An Open Letter to the Alcoholic Beverage Industry
Dear Anheuser -Busch, Coors Brewing, Samuel Adams, et.al.,
Last night, I met one of your best customers. It was a female, but, curiously, she was not a bikini-clad model standing near a pool. Nor was she a sophisticated cultural elite who obviously used your product to rub elbows with the other elitists of our society. I find that odd, since all your commercials present these as the only women who drink your products.
Let me explain who I met last night.
My wife had to make a quick stop at a local Publix to pick up two items we needed. I waited in the car with my two small children. I saw my wife coming out of the store, so I drove near the door, when a woman who looked to be in her 50s stumbled near my car and fell. I immediately put my car in park, told the kids to stay put, and jumped out. Honestly, I thought she had passed out, or … maybe worse.
The man in the car behind me did the same thing, and we helped her sit up. The smell of your product was in the air, but it wasn’t extremely strong, so I thought maybe the man helping me had “had a couple” before coming to the store. However, my wife handed this woman–your customer–her glasses, and then the woman said, “Would someone hand me my glasses.” She was holding them and putting them on her face as she said this.
The other man and I looked at one another, and knew what we were dealing with. The woman told us that her daughter was still in the store, and she was just coming to sit in the car. So, another woman went into the store to page the daughter, and we walked this woman to her SUV. Amazingly, she was carrying keys and wanted to get in the driver’s seat of the car. We wouldn’t allow it, and she agreed to sit in the passenger’s seat until her daughter came.
After a couple of minutes, we noticed her on her cell phone…calling her daughter to come get her. Her daughter was not in the store. At this point, I went into the store and spoke to the manager. They knew the daughter somehow, and knew she was not in the store. Also, they were calling the police to help with the situation that now had the parking lot standing still. After a few more minutes, the store manager told the other man and I that we could leave, and some men from the store came out to guard this woman from herself until the police came.
I am writing this letter to ask you to stop this. As a former youth minister, I have dealt with teenagers who had a problem drinking, or who lost friends in accidents involving your product. Others dealt with abusive parents because of your “cool” product. As a preacher, I have looked into the faces of many people who have had wasted years, wasted money, and wasted relationships because of your products (maybe that’s why they call it “getting wasted”). As a dad, I don’t want my children to see what your product really does, but I know they will be hurt in some way by it in their lifetime. As one who was once told that my wife and I would never have children, I grieve for those tiny ones in the womb who are already being introduced to your product. As a citizen of America, the state of Tennessee, the county of Davison, and the city of Hermitage, I am appalled at the regular and negative consequences your product has across this nation and in my own town. Yes, it might bring in some tax revenue, but it has cost us far more in lost lives and broken hearts.
If you are going to keep making your product, may I ask you to at least tell the truth in your advertisements? Please stop presenting your product as a elitist product or as what makes one the center of society and of all the fun. Because last night, I met one of your best customers, and I’m sure you will never have her in one of your commercials.
Praying,
Adam D. Faughn
Hermitage, TN
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In the comments, I am asking our readers to simply state their agreement with this letter. If you have a story you are willing to share, please do so as well. I don’t know if anyone in the industry will ever read this, but it can’t hurt to put it out there and try!
44 Comments
Nicole Breeding
I agree 100%. Having people in my life who have been in jail because of this product, died – in part- from drinking this product, it’s amazing that alcohol is only shown as this wonderful fun thing and not the depressive causer that it is. Most people who’ve tried alcohol and continue to drink it say they started for typically a “fun” reason, i.e. my dad let me try it and he was so cool or my friends and I used to go to the lake and it was so cool to drink and laugh with my friends etc…. Now, they can’t stop drinking and at the very least, ruined their bodies, if not their lives or the lives of someone around them.
Jeremy McKeel
Well put, Adam! I’ll share this post, as it is particularly timely for my town of Murray, KY. For the longest time, our town remained dry. We turned “moist” many years ago, and now the alcohol promoters are back, doing everything within their power, to push us to a fully “wet” status. It’s truly mind-boggling when the fact is that anyone that will be HONEST must admit that alcohol NEVER makes for better decision making. NEVER! And yet, I see many colleagues (adults) posting about how our sleepy little town NEEDS to be wet. We’re not sophisticated without it. I suppose advertising does work.
