This church in Wales is in the process of applying for a license to consume alcoholic beverages on church premises. According to the BBC article, they plan to sell beer and wine in the cafe, once the minstrels quarters. Several local establishments, including a pub and liquor store are in opposition to the church obtaining a license for two stated reasons: 1) “The church is a place of worship.” 2) It will threaten business.

The rationale for opposing St. Peter’s obtaining a liquor license are striking. Those who oppose it, oppose it “on principle,” citing that the church is a place of worship. This, of course, assumes a bifurcation of worship and drinking alcohol–wine and worship should never mix. However, this hardly has biblical backing.

The Prophets of the Old Testament repeatedly refer to the age when the rivers will run with wine (Isa 25; 55), the Psalms applaud the “gladdening of men’s hearts with wine”; Proverbs celebrates the abundance of new wine and grain, and even Pastor Paul told Pastor Timothy to mix wine and water (assuming the pastor had wine on hand). From prophets to pastors, wine is often celebrated and consumed, even in the church, as an evidence of God’s creative goodness. Wine can lead to worship, which would then undermine the business owners’ rationale. No wine with worship.

I wonder what they mean when they say the church is a place of worship, really?

We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking but they are not. They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.

Henry Van Til defines culture as:

that activity of man, the image-bearer of God, by which he fulfills the creation mandate to cultivate the earth, to have dominion over it and to subdue it. The term is also applied to the result of such activity, namely the secondary environment which has been superimposed upon nature by man’s creative effort. Culture, then, is not a peripheral concern but of the very essence of life. It is expression of man’s essential being as created in the image of God, and since man is essentially a religious being, it is expressive of his relationship to God, that is, of his religion.