Beer and the Bible

Weatherwax sent me this link.

What Would Jesus Brew?

Ben Franklin is quoted in the article as having said that beer is clear evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

G.K. Chesterton advised that we should show our gratitude to God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.

GKC also approved of the title of a pamphlet, "Beer and the Bible," adding that "those two very noble things" are "all the nobler for their conjunction"--a conjunction that he deemed "appropriate and charming."

Of course, GKC and Ben Franklin knew nothing of the watery, canned, mass-produced stuff that passes for "beer" in this country.

This is a far cry from the attitude of Garrison Keillor's Sanctified Brethren. I love the passage in Lake Wobegone Days that describes the family's after church visit to a restaurant in St. Cloud. His parents looked about with benevolent approval as other godly families, fresh from church services, were seated about them at tables and booths. Then they spotted a glass of beer at the table across from them. Suddenly, the place was transformed into a brothel, a den of iniquity, where "the waitresses bosoms spilled from their uniforms like so many grapefruit."