Gipson Baucum
My paternal grandparents were alcoholics. My parents shielded me from the insanity when I was younger. The stories I’ve heard since are an absolute nightmare. Even though my father and his older brother escaped and embraced a responsible life lived in faith, their younger brother just perpetuated the self-destructive cycle. Alcohol was a gateway drug for him leading to a prescription drug addiction and use of street-drugs. He died in a car accident in his fifties and no-one even bothered to check the toxicity reports. I’ve come to believe in recent years that what you inferred is true. That is that there are very few people who haven’t been affected negatively by alcohol.
Daniel Dalp
Amen brother! This post speaks so true!
Steven Hunter
Well said, Adam.
Mike Greene
Amen. I have said that the supposed benefits of beverage alcohol is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind. Through an alcoholic father, it stole my childhood and I will never forget the scenes of horror it brought into our home. And in my opinion all who make it and sell it have the blood of thousands on their hands. Those who have never lived through it just do not know or have fallen victim to the false advertising of hte alcohol industry.
Jon
Couldn’t agree more. Thanks for writing this.
Hoodsintn
I buried two daughters because of three guys who enjoyed a day off work and only had a few before they went for a joy ride.
Joy
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Lexie Ray
Adam, I sent your letter to my entire emailing list at the Fairdealing Church of Christ, Benton, KY because there’s a push right now to legalize liquor in our county; there’s already a link showing on FB about your letter, and I’m praying it will open some eyes and hearts to the dangers of alcohol in our community. I’m grateful for your thoughts and first hand description about what alcohol does.
adfaughn
Nicole, Thank you so much for reading, and for be willing to share this story. Stories like these need to be shared over and over to open the eyes of the public.
adfaughn
Gipson…and I can say is “wow.” I am so grateful that you found the Lord and have let Him, and not this substance, lead your life.
adfaughn
Mike…what a powerful statement. I hate that this is in your family’s history, but I am so thankful that you are willing to speak about it. People need to hear stories of what this substance really does.
adfaughn
Joy, I am aching for you as I read this short comment. What an awful experience, but I am grateful you are willing to speak about it. May the day come when stories like this are not found in our nation!
adfaughn
Lexie, Thank you so much for sharing this, and for using it to help in “such a time as this.” Keep up your great work, brother!
adfaughn
Jeremy, Obviously, you know how I feel from the zillions of comments on your Facebook page I’ve left today. I am grateful that you are willing to stand for the truth in the face of this fight around Murray. I’ll be praying that right wins due to the effort of people like you!
Cjtjht31569
We have family members who were part of the upper eschalon of a division of the military. This couple’s lifestyle included regular cocktail parties and formal dinners. I remember, as a young woman, the wife’s closet full of cocktail dresses and their fully stocked bar with all of the various glasses and mixers for different drinks. Neither one of this couple were irresponsible drinkers and they enjoyed the excitement and prestige of their lifestyle.
They had two boys who started, at a young age, helping themselves to that open bar and consequently became alchoholics. Now in their 50s, both boys lives are in shambles with broken relationshpis, arrests, and financial dependency on their parents (who are in their 80s). They have none of the prestige or excitement their parents enjoyed, just daily daily struggles to get by.
adfaughn
Thank you so much for sharing. I do not know your name, and that’s okay, but I am thankful you are willing to share what this does to families and children. Keep spreading the word!
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Cindy Tatum
Sorry, Adam. I wasn’t trying to anonymous. I’m Cindy .
Cindy Tatum
Sorry, Adam. I wasn’t trying to be anonymous. I’m Cindy.
