While attending a peer support group for people with alcohol addiction, I was relieved to have them tell me that I had a disease. This was over 35 years ago, but I remember that day like it was yesterday. The meeting was held in New Orleans.

I couldn’t wait to get home and tell Jeanne that my drunkenness was caused by a disease. She looked at me a little puzzled and asked, “What does that mean?” I answered, “It means that everything I did was not my fault. I’m sick.” She didn’t buy into that, and today I’m grateful.

It was a few years later that I learned from reading the Bible it was a lust of the flesh. In Galatians, chapter 5, verses 19, 20 and 21, it refers to drunkenness (not drinking) as as much of a sin as adultery, fornication, idolatry, hatred and murder, to name a few. It goes on to warn us that whoever continues to do such things will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Keep in mind that this is not my opinion; it’s what the Word of God says.

Calling a sin a sin is seldom or never mentioned in today’s churches. Why? Because it may offend some of the people, and that would be detrimental to church growth.

Years ago, Karl Menninger, M.D., wrote a book titled “Whatever Became of Sin.” During the ‘60s, America experienced riots, campus rebellions and so-called sexual freedom. Most Americans sensed trouble was brewing…something was wrong, but none dared call it sin.

As Americans, we all acknowledge that prayer is needed. In fact, each year the president calls for a National Day of Prayer.

In 1953, President Eisenhower used the following prayer that President Lincoln used in 1863:

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon.

Since then, no president has mentioned sin as a national failing.

Can you imagine a modern president beating his breast on behalf of the nation and praying, “God, be merciful to us sinners?” Maybe it’s time.

If you have any questions or comments, please write to Get High on Life, P.O. Drawer U, Reserve, LA 70068, call 985-652-8477, or email hkeller@comcast.net.