Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-03-15
communicated
THE CHURCH RESPONSIBLE FOR
THE LIQUOR SITUATION.

THE CHURCH RESPONSIBLE FOR
THE LIQUOR SITUATION.
EDITOR CITIzEN:--The presenta-
tion of petitions for another local
option election at last court provoked
discussion of the liquor question.
] stated in crowd that the church
was largely responsible for the bars
before local option and in g great
measure were responsible for the
speak-easies since local option and
will be responsible for the re-
establishment of the bars. That
if the churches bad kept their
members out of the bar rooms
they would have closed up for
want of support and there would
have been no need of local option;
that if they had kept them out of
the speax-easies they could not have
run for want of support; that
if they will vote their members
against the establishment of the
bars, there need be no fear of their
being re-established and, therefore,
the whole liquor matter is under
control of the church. Church mem
bers standing by said l ought not to
make such a statement as that with
out being able to support it with
facts. l replied that / believed that
three-fouiths of the white voting
population of this county were
church members and that if this is
so it needed no further argument to
show that the church could control
the whole matter.
One of the best informed politicians
of my precinct challenged this esti-
mate and the count of the non
members was left to him. a
of his count with the
vote showed that over eighty per
cent of the white voters of Litwalton
precinct are church members and
think test of the colored vote would
show larger percentage. Isuppose
the same will hold good for
the county. The church's voting
strength is supplemented by a good
percentage of non church members
who will vote with the church from
moral convictions, so holding a voting
strength of over eighty per cent. of
the adult population and supposed to
hold a religious influence over as
great percentage OF the whole popu-
lation. Can the church people feel
proud of the quor situation here at
present and view with equinimity
the proposed re-establishment of the
bar roomsg
/ decline IN this article to draw
any distinction between the bar room
as it was, the speak-easy as it is or
the bar room as it will be. lam
discussing the church's response
bility for the liquor traffic whether
it be through bar rooms or speak
easies, and to those who will try to
satisfy their consciences by conpar-
ing the relative harm of one with
the other, l will say you are beg
ging the question. You are choos-
ing the less of two evils when your
duty is to suppress both. You are
compromising with the world, when
your promise was to forsake it, and
| refer you to the Goth chapter of
Proverbs, lst verse, as specially ap-
plicable to the present times. AS to
the coming election the church
declares its mission to be to lead
men to Heaven. The Bible declares
that "no drunkard shall enter the
of Heaven" Now can the
church establish and support a thing
that makes drunkards of men whom
God declares shall not enter the king
dom of Heaven, and yet claim that
it is carrying ont its mission? isn't
1t presching one thing and practic-
ing anotherf
l never have been church men,
ber and don't claim to be Christian,
but l have for many years sympa-
thized with church work and felt
that as a citizen ] owed the church
an obligation for the moral and
religions status of society. / have
looked upon the church as friend
to whom l was under obligations for
services rendered, but reflections of
the past week, growing out of the
comparison of the numerical strength
of the church with the moral and
religious status as shown by the
liquor situation, weakens my sense
of obligation.
| am not alone in my view of this
matter. l heard one of the most SEN
sibIe and astute men of this county
say at court that this whole liquor
trouble grows out of a compromise
between the church and the world