Drunk Driving and the Catholic: An Enduring Problem (Part 1)

It is that time of year again, the last parties of the Summer and the returning, or beginning, of college are happening.  Soon, the holiday parties will commence.  With all this frivolity comes a scourge on our nation; Drunk Driving.  To many indulging in alcohol in harmless and, worse, victimless.  The Bible has many injunctions against drunkenness.  Perhaps the strongest is found in the book of Isaiah; Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink: Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! (Isaiah 5:11)  Also, as in written in Isaiah, Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine:  And valiant men in mixing strong drink (Isaiah 5:22). 

In Biblical times fermented beverages were common and part of everyday society.  However, it is drunkenness that evokes the anger of the Biblical authors.  The Biblical authors saw something in the drunkard’s behavior that was abominable to the Lord.  In Leviticus we read: “Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.” (Leviticus 10:9)  Clearly, the Bible has little patience for those who lose control of themselves through the overindulgence in alcohol.

St. John Chrysostom, a fourth century Doctor of the Church, once said in a homily:

“Let there be no drunkenness; for wine is the work of God, but drunkenness is the work of the devil. Wine makes not drunkenness; but intemperance produces it. Do not accuse that which is the workmanship of God, but accuse the madness of a fellow mortal … For what is more wretched than drunkenness! The drunken man is a living corpse. Drunkenness is a demon self-chosen … ”

The great Medieval Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas writes;

“Every sin is voluntary [per St. Augustine]. But no man wishes to be drunk, since no man wishes to be deprived of the use of reason. Therefore, drunkenness is not a sin.” “On this way drunkenness is a mortal sin, because then a man willingly and knowingly deprives himself of the use of reason, whereby he performs virtuous deeds and avoids sin, and thus he sins mortally by running the risk of falling into sin. For St. Ambrose says: ‘We learn that we should shun drunkenness, which prevents us from avoiding grievous sins. For the things we avoid when sober, we unknowingly commit through drunkenness.’ Therefore drunkenness, properly speaking, is a mortal sin … " (ST II-II, Q 150, A 1, arg 2) 

As the great author G.K. Chesterton once said:

“In Catholicism, the pint, the pipe, and the Cross can all fit together. . . The same way that a foodie will enjoy seeking out great food to try, I, along with many others, relish in trying new brews as often as I can while savoring the classic ones. Not to mention many parishes and dioceses sponsor events like Theology on Tap at local bars.

All that being said though, this is a far cry from the way that I approached drinking only a few years ago. In my college days, things were a bit different, and it continues to be for many of my peers, as well as with those slightly younger than me. Sometimes an affection for a good beer or drink turns into affection for “getting wasted”. To quote Chesterton again:  “We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.”

In modern times, many people who are impaired through alcohol get in their car and, literally, weaponize it.  According to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving); “People are dying on America’s roads at levels not seen since 2002, with no apparent plan to address this immediate crisis. For the third consecutive year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reported horrifying new estimates of the number of people killed in traffic crashes, while we have seen a troubling lack of commitment to take action to stop the slaughter occurring on our roads.

With so many terrifying, high-profile crashes playing out daily, there is no time for complacency. We need to return to the basics of enforcing hazardous driving behavior laws and prosecuting these choices to the fullest extent of the law. Research has shown that this can be done in a fair and equitable way. The latest estimates that 9,560 people were killed in traffic crashes in the first quarter of 2022 – a 7% increase over first quarter 2021 – indicate that lives taken by someone’s choice to drive impaired will reach the highest levels in over a decade at a time when traffic safety enforcement is down.  In light of this report, we urge the Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to convene a national Call to Action meeting to implement his National Roadway Safety Strategy and prioritize the use of proven traffic safety countermeasures as soon as possible. The strategy must prioritize swift actions to increase fair and equitable traffic safety enforcement and implementation of the Congressionally mandated rulemaking to require technology in all new cars that will prevent drunk driving. These must be approached with a genuine sense of urgency aimed at saving lives and preventing injuries.”

Many people think that such statistics are spouted only by self-righteous persons.  This is not always the case. I was turned into a statistic on September 28, 1988 when I saw a pair of headlights crash head-on into me.  I survived, at a price.  More, next time. . .