An Episcopalian and a Baptist were to be married, with their respective clergy officiating, so the story goes.
At the wedding dinner, the clergy were seated at the same table. A server offered wine. The Baptist indignantly sent him away. The Episcopal vicar, who himself was married, accepted.
Disgusted, the Baptist minister said, “It would be better for you to commit adultery than to take a drop of that wine!”
Believe it, or not, the Baptist held a belief that once dominated this country, in its public policy, and in what many Americans considered to be right. Consuming anything with a trace of alcohol, just a spoonful, only on rare occasions, was the supreme sin, worse than blasphemy, adultery, larceny or even murder, oddly since this opinion was never ancient Christian tradition. Indeed, Christ drank wine (cf. Jn 2:1-12; Mt 26:27-29; Mk 14:12-25; Lk 22:7-28). So did the first Christians, guided by St. Paul (1 Cor 11:23-25).
In 1919, unwilling to settle for laws enacted merely by Congress, this outspoken and large group of Americans succeeded in amending the U.S. Constitution, making the “production, sale, or transport” of any alcoholic beverage a crime in this country. It was called “Prohibition.”
Ostracized often by their neighbors were Catholics, Jews, Episcopalians and other Americans who saw nothing wrong in drinking in moderation.
A crisis arose about securing wine for Mass. No substitute, such as unfermented fruit juice, is possible. Any ban on wine would halt Catholic congregational worship and thereby weaken Catholicism in this country, an effect desired by many in America at the time.
Episcopalians, who had more connections and political influence, the Orthodox, and Jews, who used genuine wine in their services, protested. The federal courts upheld freedom of religion. Otherwise, this proposal might have been the law of the land.
By 1932, popular opinion significantly had changed. Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, of New York, a Democrat, and an Episcopalian, won the presidency in a landslide despite denouncing Prohibition.
The constitutional amendment was repealed rather quickly, leaving decisions to the states. It took a while, but in 1959, Oklahoma was the last state to legalize liquor.
Once, so many Americans frowned upon divorce that local courts could not hear cases, let alone render judgments. Only state legislatures had authority in divorce actions. Then, public opinion accepted divorce. Look at today.
Views shift
The list of other shifts in views about what is right, or wrong, is 10 miles in length.
This history is a lesson, certainly for Catholics, especially today.
Attitudes change. It is easy to go with the flow. Swimming upstream, alone, or in a minority, is not easy. Arguments can be confusing. So, presently, many Catholics accept the position that abortion is acceptable, based on the thinking that moral judgments rest on an individual person’s feelings about a subject.
The Church has seen 21 centuries come and go, witnessing human life in every circumstance and everywhere on earth, and learning that people too often make a mess of things by relying solely on their “feelings” or upon what seems to be the easiest solution to a problem.
A better way is for Catholics to follow what the Church earnestly believes and teaches regarding life. The Church says the revelation of Almighty God, perfectly enunciated by Jesus of Nazareth, and carefully repeated by the Church, the institution deliberately created by the Lord to assist people in finding peace and joy in life, works.
Humans make mistakes and always have been the victims of imperfect knowledge and pressure, but divine Revelation, as taught by the Church, has proven its worth for 2,000 years. Face it. No other philosophy or system of thought can say the same.
New notions appear. People must cope with the new and find a way to be content in their own lives. Trust the good Lord. He has never failed. Trust the Church.
