On Tue, 5 Dec 2000, Marvin Long, Jr. wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Dec 2000, Julia Thompson wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 4 Dec 2000, Marvin Long, Jr. wrote:
> >
> > > circumstances. There is no irony in these gestures, simply the
> > > assertion of a will to survive and prevail and to not let the bastards
> > > of fate grind you down.
> >
> > Kinda like the Methodists using grape juice for Eucharist instead of wine?
> >
> I'm not sure--was the grape juice decision a response to a shortage of
> wine? I thought it was a concession to the tee-totalling faction of
> Christianity which holds that any alcohol, even for eucharistic purposes,
> is to be avoided...which in my opinion *is* ironic, because it seems to
> takes the attitude that says, "Ok, wine was good enough for Jesus, but
> we've got to be better than that." :-/
My understanding was that it was not due to a shortage of wine, but due to
teetotalling folks making up enough of the population.
My mother-in-law was brought up Methodist and taught to believe that
alcohol was evil. I have a friend who was brought up Methodist and makes
snide comments about the use of grape juice instead of wine.
My belief is that alcohol can contribute to evil, but isn't the root cause
of it. I know that not everyone shares this opinion; when faced with the
opposition, I try to be as polite as possible and not raise a huge ruckus
over it.
(In my own upbringing, I *smelled* the wine for a few years before I ever
got a taste of it, and while it didn't taste so great on my first
communion, at least something of it was familiar. So much so that I like
any wine whose smell reminds me of the wine at that childhood church, and
port comes the closest to anything for that, so I have port in the house.)
Julia
