drinking, not smoking, our biggest problem

On Wedneday night Mark Driscoll really hammered the smokers in Sydney. He should have come twenty years ago! Our real problem in Sydney isn't smoking but drinking in order to get drunk. Our culture is addicted to alcohol as the most socially acceptable drug available. As the writer of proverbs observes:

“It is not for kings, O Lemuel — not for kings to drink wine,
not for rulers to crave beer,
lest they drink and forget what the law decrees,
and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.

Give beer to those who are perishing,
wine to those who are in anguish;
let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Proverbs 31:4-9