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cyndi oakley-reaves
Adam, this is a wonderful article & I agree with you wholeheartedly. What’s scary is you & your family could have been leaving the parking lot the same time as her & driving on the same road as her. We may not have been able to read this article from you today…there may have been a totally different outcome. Sometimes God “throws” people in our paths for a reason & luckily she was put in yours last night. To save her life or others. I have a very dear friend who now has a daughter that is wheelchair bound, only has use of her left arm due to a spinal injury when she & her friend were hit head-on by a drunk driver on New Year’s Eve…her best friend that was driving was killed instantly & Kimmie still has pain every day. She won’t ever be featured in one of those commercials, either. She won’t ever have a family of her own, walk again or be able to live on her own. Sadly, there was no one to stop the man from getting in his car that fateful night. Bless you for stopping the lady from getting into hers last night.
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adfaughn
Cyndi… Each time I looked over at our car and saw Mary Carol and Turner, all I could think of was how many families have lost children to drunk drivers. I am thankful you shared the story of your friend. It hurts to read these stories, but they happen over and over again.
Lawana Perrault
Amen! I knew a beautiful wonderful Christian girl who was 17 when a drunk driver hit her car and killed her. Ironically, the man’s wife knew the mother and taught at the same school. If one never takes that first drink, he/she will avoid much heartache.
adfaughn
Lawana, Thank you for sharing this story. Sadly, this story could be told by thousands of people throughout our country, but we keep allowing this substance to be sold and used, and many just turn their ears off when stories like this are told.
David Sweet Dean
I have always been amazed at the damage that can and has been done by something that is pushed as a “good time drink” It is time that we wake up in America and see the harm that we are doing to ourselves, neighbors, and children. May God Bless the work you do.
Eugene
Proverbs 23:29-35 says it all because I’ve seen it all…and it’s sad!
Good post, Adam.
Adam Faughn
Thank you for reading and commenting. I hate that you’ve had to see the effects, but I’m glad you are willing to state how sad it really is.
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Eric Welch
What is also appalling is that some among churches of Christ actually work at such places (breweries, distilleries and wineries) and find no problem with it. They justify it by saying that they do not actually make the alcohol. Perhaps they work as receptionists, tour guides, truck drivers or janitors. Yet, the name is still on the paycheck when they have it cashed. What kind of influence could they have on a young person struggling with alcohol? What advice could an elder, deacon or Bible class teacher, who works at a distillery, give? That person will have lost his saltiness.
Gary Knuckles
Very good article, Adam! I had not seen this, before, but it is right on the mark. I wish more people could read this and realize the dangers involved with alcohol. We are facing the “wet” referendum, again, in Marshall county and this is a needed read for everyone!
Janet Groves
I totally agree….nothing good ever comes from alcohol! We are praying our county (Marshall Co, KY) will remain dry. The vote is July 28, so pray that we can stay dry.
Julie Burroughs
I am so with you on this since our County is voting on next Tuesday for soaking wet here. We have had several car accidents involving alcohol. I don’t know why the alcohol companies don’t use anyone of the horrific vehicle accidents for their advertising because that is what consuming their liquid sin will eventually cause in your life if consumed. I have been affected by alcohol in my life not from me consuming any but Family members that included: My Dad’s Father, My Mom herself and anyone she brought into our lives after the devorice from my Dad!! Her longest relationship with a man that malested me every weekend she took me with her or he stayed at our house it would happen. I told my mom when it was still happening and she gave the excuse of he must of been tired!! Also they drank and when I got my permit I was the driver most of the time when we went to Paducah. They also drove with me in the vehicle when they had been drinking. Thank God we always made it home safely. Also my brother and his friends would come in drunk and get sick along with my mom at those times I would hide in my room with a pillow over my head so I didn’t have to hear it. Some other family members drink also pray that they would find God in their life to get drunk off of his love for them and others. Also it is starting to effect my oldest daughter that is 21 years old and thinks she knows everything!! Recently she has disrespected us as her parents and she doesn’t think she has done anything wrong as she is 21 and has the right to drink when ever she wants. As her parents we don’t drink because we do not want someone to see us and make them stumble in their relationship with Christ. We want to be like Christ to shine in the things we do were people can see also in our home. You may share this with others or the alcohol companies so they see that their products do affect others that have not consumed any of their products but been hurt from Family members and strangers that has consumed their Liquid Sin products. For me and my House we serve The Lord everyday!!