I just wanted to relay this true story from a good friend of mine. He was a messenger at this years annual Southern Baptist Convention. He tells me this story about eating dinner in Indianapolis.
He goes to have dinner at a restaurant. He asks the server if she has been busy due to all of the Southern Baptists (SBs) in town. She said they’ve noticed a little more business, but nothing overwhelming.
He asks how tipping has been with the visiting patrons. Her answer is that they’ve not been too great and that a co-worker had just been given a $.02 (yes, that’s two cents) tip by a few SBs.
My friend then jokes and asks if beer sales have been up during this time. She laughed and said that many SBs are very much against even one drink of alcohol. She said that the Bible only forbids drunkenness and does not teach total abstinence of alcohol. And she just doesn’t understand the general SB insistence of abstinence.
He agreed that that’s what the Bible teaches. He told her that he is a Southern Baptist, that it’s not a sin to have a drink and he’s going to have a beer with his dinner. She was actually fascinated by his position that it was okay to drink a beer and that he actually drank one.
When he was finished with his meal he felt bad about the lack of tipping and the two cent story. He ended up leaving a very generous tip of around 40%.
At the end of his telling me this story he mentioned Abraham Piper’s interesting post during T4G about this topic that I had not read.
For what it’s worth…
Mark
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