This is the unabridged version of a letter to the editor that I submitted last week which I was under the impression that it would be published - oh well. Thanks ngaforum.com for providing a 'home' for this letter.

Thanks News Observer for allowing me an opportunity to kick this old, dead horse one last time. All I can say is WOW! In my close to ten years here in this area, I have never seen such time, effort and resources expended in this county as was seen in this latest alcohol referendum. I think from my perspective as a follower of Christ and in watching this thing play out that what is more stunning is the attention the local church community placed on this issue. It may or may not be my business but I would be very interested to know the approximate dollars the church allocated towards this campaign. Well, maybe I don’t really won’t to know for fear of becoming even more frustrated and disenchanted with the actions and attitudes that I have heard emanating from the church at large in Fannin. Many have voiced their opinions in love and many have not. I have already stated my opinions on where I feel like the church’s attention and resources should be placed through another submission that was made a couple of weeks ago so I won’t go there again. My intent here is not in addressing who’s right and who’s wrong. That’s way too complicated and probably impossible and a waste of time. It is rather to provoke us all to look inwardly at how we view ourselves, others and the world and what is our role in it all. In speaking my heart and mind in this matter, I most definitely do not desire to do any ‘stone throwing’ or perceived as engaging in such activity but rather to encourage all in the church to focus on the big picture that Christ has painted for us. What I’m about to say to you the local church, I say also to myself.

As I began to think to more and more about this issue I came to one conclusion albeit among many but one in particular that has stuck out to me is the concern that the ‘vote NO’ community have with alcohol and the potential abuses and consequences that sometime stem from it’s abuse – more specifically falling prey to addiction. I think any decent human being, whether Christian or not, share the same or similar concerns. The issue at hand in my mind is much deeper when it comes to alcohol abuse. It’s solution is more than a ‘we’re against alcohol’ like billboard or newspaper ad. It’s one of the heart. Simply not allowing local restaurants to pour alcohol and/or wine isn’t going to solve that problem which I think many feel that for some reason it’s going to curb one’s intake/consumption of alcohol. Fannin County is full of establishments that make its purchase and consumption readily available, i.e., convenient stores and grocery stores and even area restaurants should you choose to drive a little bit. Whether any like it or not, it’s here. The abuse of alcohol is very simply a means for man to use as a medication for the pains inflicted by life upon his/her heart and oftentimes through bad choices. Man has and will always use such a means in an attempt to find purpose and meaning and life; to relieve the despair his/her internal world suffers from. It’s a square peg round hole kind of deal. My theory is that if today, you had the power to totally eradicate alcohol off the face of the earth, many abusers of alcohol would still seek out a remedy to cure the ill’s of their heart – not their physical one but rather that place within us all where the real ‘you’ resides. It might come out in the form of food, internet pornography, compulsive TV watching, gambling or any other self-indulgent activity. I feel pretty confident that in the end and given enough time, all of these and others not mentioned, result in one thing – self destruction. Jesus, over and over in scripture, always addressed the heart of an individual. From the way I read the words colored in red he not once adopted the mindset that if He could just get a person to stop doing something bad his/her life would forever be changed. Jesus’ remedy for man wasn’t in trying to get him to stop sinning or abusing things but rather in trying to get him to examine the current state of his heart and where or what was his heart turning to in order to find life. Maybe I’m right and maybe I’m wrong. I never saw Him ‘legislating’ the inner workings of man from the outside in but just the opposite – the inside out. Out of the heart flow the issues of life the scripture says.

Here is where I’m going with this. How refreshing it would be to see on more than one occasion local churches beginning to place full page ads in the local newspaper, buying space on local billboards, purchasing radio time, offering personal time and resources and programs and whatever means there may be to communicate the heart of Christ to our community and more specifically those trapped in alcohol addiction that the church loves you and wants to do everything it can to help you find freedom and life. How refreshing it would be for the local church to rise up with one, unified voice and say it was FOR people wanting to find freedom from the bondage of alcohol addiction or any other for that matter. Let me stop right here and say that from my experience and if the church were brutally honest with herself that many who sit in her pews and attend Bible study week in and week out and sing in the choir and do other good and well meaning stuff are ridden with many of the same addictions as those who in fact have never seen the inside of a church building or would be found there on a Sunday morning. They’re looking for love and life in all the wrong places. Let’s not even begin to discuss the onslaught of internet pornography addiction that currently resides in the church. It may be even more prevalent than alcohol addiction yet we’ve done well in keeping that a secret and not addressing it. For the most part, we, myself included, just haven’t done a very good job of providing a safe environment for people to lay all the cards out on the table and to bring everything out into the proverbial light. Unintentionally and for the most part we have been guilty of encouraging our people to pretend like everything’s fine all the time rather than revealing the truth about what is really going on inside. I’m sure our community is littered with many who have been cast off or rejected because the church just didn’t want to dirty up it’s hands with all the junk, i.e., addiction(s) that person might have had in his/her life and they walk away with a tremendously bad taste in their mouth about Christ and the church. You, me, the church at large have got to do a much better job of meeting and loving people where they are – to be genuine and authentic and real and honest and loving. As many of us know, dealing with real people with real problems can be very, very messy at times. We’ve got to stop trying to ‘sell’ Jesus to others like He’s some sort of Amway product. If someone refuses to ‘buy’ Him, we take our product to the next person and so on and so on. For too long we’ve adopted the mentality and heart of some sort of company sales rep. We’ve been trained and directed and scripted to say all the right things and ask all the right questions. It’s become almost formulaic. You and I have got to show even those who do not believe as we do that we are willing to still go the distance with them particularly those seeking to find freedom from their addiction(s). There is a way of speaking and showing the Truth in love. There is way of loving the sinner and hating the sin. We, my friends, have got to show the heart of Jesus to all no matter their addiction, skin color, religious orientation, ethnicity, political affiliation, etc, etc. As someone much wiser than I remarked, “People don’t care how much you know (and maybe who you know) until they know how much you care.”

