Alabama has wineries, but you’ll never know about it.
Posted by: Ken Salter in Religion, tags: alabama, theocracy, wine
SourceA trade association and a tourism group came up with the Alabama Wine Trail to lure visitors to the state’s eight wineries, which produce everything from fruity muscadine and peach wines to more traditional varieties such as merlot and chardonnay.
A Baptist leader in neighboring Chilton County said his group opposed plans for a winery there and doesn’t like the idea of luring tourists to his home turf or anywhere else in Alabama to imbibe.
“We are on record as being opposed to any kind of alcohol-related industry,” said the Rev. Robert Griffin, moderator of the Chilton Baptist Association and pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Clanton. “I would support visiting old, historic churches, but as far as visiting wineries…”
Alabama law limits home wine production to five gallons at a time, and Beadles said his Alabama Wineries and Grape Growers Association hasn’t been able to get much support for increasing the cap for hobbyists.
“We have such a Bible Belt population that when you say you’re going to increase production … in this state they think there will be a drunk in every house,” Beadles said. “There are a lot of people in this state with wine in their closets.”
I love wine (not a fan of muscadine, though - too sweet for me). I hate the fact that I cannot have decent wine from outside the state shipped to my house. The last time I checked, wine is a legal product in the US, but in “Talibama” I cannot buy it from another state.
And now it appears I, as a citizen of this state, will have a hard time even visiting the few wineries that are trying to cultivate just a little bit of culture.
Of course, this boils down to power and money, not religion. The delusional like Robert Griffen may like to think they are obeying their version of god, but what they are really obeying is the real version of god in America: power and money. He and his ilk are nothing more than tools of the rich and powerful.
And the (mostly silent) majority suffer because of it.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:12 am - Edit
It’s to bad that some christians have not seen enjoying the work of your hand as a gift from God. I bet he’s miffed!
April 14th, 2008 at 6:34 pm - Edit
I’m a Spirit filled full gospel believing Christian who believes people have the right to worship God in the way they want to. In my personal opinion a great number of folks are extracting what they want from the Bible, the Word of God, and mixing it with their own agenda. Sort of like adding arsenic into a glass of cold water, and it’s going to come back and bit them; big time, sooner or later. Always have wondered about Alabama, and now I know a little more.
Yes I enjoy a good glass of red wine once in a while. Can’t find anyplace in the Bible where it says a person cannot drink wine. In fact there are a great number of words in there that talk just the opposite.
Your right Ken; folks in places they shouldn’t be probably got their using a combination of plagiarized phrases from the Bible salted with subtle intimidating phrases and such. I believe they will have their day in court, and maybe they will have to wait until God is sitting in that chair.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:28 am - Edit
Hi Ken:
Unfortunately for the rest of us, those people won’t get their day in a secular court. Justice in the afterlife is debatable (I’m not holding my breath on that one), so the only justice that is assured is any that we get while alive.
As an agnostic/atheist, it is issues like these that almost make me want to believe there is a just god waiting to punish these evil doers - the ones that spread lies and destruction in the name of religion, and that this just god would know that my doubts as to its existence were sincere, not as an excuse to live whatever lifestyle I want. But then I realize that is an emotional appeal, and that trap has gotten me before and is what lures a lot of people to the more fundamentalist versions of religion.