Is ‘Demon Rum' bad for you?

Most Americans assume that tobacco consumption poses far greater health risks to their fellow citizens than alcohol. However, only 11% of adult Americans smoke while 71% consume alcohol.

Is that a problem? Research published a little over a year ago indicates that “even small amounts of alcohol can have health consequences.” Currently, approximately 140,000 deaths per year are attributed to “excessive alcohol use.” While about 40% of those deaths are a result of “car crashes, poisonings and homicides …. the majority were caused by chronic conditions attributed to alcohol, such as liver disease, cancer, and heart disease.” 

The disconcerting news revealed by the most recent research is that the dangerous or “excessive” level of alcohol which leads to negative outcomes is far lower than most people have assumed. U.S. Dietary guidelines are two drinks per day for men and half that amount for women. However, recent research indicates that according to Marissa Esser of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “there are risks even within these levels, especially for certain types of cancer and some forms of cardiovascular disease.” 

Why is this so? Research continues to provide more information about how alcohol damages our bodies. According to the American Cancer Society, alcohol generates 75,000 cancer cases per year.

When you drink alcohol, your body metabolizes it into acetaldehyde, a chemical that is toxic to cells. Acetaldehyde both “damages your DNA and prevents your body from repairing the damage,” Dr. Esser explained. “Once your DNA is damaged, then a cell can grow out of control and create a cancer tumor.”

This evidence runs counter to reports in recent years that a little wine is good for your heart.  Now, research indicates that any consumption of alcohol on a regular basis elevates your health risks for cardiovascular disease and cancer.

In fact, in 2023 the World Health Organization (WHO) “declared that no amount of any alcohol was good for people—not even those ‘heart-healthy’ red wines.” 

Tim Stockwell, former director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, has been researching this subject for a quarter of a century. Stockwell’s conclusion is that “there is no ‘safe’ level of alcohol consumption” and one drink a day is “about equal to ‘losing, for the average person, three months of life expectancy.’” 

How should Christians respond to these disturbing research findings? Please allow me to preface my response by admitting that I have been a lifelong abstainer from the use of alcohol. I want to share the credit for this abstinence with my parents and my church.

I was raised in a Southern Baptist church with Southern Baptist parents who were “tea totalers.” Southern Baptists have historically been associated strongly with total abstinence from alcohol. While that identification has weakened to some degree in recent years, there is still a quite strong strain of abstinence, especially among the clergy.

Interestingly, LifeWay Christian Resources (the publication arm of the Southern Baptist Convention) published research several years ago that found that in homes where the parents were social drinkers, 64% of adolescent children of such parents experimented with alcohol. In homes where the parents were total abstainers (no alcohol in the home), 16% of the adolescent children experimented with alcohol.

The conclusion was clear. If you don’t want your teenagers experimenting with alcohol, don’t drink, and don’t have alcohol in the house. I know it made a big difference to my younger brother and myself that our parents did not drink and it was never allowed in the house.

When I am asked, “Why don’t you drink?” my response usually goes something like this.

“First, we all have influence over others and to the extent I have influence over other people, I don’t want my consumption of alcohol to influence someone else, including my children, to begin to consume alcohol. We know that a certain percentage of people who consume alcohol will become addicts. I do not want my example to influence others to engage in what is very destructive behavior.”

I had an experience several years ago which underscored to me the influence of example. My wife and I were in Germany at the invitation of the Christian Democrat party (along with numerous other American Evangelical leaders). Since it was Germany, beer and alcohol were prevalent, and to our surprise, many of the American Evangelicals were consuming various alcoholic beverages. My wife and I just discreetly turned the various glasses upside down and quietly declined to be served.

On the way back to the hotel after the second such banquet, one of the other American Evangelical leaders came up, put his arm around my shoulder, and said , “You know Richard, you’re not going to go to hell if you drink alcohol.”  I must confess, I was suffering from the lingering impact of jet lag, and my response was less generous than it should have been.  I replied, “I know that.  But if the highest price I am called to pay for holding true to my Christian convictions, is to be made fun of by faux Evangelicals like you, I am most fortunate among men.”

Interestingly, during the trip, this particular evangelical and his wife did not consume alcohol either.  My conclusion was that our abstinence made them feel convicted about doing in Germany what they did not do back in America. 

Second, we are called upon as Christians to be good stewards of our bodies and as I have noted above it is increasingly clear that any alcohol is poisonous to our bodies.  For me, alcohol consumption is on a par with smoking as unhealthy behavior. 

I am well aware that calling for total abstinence from alcohol consumption is “not cool” in current-day America, but I am going to do it because I believe it is the right thing to do.