On ALCOHOL - Part I

[Steven Budlong]

Dear Way Corps,In 1982, my wife and I were living at The Way International, in New Knoxville, Ohio. It was our interim year in The Way Corps and I had the privilege of producing the 40th Anniversary Film. It was supposed to be a 20-minute documentary but it spun out of control and into a 64 minute mini-feature entitled “The Teacher.” It is not my best work but it was an amazing experience and I was honored to do it. It is also an important record of the event.During that time I became acquainted with a man from Van Wert, Ohio, who had been part of Dr. Wierwille’s ministry at the beginning. That beginning was the first “The Youth Caravan Hour” radio broadcast in 1942. I heard a number of those broadcasts from The Way’s archives. The program was a blend of inspired teaching, praise and worship and for its time and means it was remarkably well done. As my new friend told me story after story of his days with V.P. (as in “V”ictor “P”aul Wierwille) I wondered about the obvious disconnect. I wondered why he left the ministry “oh so many years ago”. Clearly it was not over doctrine.One evening I asked Dorothy Owens about his departure and without hesitation she shot me a look I will never forget. I swear I was looking right into the crazed eyes of Carrie Nation; head of the pre-prohibition temperance movement Out of her mouth came one word, a thunderclap loud and crisp, “Alcohol!” That is all she said and she said it all. You may well remember Dr. Wierwille telling us, “alcohol has ruined more men’s ministries than anything I know.” And with that I agree.I have been working on a film for Caron Treatment Centers, which is one of the most progressive organizations on addiction in the country. The man who founded it was Richard Caron, an alcoholic, who found his way to Hazelton, got sober through the principles of AA, nutrition and good therapy and started what were known then as the Chit Chat Farms in Pennsylvania. He was an amazing Christian and I visited his grave out of respect for his work. His tombstone says:Richard J. CaronFounder of Chit Chat FarmsSeptember 23, 1914 – January 8, 1975Who Reached Out His Hand“The glory of life is to love, not to be loved.To give, not to get. To serve, not to be served.To be a strong hand in the dark to another in the time of need.To be a cup of strength to any soul in a crisis of weakness.This is to know the glory of life.This is how he lived.”His is one of the most profound burial markers I have ever seen. It led me to weep when I first read it. What it said to me is that life, love and freedom are all about service. I thank Father God for giving us Richard Caron.In my life, my work and my ministry I have come to know a great deal about addiction. I thought this would be a good place to share what I know, because in The Way we often overlooked drunkenness as harmless fun. And in excusing it we let a lot of our brethren slip into addiction. Let me explain.By the time I was in tenth grade I was on a pretty steep slope of self-destruction. I was living and chasing the false illusions of the sixties’ counter-culture that espoused dubious philosophies like “turn on, tune in and drop out.” For some it was a time of searching and for others it was an excuse to party, act up and act out. I was genuinely on a quest. I looked for meaning in just about everything, including sex, drugs and rock and roll. Through a maze of rather remarkable events I finally accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. But, at the age of 16, I wasn’t quite ready to retire from the party scene. In fact, I took my whole Christian fellowship partying with me each and every weekend until one day I was spiritually and scripturally confronted by someone I highly regarded. He called me one morning, a Sunday morning about seven, when I had just gone to bed, and he challenged my behavior and put my nose in the Book. I realized that “pharmakia” (Greek for drug use and translated as sorcery) was not God’s intent for man, and was in fact, sin!I stopped the drug use and didn’t look back. I really loved being born again. I loved the ministry, the people, the natural high of the fellowship and my freedom in Christ. And you know what? We drank! We drank a lot. Sometimes we drank a lot, a lot. We went to bars to "witness". Well, what do you really do in bars? We drank and smoked and engaged in foolish conversation. I do not remember ever winning anyone to the Lord Jesus Christ in a bar. Isn’t that strange???See, nobody told me there was anything wrong with alcohol. In fact, from what I could see, alcohol was good! Why??? Because Paul had encouraged Timothy to "take a little wine for thy stomach’s sake", right? Yup, you see “its in the Bible”. So, as logic goes, we should all take heed to this great spiritual lesson, actualizing and harnessing the truth of it, so that if a little is good, a lot must be great, right?Well, there are other things in the Bible too, but most of us glossed over those word studies. For instance:"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Proverbs 20:1"Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness..." Romans 13:13"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18I also recommend reading Proverbs 23:29-33.Now, many Christians perceive alcoholics to be nothing more than morally weak people who choose to drink to excess, to get high, to get wasted, to pass out or black out. They are weak willed, selfish people, caring only about themselves. They endanger themselves, their families and complete strangers. They are drunks who could stop it if they wanted to, if they really wanted to, but they don't. They don't because they are weak, weak, weak. I use to think that, did you?After all, why do we (mankind) get high? Because WE WANT TO, that is why. We chase things, we lust, we desire to have and then we kill to have even more (“yes, its to die for, darling!”). We bounce from one emotion to another, from one state of consciousness to another, from one feeling to another and we do it for a lot of really good reasons. You know them. They have to do with f e e l I n g s. We (mankind) drink to have a good time. We yuck it up and f e e l better about ourselves. We blot out emotional pain, stress and those really uncomfortable thoughts. We drink our courage to erase our memories and inhibitions. We drink and we f e e l comfortable in our own skins, we f e e l like somebody. Sometimes we drink to mask pain or to become (in the words of Pink Floyd) comfortably numb. Sometimes we drink to hide. We hide from ourselves, from others and from our responsibilities. Like the ostrich with its head in the sand we are not here, not now, not tomorrow. “Tommy Can You Hear Me?”My definition of the alcoholic came from the culture of The Way, not the Bible or Science. I picked up my beliefs from the attitudes, words and actions of others. And I believed that alcoholics were simply sinners who could not control their own lusts."Well", you say, “there might be something to that?” And I will answer you and say “there is, but there is really a whole lot more.” And if you don’t try and understand the “more” you will never understand the process of addiction that turns your child, your partner, your friend or yourself into the addict.I can go on and on, but I think I will spread this out over the next four or five blogs. If there is a question you would like me to answer please e-mail me at [e-mail] and I will try and work it in. And I will end this particular blog with the end of the Bible... some good thoughts for this dark, dark day!“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Revelation 22:20, 21Respectfully Yours,Steven C. BudlongRidgefield, CT 06877Copyright 2008 Sojourner Media, LLC