I think all in the local church community, including myself, have got to go deeper and to the ‘heart’ of the matter at hand and to cease with the ‘don’t do this’ and ‘don’t do that’ and ‘you shouldn’t do this’ and ‘you shouldn’t do that’. Again, I think we all heard the concerns of the ‘vote NO’ camp about the potential for even greater alcohol abuse with the passage of this referendum. I’m not sure that I totally agree and that’s not the point of my writing. What I have hoped to do is to begin or continue to draw our attention to the ‘WHAT NOW?’ and that is pointed to the local church body in Fannin County. As I mentioned earlier and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out - alcohol is here. The question now is what is your’s and my responsibility in dealing with the addiction of alcohol many suffer right here in this very county. All I know is that it was prophesied in Isaiah 61:1 that Jesus would come to set the captives free and to bind up the brokenhearted and He wants and desires to do the same thing through you and I even today. He wants and desires to show His heart of love and compassion through you and I. To the least of those suffering with not only alcohol addiction but also any other form of addiction, we must be compelled to show His heart. Let’s make it known in word and deed that we, the church, are FOR providing hope and restoration to those whose hearts have been taken captive by self destructive addictions. Local church, you are in fact the hope of Fannin County and the world.

I remarked in a post that I made recently on a local forum on the internet that I am seeking to be more and more a part of the greater solution and because of that I will offer my heart and a set of ears to boot to any who desire freedom from any form of addiction and want to experience the kind of life the Father, God, wants to give you. You may call me at 706.851.9140. I’d be honored to join you in your journey towards freedom and I know others who would be too.

Ben

Thanks Ben for posting this letter here, even if the News Observer chose not to place it in their publication. I once sought to have a letter to the News Observer published on the issue of murdering of animals and animal cruelty in this county and it was not. The reason given being length, which I can understand, but for some issues it does take a large number of words to make the point for some folk.

Having taken myself away from this forum for a few weeks, I, like Amos & Andy, feel the need to put a final post regarding this Alcohol issue. I have waited to do so, hoping to find just the right words. Since the religious zealots and churches of this county seem to have been the driving force for it's defeat, this too is an "Open Letter to the Local Church."

I do appreciate and understand the attitude that this letter puts forth to the local church. Unfortunately for Fannin County, and ultimately for this world, there are not enough folk like Ben. Most churches and the people that inhabit their pews are more interested in their own lives, the size of their bank accounts, and the size of their church buildings (and parking lots). They take the Bible, pull out passages and twist them to suit their personal beliefs and interests.

I have said this before and I will again...if Jesus were here in Fannin County he would not attend any of the churches that put forth money to defeat this alcohol referendum. Honestly folk ~ Could you see Jesus sitting in on a Church Meeting or Finance Committee Meeting to vote on money that was spent for this??????? Come on ~ THINK ABOUT IT!!! He would look at that money and say to them....did not I tell you in my word to not be concerned with what other people eat or drink??.....!!! What part of that did you not understand. He would look at their billboards, electrical marquis and large buildings and ask WHY are you wasting your money on things of this world. Could you have not fed the hungry, clothed the poor, provided shelter for the homeless with this money? With his humble clothing, long hair, and homeless look, he would be shunned in most, if not all, of the church services by those with this controlling and pious attitudes. He would more than likely look at these people and call them Pharisees and Sadducee's. People would avoid the pew that he sat on and whisper amongst themselves that he was an alcoholic or a drug addict...if he was let in the doors at all... He would walk, not drive, away from the building weeping at what people who claim to be his followers were doing in "His Name".

This alcohol referendum that did not pass was not a defeat against alcohol, it was a defeat against "personal freedom". Did not Christ come to "set the captive free?" I found it ironic that once the final vote was passed the marquis of one local church was changed to display a familiar Bible Verse, John 3:16... the hallmark passage of "freedom".

With that said....enough is enough....and to borrow the words of someone else regarding this issue... "I'm Over It".