Alcohol in the Home: What Should the Church Do?: An Analytical Guide to Understanding and Ministering to Families Affected by Alcohol Abuse

According to recent statistics, 1 in 4 children are affected by parental alcoholism. Most of these children have no idea how to cope with their parent's addiction. They are affected emotionally, physically, mentally and even spiritually. Our society inundates sporting events and T.V. commercials with beer and alcohol advertisements. It is easy to see how alcoholism could be a way of life for most people. We have come a long way from the days of prohibition. What once was a hot topic for ministers and women's movements has now become something rarely talked about or even taboo. Alcohol has become something of an accepted norm. Thus, we seldom hear of churches doing anything about the sale, distrubution, or consumption of beverage alcohol. Yet, its corrupting power has not left us. Thousands of people die every year from its abuse and millions of families are affected adversely every day by its abuse. The Church as a whole, over the last several decades has been largely silent on the issue. There can be many reasons for this, but it is time to be silent no longer. The Church has a responsibility to help families affected by alcohol abuse, especially the children. This book will help shed some light on the otherwise silent world of the child of the alcoholic. It will offer an understanding of what the Bible has to say about alcohol, how the church has dealt with the issue of alcohol throughout the centuries, provide actual data from interviews with children of alcoholics, and provide some practical suggestions for members of the faith based community to get involved in intervention to affected families.