Alcohol: Used, Abused, and Confused

A preview of the upcoming town hall meeting

by Walter Miedema, Contributing Editor

On November 1st Student Senate has planned a town hall meeting to raise and discuss the issue of how we, as members of the Calvin Seminary community, use alcohol. This is a touchy issue and one that must be dealt with in a sensitive manner. As a denomination we are not legalistic about alcohol because we see it as a gift of God to be used and enjoyed in a responsible manner. Student Senate has scheduled this town hall meeting to spur discussion in our community because they feel it is a community issue.

This issue is also being addressed indirectly as a response to a small number of anonymous and individual complaints received by Dean of Students Richard Sytsma during the spring quarter of last year. None of these complaints were aimed at any particular student, and from my understanding were simply a concern regarding the amount of socializing by seminarians in situations where alcohol was present. These complaints were shared with the Student Senate and it was decided that as a community issue they ought to be the ones to address it.

Student Senate has chosen this open discussion method to address the issue because they wish to be holistic in their approach. The town hall meeting is seen as a beginning step in addressing the issue. They seek to create a forum for discussion related to this issue, a means for allowing student input into administrative policies that relate to the issue, and to facilitate the creation of accountability groups for students.

Central to the difficulty of addressing alcohol use is the fact that we, as individuals, have had a wide variety of life experiences that relate to it, whether directly or indirectly. Some of us may abstain entirely because we have seen the pain that alcohol has caused in our lives or our friend’s or neighbor’s. Others may see no reason to abstain because the alcohol in itself is not evil. Because of these widely different opinions some may claim that a line has been crossed in a certain situation where others see no such problem. There is also the matter that this is a community that trains leaders for the Church.

Cultural sensitivity has a small part to play in this debate as well. When I interviewed Dean Sytsma in relation to this article he explained “Most of our international students come from backgrounds where they don't drink. They've taken over that attitude toward alcohol consumption from the missionaries who went to these countries during the 19th century with an idea that it's not good to drink. They just continue that. To the best of my knowledge most of them don't drink here either.” While this may be true, Dean Systma told me that only one of the complaints he received last year was from an international student. “The subject comes up very little on the part of international students. As far as if that's because it's not a problem at all or if it's because they just don't talk about it, my sense is that it's not a big issue for them.” Said Sytsma, “Even those [international students] who come from places where they feel it's not right to drink, they come knowing our stance on it and they accept that and they're OK with that.”

The issue of alcohol has not been a concern in recent memory. When asked, John Lee, student senate president, said that the issue had not been addressed in his four years on senate but that “an awareness of our need to address it has been building over time.” Dean Sytsma confirmed this. “I've been here seven years now and this is my eighth and I haven't heard any complaints at all through those years, except for last spring.”

In actual fact this issue is one small, if touchy, component of how we as seminary students and faculty live together in a Christian community. Our willingness to give and receive loving, constructive criticism about our lifestyles and behaviors is something we should be able to do freely. Our concerns should not be legalistic ones but should be spoken out of concern for one another. This is also part of why the student senate saw fit to address this issue.

In my conversation with Rev. Systma he brought up Matthew 18 more than once. Verses 15 through 18 address how we are to deal with brothers and sisters who we believe are acting in ways that we feel are unhealthy. We need to address them directly first. A large portion of grace is needed to be both the giver and the receiver of this type of action. It is an action that we as individuals in this seminary community should exemplify. There are many texts in the Bible that relate to alcohol that are important to the discussion but they must all be framed in the context of loving concern for our neighbor.

Student Senate’s prayer is that the town hall meeting on November 1 will be a safe yet difficult place for our community to begin to listen to each other on this issue. Let us all pray with them so that we may be better able to live together as a community at Calvin Seminary.

As always, responses and further discussion of the question of alcohol use among seminary faculty and students may be sent to letters@kerux.org.

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