“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. — Deuteronomy 21:18-21

This command sure was a very severe one and I doubt it was carried out a lot. I think it was meant to make parents realize they have great responsiblity to set a good example themselves, and of course to encourage youngsters to walk by God’s ways rather than to perish. This passage shows God takes the way parents raise their children very seriously.

On the alcohol issue, raising the legal drinking age here surely is not a solution and so far there have been no serious moves to raise it. A poll revealed many elderly think it ought to be raised but rather I think they simply want something to be done about the excessive drinking among teenagers. However, as long as people keep rejecting Christ, I don’t think anything is going to change. When this generation replaces the current already morally bankrupt political generation and other powerful people, you can be sure it’s only about to get worse.

I think now that so man kids are already out of control the only way to get the young people under control is to give power back to men that live in the neighborhoods and the men have to be backed up by the police instead of being hindered by them. In some areas of the world they respect their elders because if they did not the men of the village would firmly resolve the issue.

In some old fasion families the kids are very respectful because their dad would slap them silly if they were not. It is amazing how much a little discipline early in life does wonders to bring up good kids.

So yes, I agree that at the end most of these issues in life are all a question of individual responsiblity and have a lot to do with the way we’ve been taught to deal with things. Prohibition and strong laws rarely work for as a solution for problems like these because gov’t contributed to a lack of parental authority and societal control (not involving the gov’t that is) on youngsters in the first place. It’s like those laws in Britain against antisocial behavior. Youth being reprimanded by elderly people for not behaving get scoffed at or even get beat up these days! No matter how many laws you push, they’re not going to solve anything. I think if society and gov’t were more family-oriented that society would deal with a lot of these punks without the need of gov’t. But oh well, gov’t considers spanking to be mistreatment these days. But minors get away with beating, threatening or robbing grown ups. Gov’t is antisocial!

Kids get drunk because parents have lost control of them. Part of the reason for that is parents are too permissive and part of the reason is that the state will no longer allow parents to discipline their children as they should. Of course, peer pressure and media have a lot to do with it as well. But, there again if we had proper parental control kids would not be watching and listening to the crap they do and schools would be as disciplined as the homes ought to be.

We blame the substance kids use for them being out of control, rather then seeing that because they are out of control they get drunk and use substances. The real problem is undisciplined children and our permissive society.

Even though I don’t agree with crusading against alcohol, I do feel horrified at the excessive alcohol abuse of many people, especially those among my generation here. It is just incredible. In fact the majority of the older generation here are in favor of raising the legal drinking age to 18 because of the extreme drinking behavior among teenagers. The vast majority of youngsters have already drunk too much alcohol before they have reached the age of 12. From what I’ve seen when I was younger, 14-year olds and even 12-year olds are allowed by their parents to go out to party like 16 and 17 year olds do and obviously they get drunk. I’ve rarely been to any parties myself but quite frankly I can tell you it’s all just about drinking, drinking and drinking until they drop (and in some cases you can add sex and stuff like that to the list). And sometimes “drop” is to be taken literally. Lately there’s been a trend here I’ve heard to drink until you are unconscious or even get in a coma. Yes, a *trend*. The cause of this problem is with a lack of parental supervision or responsiblity, and the fact that lots of parents simply like to get drunk themselves and can’t drink with moderation.

Oh, and as far as women are concerned, those freaking members of the superior feminin race are NOT better than their inferior male counterparts at all, my undear Feminazis. In fact, women and alcohol are like a nightmare. They get violent, aggressive, sexually unrestrained and totally uncontrolled. They just loose all decency and prudence (that is, if they had any to begin with). Drunk women are just awful. Let alone when they start nagging while they’re drunk. Better make sure you get out or you might get a glass in your face.

Anyway, as you correctly said, there’s nothing wrong with drinking in moderation. It’s good to abstain if you have trouble drawing the limit or for medical reasons. I also don’t think it’s wrong to abstain for cultural reasons, but you should always realize it’s not a sin to drink and therefore you should not impose your behavior on others. Drunkeness and addiction to alcohol obviously are sins and I think parents have a great deal of responsibility in teaching their children how to deal with alcohol in moderation and with a sense of decency.