argue for drinking do so from the point of self justification, defense of a habit they have become used to and ignorance of what the Christian life envelops. On further probe one finds that most of these people know little or nothing about the life giving and nurturing doctrines of the Bible. In fact most are not Bible readers and do not desire to be.

          Lets grant that there are some who read the Bible and understand its demands. They are yet questions that beg for answers. How are they living the other aspects of their Christian lives? How has drinking improved their growth and maturity in Christ? How is the Lord Jesus Christ glorified in that life style of drinking?

Talking about eating meal the apostle Paul said it should be with giving thanks to God. In another place he admonished,  “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:30-31). To the best of my knowledge I am yet to see anyone who begins drinking by giving thanks to God in Christ name.

The ‘Non-Alcoholic’ Christians

          There are quite a lot of Christians in the evangelical and some Pentecostal denominations that have put their feet down to say drinking is sinful. I have listened to their arguments against drinking. They have often argued from the points of dogma, silence of the scripture, what we can call the reality of experience and wishful thinking.

          Many like myself have been brought up in denominations that strongly believe that taking alcoholic drink in any form is sinful. I remember the first time I took Maltina I had to ask if it wasn’t an alcoholic drink that I was being offered. The belief then was that all bottled drinks were alcoholic. I have also learnt of a pastor who would not even touch a bottle of Fanta or Coke? From this kind of background the tendency is to say, “I believe drinking is sin, No question how” And it stands so in the mind of such people. They are not ready to shift ground no matter what.

Once the mind is made up it seems to need no facts or proof. In fact it will frown at any attempt to demand for such. Two recent incidents illustrates this point-the stubbornness of dogma.

While writing this chapter, I discussed with a dear brother the relationship between the gospel and strong drink. He agreed that the transformation of the individual’s life through faith in Christ should be emphasized more than being legalistic on habits. He stressed that people’s understanding on some of the issues that are not central to the gospel vary with named factors. But in conclusion he said, “But as for me I believe that drinking is sinful”.

In another incident, a group of missionaries were discussing about a lady, one of them had encountered. That she ‘claimed’ to be a Christian and from one of the hard-line Pentecostal denominations that prohibits drinking for it members, yet she was brewing burkutu. This attracted various comments that have one meaning: “She couldn’t be a true Christian.” One of the missionaries then asked what is wrong in brewing burkutu. Someone quickly retorted, “Ah, it is a sin!”  But later some agreed that, “Neither brewing nor drinking burkutu is sinful, but…” Nevertheless one of these who said it wasn’t a sin felt it wasn’t needful or helpful to let people know so, in some media like a book.

The power of dogma is so strong that it tends to make us go violent in words against those who do not practice or share our beliefs. We criticize and judge those who do not agree with our positions. For instance a believer thought that his mentor, a missionary was backsliding when the later told him in confidence that drinking was not a sin.

Then there are those who argue from the silence of the Bible on the sinful nature of drinking. While the Bible is not categorical whether drinking is sinful or not, the opponents of drinking are so sure it did say so. Such people look at the issue from the viewpoints of drunkenness and its consequences, which are often negative, displeasing and harmful.

Now we must say it clearly that drunkenness is sin. Because the Bible expressly says so (Galatians. 5:21, Ephesians. 5:18).  We must also admit that the negative effects of drinking on the drinker, close relations and the society at large should be a cause for concern to every right thinking person. The havoc the misuse of strong drink has done is enough to denounce drinking. But not enough to say drinking is sin because the Bible has not said so.

By the way my approach in determining what is sinful in the Bible is by looking at what I have called Biblical absolutes. This is when the Bible says do or don’ts in any of their varied synonyms in the global context of Biblical Christianity. Outside these absolutes, the other teachings, I feel should be left to the individual to determine its rightness or wrongness in the context of the Christian life as he grows and matures in his relationship with God and the demands or expectations from that relationship.

Related to the argument from silence is the argument from the point of reality of experience. As far as the relationship between Christianity and strong drinks is concerned, certain real occurrences are observed. Based on these apparently natural tendencies many people have questioned or even concluded that drinking is a sin. The realities seen include:

1.     That forsaking drinking habit is one of the first visible signs noticed in new believers who formerly drank.