I swear I just saw This on TV Make America Sober Again

[Catmusicfan]

I am afraid to find out more about it.

[Docreed2003]

1. Wow...

I bet they'd be shocked by the amounts of beer the Puritans at Plymouth consumed! Hell, Jesus' first miracle was to turn water into wine and the shit was so good the party host was pissed at Jesus for holding back the good stuff, because the party was too shitfaced to appreciate how good it was!!

[grantcart]

3. The "water to wine" story was a metaphor that Jesus was such an engaging person that when

he was at a party he was able to take a sober crowd and with his ability to make people feel at ease and better about their situation that it was as if instead of drinking water it was as if they were drinking wine.

Obviously Jesus and the disciples drank wine which was common at the time.

[Docreed2003]

4. I fully understand the metaphor...

My point was more of snark in highlighting the literal translation of the biblical event. Trust me, I know that stuff inside and out thanks to a truly effed up childhood split between Catholic and "the Bible is the literal word of God" Baptist upbringing. Funny thing, those Baptists never would admit that the wine mentioned in the Bible was "fermented". I swear they would routinely say that wine mentioned in the Bible was "hard grape juice", whatever the fuck that means, not an alcoholic beverage!

[grantcart]

6. Right, agreed

One of the great ironies is that the bastardized literal interpretation of creation, fish and loaves, and water to wine, etc. actually undermine the higher more transformative message of the metaphorical message, which was the true intention of the writers.

[Docreed2003]

12. Truth!

It's interesting to me that, up until the late 19th century, the idea of literal interpretation was pretty much panned. We have the evangelicals to thank for that movement!

[grantcart]

17. Here is a pretty interesting article about the struggle.

By the 1930's "Higher Criticism" won all of the arguments at the main seminaries and a bunch of reaction seminaries (like Fuller) would give sanctuary to the Evangelicals. Ironically these seminaries would eventually embrace "Higher Criticism" in the main and try to cover over any discrepancies with their literal tendencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist%E2%80%93Modernist_Controversy

[Warpy]

16. They most likely also drank beer and mead

Anything alcoholic was preferable as it wouldn't kill them. The dodgy water might.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Jesus and the disciples didn't drink anything, as far as I'm concerned.

unless you mean in the context of Fictional characters drinking fictional beverages.

I think John the Baptist was an actual historical figure. Jesus, I have strong doubts about.

[Warpy]

5. The first pass of water through the malted barley grains was for strong evening beer

subsequent passes were for the weaker ale they drank all day, 8 pints of it each, maybe 6 for the kiddies. It still had alcohol in it and it still carried a kick, useful if you were doing heavy farm labor. They used the dregs to flavor porrige, so every bit of the barley was used once the sugars were gone.

8 pints a day of maybe 3% alcohol ale wouldn't have kept them too blotto to do their work, but they were most likely to be lightly buzzed all the time. It was also cloudy stuff with bits of barley in it and it supplied a huge amount of nutrition.

When the temperance movement came in and told people they had to switch to tea to get into heaven, it caused serious malnutrition, especially in the English countryside.

But yeah, the pious would be shocked by the amount of alcohol that was being consumed even by children. They also get annoyed as hell when you mention the malnutrition the temperance people caused.

[grantcart]

7. wasn't the use of fermented drinks also a health measure as it was less contamitated than a lot of

the drinking water?

[Crunchy Frog]

9. The alcohol acted as a disinfectant, so people wouldn't die of dysentery

prior to the advent of modern sanitation.

[Warpy]

10. All surface water and much well water was heavily polluted

by things like tanneries dropping their effluent into them. A lot of bugs were growing in the water at the time. Boiling the water for the passes through the malted barley killed most of them. The alcohol polished them off.

Home made weak ales would only keep for a couple of weeks once they were ready to drink, another inducement to polish them off quickly.

[Docreed2003]

13. Not to mention the fact that...

Beer in the early colonies was a nice way of ensuring clean, or at least decontaminated, water! And, as you said, even children drank the beer!

[grantcart]

2. Honestly that made me want to go the store and get some beer

and I don't drink more than 4 beers a year.

[GulfCoast66]

8. I did not either

But there had been a revival of beer making and some great ones out there. But beware...it is more of a food than beverage. Lots of calories!!

[Docreed2003]

14. I'd gladly give up a ton of foods for a healthy dose of good beer..lol

[smirkymonkey]

11. Is it any wonder that this is more of an epidemic in the red states?

The blue states have problems as well, but it is just rampant in red states.

[Rhiannon12866]

15. I watched and it seems to be more about drug overdoses

But that's all it says, gives no clue about who you're calling or what it's offering. Sounds like a scam to me, one that's meant to scare people.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. America's never been sober, chappy.