From: boris@ucsee.berkeley.edu (Boris Chen)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: where does the bible mention about smoking?
Date: 1 Sep 92 07:52:39 GMT
Reply-To: boris@ucsee.berkeley.edu
Organization: University of California Society of Electrical Engineers (UCSEE)

In article <Aug.31.03.20.04.1992.25798@athos.rutgers.edu> phantom@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (James Choi) writes:
>I have been curious about non-smoking policy of some christians.  From my
>limited experience, catholics seems to smoke openly while protestants
>either don't smoke or downplay the fact that they smoke.
>
>I did a text search through the entire bible and I could not find anything
>that dictates against smoking.  Where did this policy come from?

I can't speak for Catholics or Protestants, but I can offer some information
as to why Jehovah's Witnesses do not smoke.

There are basically 3 reasons why. The first is that it shows disrespect
for the gift of life. 

Acts 17:24,25 "The God that made the world and all the things in it...
gives to all persons life and breath and all things."

"The evidence that cigarettes shorten life is overwhelming; the causal
connection is as firmly established as any in medicine." -- Science 80,
September/October, p.42

Reports show that in the United States the annual death toll from
smoking has been tabulated as being 300,000; in Britain, 50,000;
in Canada, 50,000. "More than one million people die annually because
of smokeing-related disease and the Third World, which accounts for
52% of world tobacco consumption, is making up a rapidly increasing pro-
portion of those deaths." -- The Jounal (Toronto), September 1, 1983, p.16

Former US Secretary of Heath, Education , and Welfare, Joseph
Califano, said: "Today there can be no doubt that smoking is truly
slow-motion suicide." -- Scholastic Science World, March 20, 1980, p.13

Second, it is not consistent with what God requires to render him.

Romans 12:1: "I entreat you by the compassions of God, brothers, to present
 your bodies a sacrifice living, holy,acceptable to God, a sacred
service with your power of reason."

The surgeon general of the United States, C. Everett Koop, said: "Cigarette
smoking is clearly identified as the chief preventable cause of death
in our society." (The New York Times, February 23, 1982, p. A1) "Medical
studies show that . . . the average life expectancy of a
smoker is three to four years less than that of a nonsmoker. The life
expectancy of a heavy smoker -- a person who smokes two or more
packages of cigarettes a day -- may be as much as eight years shorter than that
of a nonsmoker." (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1984, Vol 17, p 430)
Is it proper for a person to present his life for service to God and then
slowly destroy that life?

"Smoking is so devastating, especially to the heart and lungs, that the other
aspects of preventive medicine become comparatively insignificant if the 
person smokes." (University of Southern California News Service, Feb
18, 1982) "Smoking is probably the largest single preventative
cause of ill heath in the world." (Dr. H. Mahler, director of
the World HEath Organization, in World Health, February/March 1980, p. 3)
Is it consistent for a person to present himself to God for sacred
service and then deliberately ruin his health?

And third, smoking is a violation of the divine requirement
that we love our neighbor.

Jas. 2:8: "You must love your neighbor as yourself." (Compare Matt. 7:12)

"A recent study. . . revealed that the nonsmoking wives of men who
smoke die on the average four years younger than women whoes husbands
are also nonsmokers." (The New York Times, Nov. 22, 1978, p. C5)
"Smoking during pregnancy can cause congenital malformations so
severe that either the fetus dies, or the infant does shortly after
birth." (Family Health, May 1979, p. 8) Such unloving treatment of 
family members is clear evidence that a person is not
acting as a Christian. -- Compare 1 Timothy 5:8

"Studies have shown that since the average smoker actively smokes
his cigarette for only a small portion of the time
it is lit, a nonsmoker may actually be forced against his will
to breathe almost as much carbon monoxide, tar, and nicotine as the
active smoker sitting next to him." (Today's Health, April 1972, p. 39) A 
person who is thus unloving toward his fellowman does not give
evidence of loving God either.

1 John 4:20: If anyone makes the statement: "I love God," and
yet is hating his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not
love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom
he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that the
one who loves God should be loving his brother also.


-----------

The above is a near exact transcript of a publication printed by
Jehovah's Witnesses. All typos are under my ownership.

Also, to add to the above, since smoking is addictive, it certainly
is at odds with the fruitages of the spirit, of which one of them is
*self-control*.

I think some object to the fact that smoking isn't explicitly forbidden
in the Bible, yet I believe it is safe to say that there are many things
that are fobidden by the Bible, yet not explicitly stated. (e.g. The
Bible does not say: "Thou shall not inject thy neighbor with cyanide,"
yet the prohibition on murder forbids that act nonetheless.)

Peace,
boris