Temperance

 When we talk of temperance we think of alcohol and those crazy ladies wielding axes and marching in the streets. Carrie Nation, aka Hatchet Granny, was possibly the best known of these ladies. She belonged to the National Christian Women Temperance Movement. There were quite a few chapters of that organization around in the 1870's but its beginnings were in the 1820's. The ladies led the charge, usually being the ones that were on the receiving end of abuse caused by the use of that product. Drinking strong spirits was considered immoral, still is by some. But the temperance I'm thinking about this morning isn't abstinence from alcohol, I'm thinking about self-moderation or restraint. Something, in my opinion many are lacking in todays' world.

 You know it wasn't so much the alcohol those temperance ladies opposed; it was the abuse of alcohol that caused the problem. Their thinking was, eliminate the alcohol and you will eliminate the problem. Same thought process as gun control advocates use today. The effort proved unproductive and led to further problems. In the end, after thirteen years which saw an increase in violent crime and corruption prohibition was repealed. It was a failure. Now it did lower the amount of alcohol consumption in the United States, the primary purpose in the first place, but the social and economic costs were very high. So, in the end it failed to "temper" much of anything.

 It was the behavior of the people abusing alcohol that they wanted to temper. In short, quit getting drunk and abusing others! You can say you're sorry, promise to not do it again, but that doesn't matter much. Alcohol, viewed as the devil himself, will take hold of you. That was the explanation for what we call today, substance abuse and declare it a disease. Albeit, a self inflicted one, the blame is being shifted to the product once again, and not to the individual use of that product. 

 Religion, and the practice of religious beliefs, have traditionally been the means to temper a society. Temperance being restraint and self-control. Usually accompanied by the threat of punishment from the God(s) or natural calamities like storms, drought, or pestilence. The other method is what we call, government. A set of laws, codes, directives, and documents delineating what behaviors are acceptable in that society. Government is as varied as religious beliefs. Government also uses the threat of punishment for non-compliance. The extremes being a dictatorship and a Republic. Yes, our Republic is at the extreme end. A government of the people, by the people, for the people. An exercise in self-control! It is that lack of temperance that is causing so many issues today, just as it did in the past. 

 That idea, that thought has been expressed by many scholars over the years. The founding fathers wrote about it and how precarious a Republic really is. It's in constant peril due to the people. People are people and do not like to exercise self-restraint. In fact the objective is to restrain others in order to secure your personal goals. What religion calls temptation. It is those things we want for ourselves, for our own personal enjoyment, pleasure or profit. In government, compromise is the tool used to gain that objective. In our Republic it is supposed to be the majority that decides what we are willing to compromise. 

 That is being circumvented these days. Many times by using the very document that forms the basis of our Republic. The argument being, if the Constitution doesn't specifically say I can't, that means I can. Those decisions are the sole providence of the individual states. Today we have state "laws" that are in contradiction to Federal law. The Federal government has elected not to enforce its' own law! This "legalization" of marijuana is what I am referring to. So temperance is being removed, now on a national level. The thinking being, people are going to do it anyway.

 In one fashion you could say that premise is built into most religions as well. The concept of forgiveness from the God(s). You are going to doing it anyway (sin) so if you ask for forgiveness, it will be granted. In the end, there is no punishment. The Catholic church, which I'm not all that familiar with its doctrines, does have mortal sin. That's real bad, but still forgivable. It's the idea that some wrongs are more wrong than other wrongs. The objective is to not commit the wrong in the first place, not the removal of the wrong. You can't remove wrong from the world. People are going to do that. Ultimately it is personal temperance that controls all of that. The removal of "objects" will not alter that at all. It may, at best, alter the method chosen to commit the wrong, but it won't stop the wrong from being done.