“But it would hurt my feelings to see a Schlitz truck on the property.”
No kidding, that’s the reason Richard McElyea, a member of a Church of Christ congregation in Athens, wants the Athens city council to prohibit a grocery store near the church from selling alcohol.
And listen to this blowhard:
“You [the Athens City Council] represent the citizens who also did not vote for alcohol sales,” said Edward Gooch, preacher at Isom’s Chapel United Methodist Church. “You have to consider there is a higher law. What would God have you do?”
One, I think God would tell you that if your biggest problem is that a store next to you sells alcohol, you’ve got a lot to thank him for.
Two, what God thinks has absolutely nothing to do with what the council ought to do. Sure, Rev. Gooch, your idea of God might not like alcohol sales, but mine does. Who’s right? This side of eternity, and maybe even then, no-one can know. So here’s the deal, let’s leave everyone’s ideas about God out of discussions about public policy and instead rely on objective facts and sound reasoning.
Explore posts in the same categories: God and government, Goobers
The Alablawg 
May 1, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Only islamofascists, godless athiests, and communist femi-nazis are aloud to try to influence public policy. If a Christian weighs in, he must be unreasonable and not objective.
May 1, 2007 at 10:33 pm
You’re so right, Truman.
May 1, 2007 at 10:52 pm
“aloud”? Truman, were you trying to be funny? You succeeded.
May 2, 2007 at 8:34 am
truman i’m glad to see that you are intellectually honest enough to admit that the same philospohy that drives the islamofascists – my god prohibits X, therefore you must not be allowed to do X – is the same philosophy exhibited by folks like the rev. gooch.
my experience is that most of the lunatic social conservatives (i’m thinking of pat robertson, dinesh d’souza and ann coulter, for example) are completely oblivious to the fact that they are at bottom no different than the folks who killed over the muhammed cartoons.
glad to see that you are a bit more self aware than those folks.
May 2, 2007 at 9:02 am
These folks are obviously Al Queda…and anti-American….our founding fathwers enjoyed a cold one…Ben Franklin himself said “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!”
Come to think of it, that makes them anti God, too!
May 2, 2007 at 9:23 am
Schlitz no but Sam Adams yes!!! Since Sam Adams has been around since the founding of this great country and was a signer of the declaration I vote for Sam. Turkey is going through this same struggle against becoming a religous state. Hopefully they will remain a secular society.
PBS had a special on Mormons. You have to admire charismatic leaders that can motivate a widow with three children to pull a handcart a 1000 miles. Young had a happier fate than Joe Smith. Joe Smith was a salesman. Convincing people that god was nice enough to write everything down on golden tablets but so cheap that he wanted the tablets returned. It is hard for me to respect a god that is that cheap. Moses got to keep the tablets that god gave him but again god was cheap and they were only made of stone.
I agree with Wheeler that when you have to invoke god to make your arguments you might want to rethink. Who was that guy that said that god told him that he would die if he didn’t raise a million dollars??? The kicker was that when the contributions didn’t come in as expected he had to change his claim about dying…. I forget if god changed his mind or the preacher just misunderstood.
Right now I wish that god would tell someone the secrets of nuclear fusion so that we could “burn water” and stop burning coal. Isn’t that what the marriage of science an religion is all about. The sad truth is that I don’t know of a single istance that god verifiablly told humanity anything that we didn’t know. Reason and knowledge is our only hope. A belief in the supernatural leads to wars. It’s ironic that muslims are dying and going to heaven with their 77 virgins for killing christian american soldiers. It is impossible to rationally say who is right. They are both praying to a supernatural being that we have absolutely no empirical evidence that he exists.
May 2, 2007 at 9:34 am
kc,
check out the alablawg header.
May 2, 2007 at 12:13 pm
you know, in all the times i visited here, I never noticed that!
Wheeler, you obviously are a great American and patriot, unlike Rev. Gooch
May 2, 2007 at 1:58 pm
“I never noticed that!”
that’s because i just put it up in response to your comment. 🙂
May 2, 2007 at 2:58 pm
that makes me feel better…..and I am glad I could contribute
May 2, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Several years ago, a new convenience store in my very small home town was trying to get a license to sell beer. The Baptist church in town was on adjoining property and could have single handedly prevented the store from getting its license. However, the preacher and the board of deacons decided in favor of the store. They said there was already another convenience store selling beer at the same intersection and one more wouldn’t make a difference. If only most of our religious leaders would think that way.