I know some folks probably thought I was exaggerating when I cited root beer in dark bottles as a target of the “Appearance of Evil” rule in fundy land. I wasn’t.
And to demonstrate that point, here’s Bill Lytell (he of the gospel ice cream truck) to set us straight
Even pouring A&W into the right kind of glass makes root beer look like stout. Noticed this last night at dinner.
For a few years back in the 1990s the RC Cola people produced Royal Crown Draft Cola, which was a premium soda made with pure cane sugar. It also came in an amber-colored glass bottle, a la the “demon brew”. It is no longer sold in the U.S., but it’s still available in various foreign markets. According to one source I read, it was various Christian groups that helped drive RC Draft Cola off the shelves, claiming that young people drinking this might also start drinking beer because of the amber bottle (eee-gads!!!).
Never mind the fact that there is nothing wrong with an adult who doesn’t have an alcohol addiction problem enjoying a beer now and then. One of the many things you figure out when you finally unbrainwash yourself from the IFB mis-teachingings about drinking alcohol. 🙄
One time I was drinking Perrier water out of a bottle (it comes in dark green glass) and somebody thought I was drinking beer – for just a moment, until she saw the label. But you know something? The only reason she even noticed was because I was in the office, and otherwise she absolutely wouldn’t have cared. I have noticed that if you let it be known that you don’t drink, everybody assumes you’re Mormon. You can’t control what people are going to think, and there’s no way you can ever avoid doing anything that people will mistake for another action.
“Always do what you feel I. Your heart to be right, for you’ll be critisised anyway”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
I got questioned by my dear young fiancée years ago (we’ve been married 28 years) for lifting a glass of ginger ale in a champagne glass to toast my buddy at the reception after his wedding. I was best man.
We talked that through. Our denomination (Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America) was total abstinence officially at the time. It is no longer, since a majority of the elders came to see that it was not a Biblical position. She grew up in a *strong* Total Abstinence family. Even now she has emotional earthquakes over alcohol, even though her head tells her that the Bible says there is a legit beverage use for the stuff.
May I suggest you partake of some fine exegesis here in “The Sin-Sniffer’s Catch-All Verse”: http://bible.org/article/1-thessalonians-522%E2%80%94-sin-sniffer%E2%80%99s-catch-all-verse
I read the article you linked to, very good. Based on the insights presented, you could express Paul’s idea in 1 Thessalonians 5.22 with the old saying, “Don’t take any wooden nickles.” 😆
Hokay, when I first read this comment, my eyes saw “sin snifter.”
I love Royal Crown Draft. Tastes like Coffee and Coke. They still bottle it in NZ 🙂
I once went to a wedding reception with a fundie pastor and his wife, and they wouldn’t even drink the toast with ginger ale, lest anyone think they might be drinking champagne.
How sad. 🙁 I don’t know why these kinds of these keep surprising me, but they do.
Actually this phenomenon exists in the non-Fundy world, too: it’s called a Homeowners Association. 😛