Last Thursday, Brett Kavanaugh, Supreme Court justice nominee, said about his relationship to alcohol:
Yes we drank beer, my friends and I, boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer, I like beer, I still like beer, we drank beer. The drinking age, as I noted, was 18, so the seniors were legal, senior year in high school people were legal to drink. Yeah, we drank beer, and I said sometimes, sometimes probably had too many beers, and sometimes other people had too many beers. We drank beer, I like beer.
But Maryland’s minimum legal drinking age for beer and wine was changed to 21 from 18 in July 1982, during the summer before Kavanaugh’s senior year. It was already 21 for hard liquor. Therefore, any drinking that Kavanaugh did in the state of Maryland during high school was illegal.
Residents who had turned 18 by that time were grandfathered in and allowed to drink legally. Kavanaugh was 17 at the time.
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
Two weeks of Kavanaugh’s summer calendar were titled “Beach Week.” What do kids do at beach week? Alcohol drinking ones? The party life, which includes alcohol, is what the Bible calls, “riotous living.” Paul wrote in Romans 13:13:
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering.
One of the qualifications of a pastor is that his children are not accused of riotous living. — not him, his children — “having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly” (Titus 1:6).
The word “riot” in Titus 1:6 is translated “excess” in Ephesians 5:18, which says, “be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.” I was reading an article recently that quoted the same verse in the ESV, that reads, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.” That translation leads people astray on the meaning of the verse. It goes against the grammar.
In the grammar, the real grammar, in the wine is excess, riot, or debauchery, not the act of getting drunk or drunkenness. The ESV misleads, and I think people are glad to have it. There are five Greek words in a row — oino en ho estin asotia (noun, preposition, relative pronoun, verb, noun). Literally, they mean “wine in which is debauchery.” The relative pronoun and the noun agree. The debauchery is in the wine.
Kavanaugh isn’t a choir boy. Kavanaugh is another Roman Catholic jurist, whose alcohol doesn’t clash with his Christanity and his judgment.
I don’t trust Kavanaugh as a person. He might make conservative judgments, especially with his newfound intensity of hatred of leftist politics though.
1 Peter 4:3 seems to be against what is called "social drinking." Banquetings (potois) is a distinct word from "excess of wine" which is drunkenness. (A.T. Robertson (Word Pictures), and the New American Commentary: 1,2 Peter, Jude (NAC) concurs that this may refer to social drinking). I would hope Kavenaugh would be able to clear his name. Sadly, I think that even if he is proven innocent, it seems that Democrat Senators are still unwilling to vote in favor of his nomination. But A fresh FBI investigation would be good to clear his name (I would want that, if it were me). I would also hope that Mr. Kavenaugh would consider legal actions against his accusers. Perhaps find out exactly who leaked Dr. Ford's letter and let justice prevail (assuming all is well with Judge Brett). I was able to watch Mitchell's questioning of Dr. Ford. Mitchell was expert. She seemed like a responsible adult when compared to many of the Democrat committee members. She was able to show many problems with Ford's accusation, and was amazing at uncovering bad legal advise from Feinstein and the team that she selected to help her.
On a similar vein, Martin Luther was also an avid beer drinker. His wife, Katherine Von Bora, was commended for producing his favorite beer. Yep, the entire Protestant Reformation was led by a man who violated Scriptures on drinking, not to say the least about many other areas of Biblical doctrine.
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Billy,
I understand that the Democrats judge conservatives based on a different standard. They have Bill Clinton and even the pot smoking Obama, but they want to talk about the booze of Kavanaugh. However, we have other candidates, I believe, who wouldn't have that lifestyle. One aspect, I would say, is that Kavanaugh is an establishment, totally in with the Bushes, and I've seen this situation draw together the populist, nationalist Trump supporters with the establishment Republicans. It's also probably brought a little more heat to the mid-term elections for Republicans. We'll see.
Being a Roman Catholic "choir boy" probably fits in pretty well with the common lifestyle of most professing Christians. We do not get to choose who the next Supreme Court jurist will be. We really do not even have a voice in the matter other than complaining to a congressman(person). The fact that he is a Strick Constructionists is about the best we can hope for outside of God's intervention.
Lance,
I pretty much agree with you. I hope he is a strict constructionist, just stick to the constitution and we can be happy. Hopefully, he'll be that, but the above lifestyle makes me more doubtful about him.