What is wrong with beer selling?

Being a devout CCAP member, Maness Jailosi, 34, could have chosen a different profession to avoid excommunication from her church, but she had limited options.

Jailosi knows the stand of her church on the issue of brewing, selling and consuming alcoholic drinks.

Had it not been for the ruthlessness of life, she could not dare set foot on Limbe Tavern to join other women in selling Chibuku.

Although Jailosi gives her tithes every month to her church, her membership with CCAP remains limited until she changes the business.

In the absence of solid alternatives, the poor woman has two options: dump her current business and die of hunger or leave CCAP for another church.

“I have three children whose father deserted me. Without this business, I can’t feed, clothe or educate them. Will the church help me deal with these problems if I drop this business?” asks Jailosi, before turning away to serve a customer who has just arrived at the tavern.

Jailosi’s church forbids members from producing and consuming alcoholic drinks. Even selling beer is frowned upon by the church.

But what is the basis for this argument?

Luchenza Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church resident pastor, Jossen Ndalama, closes the door on beer producers and consumers.

Without quoting the Bible, Ndalama says emphatically that both production and consumption of alcohol are sinful before God and his church would not let members stray from the will of their creator.

“There are two businesses which we don’t encourage our members to be involved in. These are beer and tobacco production.

“And when we discover that a member of this congregation is trading in beer or tobacco, we excommunicate them immediately,” says Ndalama.

But the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (LDS) takes a different approach when handling beer sellers and consumers.

A visiting elder of the church from South African Talakufa Mkhabera says transgressors are counselled to help them conform to the standards of the church.

“If beer sellers and consumers stick to their old habits, we remove them. They can only return after they have repented their sins,” says Mkhabera.

He says sometimes the church allows errant members to stay, but their membership will be limited until they satisfy the elders about their confession and penance.

But a Catholic priest, Father Henry Saindi, says it is wrong for churches to excommunicate believers based on their involvement in the production and consumption of beer.

Saindi urges churches to handle beer sellers the same way they deal with other entrepreneurs.

“I emphasise: beer drinking is not a sin. Beer selling is not a sin. So, what’s special that the church should handle beer sellers differently from others? I do not see any logic.

“In itself, therefore, alcohol consumption is not a sin. However, it does become sinful under these conditions: when anybody under legal age consumes it (Romans 13:1-7; Matthew 22:21); if taken without moderation (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8; Galatians 5:21, Romans 12: 1-3; 13:13); when one allows oneself to become addicted to alcohol (1 Timothy 3:8; Titus 2:3; Luke 21:34) and leading others into sin because of one’s drinking (Romans 14:21; 2 Corinthians 6:3; Matthew 13:41),” he argues.

On whether it is right to pay tithes from beer production and selling, Joe Banda Sekani agrees with the priest, saying there is no problem with tithes from beer selling members, contending that churches have no reason to consider their members’ means of earning income before receiving tithes from them.

“Money circulates in different ways and what matters a lot is your faith and commitment with your living God! Give your tithes according to the belief you have,” says Sekani, writing on the social networking site Facebook.

Another respondent on Facebook, Ernest Kadzokoya, says tithe is what people give to God from “the proceeds of our businesses or from our harvest as Micah chapter 3 explains.”

“Therefore, proceeds from beer selling can and should be given to God,” he says.