Why are we so Stupid!!

Today I read this post dealing with Alcohol and the church. The whole thing started when Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said this "I can assure you of this: if you are associated with the use of beverage alcohol, I think I dare exaggerate not to say that 99% of all doors of ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention will be closed to you." (Basically saying if you drank, the southern baptist convention would not allow you to preach for them) The title of the post was, "Would Jesus be allowed to be a Southern Baptist Pastor?" Obviously you can see where this is headed!
The Author of this blog Dan Kimball, Pastor of Vintage Faith Church Ca., wrote the whole post revolved around the question.....Since Jesus drank wine and even made wine, would he be allowed to preach in the Southern Baptist Denomination? The post actually was a pretty good one, but the comments that followed is what really fired me up. People/Pastors began writing in, explaining how there were different meanings of wine. One commentor said, "There were various types of wine, when you look at the original Greek and Hebrew words used. You had the Hebrew word "tirosh" which was wine that had not been fermented. In fact, when you look at what was used in the last supper, it was kin to "tirosh." The Bible never speaks negatively of "tirosh." On the other hand "yayin," fermented wine, was spoken negatively against regularly."

Then there were people saying that there was only one type of wine. "In response to the second statement referring to the different meanings of the same word we all know God by His nature is not the author of confusion, so in saying this why would he use the word "wine" to mean two different things? If He did such a thing it would be in contradiction to His very nature."
Then there was one, that said "I get the feeling Mr. Mohler and his Southern Baptists counterparts might have a hard time with my being a worship pastor by day and bartender by night!" another who was in youth ministry said, "I love getting together with friends over a nice brew every now and then." It's pretty easy to tell, that the topic of alcohol in the Church is very unclear (to some).
By this point I was pretty ticked, but I have to admit that it wasn't until after these next two replies that I became steamed. One guy (and he wasn't the only one to say this) said, "When I'm sitting in my neighbor's driveway, around the grill, refusing a beer that he offers to me is a bit of a social slap in the face. I have one with him, I don't with my believer friends that might be offended." First of all let me just say that if this is you, then you are nothing more than a spineless coward! I mean, how much more of a coward can you be. The man says it's a "SOCIAL SLAP" in the face. Keep in mind, that these people are not just regular Joe's. These are leaders in the church saying this, the people who stand up in the pulpit every Sunday and preach to you about temptation, and the man basically says he drank a beer because he didn't want to offend someone. It truly is amazing to me, that we look past the church for the problems of this world. I mean goodnight, If the man offers you his urine are you going to drink that too? They both taste the same! (GAAAAHHHHH People are so spineless these days!!) I mean never mind what 1Timothy 3 says about leaders of the church.
Believe it or not, this really isn't what fired me up the most!! Again, there was more than one who said this, "It makes me wonder if people are so unsettled on "easy" issues (drinking) where do they really stand on more serious issues." I really can't believe he said this, and it's sad because there are soooo many more church leaders who think the same way. Most the time when people say something like this, is because they are jumping of the bandwagon of people who struggle with the "easy" issue. For those of you who agree with the drinking topic being an "easy" and irrelevant issue, here are some stats:
-More than 100,000 U.S. deaths are caused by excessive alcohol consumption each year. Direct and indirect causes of death include drunk driving, cirrhosis of the liver, falls, cancer, and stroke.1
-At least once a year, the guidelines for low risk drinking are exceeded by an estimated 74% of male drinkers and 72% of female drinkers aged 21 and older.2
-65% of youth surveyed said that they got the alcohol they drink from family and friends.7 (way to be a good example parents/PASTORS)
-Traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for persons aged 6–33. About 45% of these fatalities are in alcohol-related crashes.4
-Underage drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion every year — enough to buy every public school student a state-of-the-art computer.2 (yeh, that's pretty irrelevant)
-Alcohol is the most commonly used drug among young people.1 (The young people who seek there pastors for help)
-Alcohol kills 6½ times more youth than all other illicit drugs combined.2 (Who cares about young people, I KNOW. Not the pastors , because it's an easy and irrelevant issue)
WHY ARE WE SO STUPID? Instead, we talk about sexual immorality, a relevant and "hard" issue! Which don't get me wrong, should definitely be addressed in all churches across the world. But let me throw one more statistic out there. Since 1981, the most who have ever died in a single year from AIDS (the leading cause of any sex related death) was 51,414 which doesn't come close to the "MORE THAN 100,OOO" who are killed every year by something in relation to alcohol. You might say, well what does that have to do with the church? It has everything to do with the church. The sole purpose of the church, is to reach the lost and better ground the saved. How many of those "MORE THAN 100,000" people stepped into HELL because of Alcohol!
Maybe Jesus did drink fermented wine, maybe he didn't. What we have to understand, is that he WAS/IS PERFECT! Jesus laughed in the face of temptation, WE FALL. GOD gives every pastor a specific calling, and it is the highest calling in all of the world! It is to be his ambassador(2Cor. 5:20), his messenger, his representative! Each Pastor is the leader of a Church God has blesses him with. Inside of that church is the representation of God, and the way those who follow him should live. The fall of the Church comes after the fall of the leader. It's not like you don't go through enough temptation as it is, why put yourselves in a situation that could possibly result in your ultimate downfall and most importantly the downfall of the Church!
All through scripture God says the Love a man has for his wife, should be as the love God has for the Church(Eph. 5:25)! Men, you all know that you are very protective of your spouse.....So is God. You don't want someone messing around with your bride, so don't mess with His!! All those statistics that you read earlier, all started with "Just ONE." My best advice, is something my Mom always told me. "If you play with FIRE, you're gonna get BURNED! The only difference, is the fire that so many of you are PLAYING(key word) with, is the GOD'S BRIDE!!!