The Finished Product of the Brewers Art

Sometimes we are so close to the forrest that we cannot see the trees. Advertisers for alcoholic beverages have become so common place that we scarcely even give them a second look. Consequently, the drip, drip, dripping of something more harsh than water, has worn the way the stone of our constitution and resolve to the point of acceptability. In the days of prohibition, anything regarding the usage of alcohol garnered immediate attention. However, today the banners of these toxic juices are splayed on billboards, in the LED lighting of sports arenas, and as headliners at everything from rodeo's to rock concerts. What's more, there is so much money involved that beer producers have become the major sponsor of most national athletic events. Often people applaud all their money buys in a positive light, while choosing to overlook all the havoc their product produces behind the scenes.

We hardly even wince when everything from imported wines, to hard liquor is promoted on TV. The enticement to drink...to come to the high life....to enjoy the thrill...is piped right into our living rooms with such regularity that it has dulled the senses. The advertisers want you to believe that if you are cool you drink. That a vacation is not a vacation without drinking. That happiness and joy at all sorts of gatherings centers completely on having drinks. Elegant women in evening attire are shown sipping a crystal glass of champagne. Rugged outdoors men toss one another a cold beer. Cowboys and athletes are represented as finding their being through drinking alcohol. One beverage advertises as, "The finest product of the brewers art."

Let me give to you the real story. I can tell you from several perspectives. First, we all should be smart enough to know that Satan always puts the pretty stuff on his 'billboard'. He will never show you what really happens or he would be out of business tomorrow. It is his sly deceit that has kept him in business since his fall from heaven. For all you people that come around with, "Well a little beer here and there won't hurt you....or I don't think it's wrong to just have one now and then".....let me please reason with you. The sad endings that I am about to tell you of are the result of someone taking their first drink. Whatever the sordid outcome, it began with the first drink!

As a chaplain with the Arkansas State Police for 10 years, I have seen my share of accidents. My job was to make fatality notifications to the families of those who died on the highways. While there were many that did not involve alcohol, there were very many that did. Drunk driving kills thousands of innocent people each year. I remember one of my first calls involving alcohol. I helped load up three teenagers who were still laying on the highway when I arrived at the scene. They had been to a party and were on the way home when alcohol reaped its reward. I especially recall zipping the lifeless form of a young girl into a body bag. I was so upset by it that my legs literally were jerking. Her eyes were looking right at me when we closed the bag and loaded her. A small river of blood was still running across the road toward the corpse of one of her peers. Many other similar scenes of death were wreaking with the smells of alcohol. Oh yes, this is the high life!

I am recalling a most beautiful girl. She was the valedictorian of her high school class. Her brilliance had earned her a scholarship to college and a very promising future. She could set the limits. She could make as much money as she wanted. But sadly, the college scene and the peer pressure to be in the social drinking society changed how high she would truly soar in life. The demon of alcoholism took root in her soul. The first drink led to the next and the next and the next until...well, until I received her into the prep room of the funeral home I worked for. The culprit of her death? End-stage cirrosis of the liver. She was an emaciated shell of the beauty she had been..only her abdomen was strutted due to the self-inflicted disease. Her face would have been an advertisement for hell with its grotesque look of gaunt eyes and bloody teeth. Oh yes advertisers...this is where the fun is!

Sadly within my own family this horrid vice of alcoholism has taken its toll. A family member was an amazing farmer and positioned to pass on a wealthy legacy to his family. That is until the clutches of the drink wrapped around the neck of a great person...turning him into one who didn't care anymore. The clutches kept taking, until it took the farm, the future, the legacy and the wealth. Broke and almost destitute this person had to start over again from the bottom. Oh yes...no life without the brewskis!!

I remember some of my own friends who were hit head-on by a drunk driver. I drove up on the scene just after they had to airlift my friend and transport their children by ambulance. One of the children was literally scalped. Another had busted through his locked seatbelt on impact. The mother had multiple broken bones including a compound fracture of the arm and her pelvis broken into 7 pieces. The drunk was dead and was literally surrounded by more than 90 beer cans that flew out of his truck. Only his broken leg stuck up out of the wreckage as his broken soul went into the captivity of hell! Oh...did you want another drink cool guy? How 'bout it sexy lady? Come on....let's party!


How about the one of the dad who wound up molesting his own flesh and blood due to the influence of the drink. Or what about the girl who became a prostitute to support her habit of alcohol? She couldn't hold a job because of the drink, and she couldn't live without it, so she sold her own body to supply her damning habit. What about the athlete who lost his place on the team? Or what about the young person who didn't wake up the night of the party? What about the accident that took innocent lives? What about the man who threw himself overboard on the cruise that was supposed to be fun and relaxing? Oh....yes.....isn't this the fun of drinking? Come on....play that ad one more time. I love the tune....look at the smiles.....look how cool the people are! Isn't that how you will look? Please......!

When the advertisers tell you to "Taste Greatness!" or "Welcome to Miller Time!" or "The King of Beers!" You'd better think again. They are tools of Satan...playing a jingle that is leading many innocent people to the slaughter.

The stories are endless concerning the demise, the failure, the fights, the suicides, the loss and pain, the broken hearts and homes, the crime, disease, and hellish sins that have been committed at the hands of the brewers of whiskey, wine, beer and other strong drinks. The next time you see an advertisement of an alcoholic drink, take a moment to think about what is behind the billboard. While on the front they all look beautiful and healthy.....smiling with friends, remember that many times on the other side of the billboard is someone with an unwanted pregnancy, another who just beat up his own mother, another who woke up in jail with his own vomit dried in his hair, and another who didn't wake up at all...at least in this life. The next life is no relief either. For the Word of God says that drunkards will be eternally lost! A second hell awaits those who fall victim to the drug of alcohol. These are not the 'finest' product of the brewers art...but the 'finished' product of the brewers art.

Parents, please talk with your kids about this. Pastors, please speak clearly on the subject. Grandparents, tell it like it is. Don't play around with alcohol. Don't cover up the ugliness of its final result. Don't be caught in its web. Rise above it and reveal the wicked monster that it really is. Together we can save lives...and souls.

Tim Estes