[Kata Billups]

excellent writing, Steve. yep, I remember going to witness one time in a bar w/ (I forgot his name) the gentleman who had the travel agency...and you and maybe Jan and maybe Karen...and others. That was LONG before I saw the addiction steal kill and destroy so much from the lives of several people I knew . I just told a friend few days ago that I was concerned for him. I told him that I'd rather speak up out of love for him, risk our friendship and be seen as a biatch than not speak up and hear that he'd "kicked the bucket."

[Sally Powell]

I think what is key here is "We blot out emotional pain, stress and those really uncomfortable thoughts. We drink our courage to erase our memories and inhibitions. We drink and we f e e l comfortable in our own skins, " I have a brother who i dont talk to any more becaues he is a alchoholic. This blog has made me stop and think, Thanks!

[Kevin & Sara Guigou]

Old habits die hard. Sorry, meant to say Terry. God bless.

[Kevin & Sara Guigou]

Hello Steve - I appreciated your expression of Godly compassion and honesty here. Thank you for giving of your time and life to be involved. You are about your Father's business, for sure. Godspeed to you and Carrie.
Sara

[Mike McCarver]

Steve, great post. The last six paragraphs led my oldest son and I into a two hour discussion. Nothing heavy, but it was timely.
Thank you,
Mike

[Leann (Kehr) Harwitz]

I must have missed all those drunken parties - I was busy trying to maintain the two-drink limit. In retrospect, not having seen that aspect, my thoughts the past few years, possibly inspired by subjects on Greasespot, were that Sex was the bigger addiction when many of us were in The Way. While alcoholism is a more well-known and discussed addiction in our culture, even if people don't admit they are alcoholics, sex can be an addiction as well and not as commonly discussed or acknowledged.

That said, I work in a community besieged by both addictions. While careers appear to be surviving, marriages are not (at least not happily) and the community is challenged to make progress on its larger issues while enduring the distractions of prominent residents being more in the limelight for the results of their addictive behavior than for their contributions to the good of the community.

I think your comments and insight are great Steven-Thanks for bringing it up!

[John Richeson]

Nice to see this point of view. I am not an alchoholic but if my mind and body were more susceptible to it I could very well have been. I have been around it all my life. Having been raised in KY, beer was a staple for as long as I can remember. In high school it was nothing for me and a couple of buddies to toss a case of beer in the back seat and DRIVE around town looking for the ladies and for trouble which we frrequently found. And that was a casual evening. Then drugs came! Yikes. That was a whole different era.

Fast forward to Way days. Interestingly the liberal atmosphere of The Way is what appealed to me the most. I probably would not have stayed for 5 minutes if it had been traditional. It did not take me long to find the parties, especially in The Way Corps. The alchohol abuse was quite rampant. I am not sure why. It made for some fun times honestly. The down side was the harm it ultimately did to the abusers. It got to be too much. It was wrong. I will admit it. It should have been talked about and discussed as much or more than homosexuality was in my opinion. Some lives might have been changed for the good and certainly some marriages might have been saved. Suggesting a 2 drink limit was not effective. (Too many loopholes, ha, ha.)

I do not blame anyone really except myself. I think part of it was our times and our youthfulness and part of it was influence from some of our cool leaders who were similarly affected.

Many of us got off drugs when introduced to The Way and its teachings. But what I learned and believe now is that alchohol is a drug too. Why is alchohol legal and pot illegal? Honestly I wonder which is the most harmful and what kind of a message is society sending to our children when it comes to which is the greater evil? I have my opinion but that is a topic for another thread.

Yes, we drank a lot in The Way. Some of us were able to avoid being an alchoholic even though we frequently got wasted. Others were not so lucky. But it was also prevalent among other groups as well.

[Jack and Tina (Abrell) Wilson]

Amen! and again I say, "Amen!"

Catina (Abrell) Wilson