Confessions of a Former Teetotaler: Drinking and Christianity

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This story was a hard one for me.

When I was given the opportunity by Today’s Christian Woman to write about where I land on the drinking debate and why, I knew doing so would reveal things about me that may change people’s opinions of who I am.

I would write a paragraph and think “this person is going to think I’m such a weirdo.” I’d write another and think, “Oh my goodness, that person is going to question my salvation because I like pina coladas.” And when I wrote a bit of family history I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe someone would feel like I unnecessarily shed light on a topic that doesn’t get talked about…I could go on.

I can’t read through this article without my heart beating a little fast. But not one thought made the final cut without extensive reflection and care.

Some will vehemently disagree with me on this one, while others will have a hard time believing how strongly I was opposed to alcohol consumption until recent years. But it is what it is, as they say.

I took the opportunity to write about something hard, and I decided that if two of my primary goals were not offending anyone and making myself look good, I couldn’t possibly write a true story.

So here’s the link. Take it or leave it.

Confessions of a Former Teetotaler

By KimHarms

Kim Harms is an author, speaker, and part-time library assistant with two decades of freelance writing experience. She has a degree in English from Iowa State University. She and her husband Corey have three super-awesome sons and one crazy dog. A two-time breast cancer survivor, her first book, Life Reconstructed: Navigating the World of Mastectomies and Breast Reconstruction (Familius), is a guide for women walking the breast cancer road. She is currently working on her second book, a devotional for women going through breast cancer.

0 comments

  1. I wanna read it!! But I don’t wanna subscribe. Sounds like an interesting article. Congrats on your writing!

  2. My journey down the path of the Christian alcohol debate is eerily similar to yours. I so appreciate you taking the risk to write about this important issue. The turnaround I experienced in my walk with God when I finally stopped demonizing social drinking ended up finding its way into my first novel. Please know I’m not intending for this comment to be a shameless plug for my book, but I’m just saying this to affirm that this is really an important topic for so many of us right now. I know that because of my own reader responses. In my Christian humor novel, I force my superior-minded main character to attend a bible study in a saloon. So many people seem to connect with the inner turmoil I put that poor lady through as she wrestled with whether or not to go. Excellent writing, Kim–thank you!!

    1. Thank you so much for leaving this comment. I have been gearing up for comments from people who disagree with me so this is great encouragement to me. I’m almost ashamed to say that I bought The Epic Undoing of Haley Ann Ewing last year to read on a trip and never got around to reading it. I’ll have to dig through my kindle library and find it 🙂

  3. Excellent story! I think you are being too hard on yourself. Many years ago, in our early married years before having kids, most of our friends were non-Christian and they always tried to “force” me to take a drink. And although they thought I was a little weird, I felt that they respected me (at least most of them).

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