A sincere apology for unnecessarily offending Catholics

Inspired by the recent vote on the alcohol issue, I wrote a series of articles reporting well documented facts regarding the prohibition amendment, an historical landmark in the history of the legal acceptance of alcohol on a national level. The two main points of the article were to show parallels between our county and our country as it relates to the legalization of alcohol and the true Biblical teaching of wine in the Bible.

It was my purpose to be a help to the community which is composed of Protestants, Catholics and those who have no Christian affiliation by encouraging the Biblical teaching of abstinence from alcohol. Sometimes historical facts are so pertinent to the issue at hand that they cannot be left out. Other times, certain facts, though they be true, can be omitted without doing injustice to the mission of the message.

I do admit that I included certain facts that were not pertinent to the mission of the message,

namely, the religious affiliation of the majority of drinking immigrants during the industrial revolution and that of the majority of the leaders of organized crime. I will admit that as far as reaching Catholics, these facts which probably composed 1 percent of the content, caused some to miss 99 percent of the message.

Though I cannot apologize for the truth of the facts of history, I can apologize for unnecessarily packaging them in manner that was obviously abrasive to some. To all Catholics in this community, I ask your forgiveness for any needless offense.

I love you all and am learning the lessons taught by the Apostle Paul and Jesus as they stated respectively, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." and "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."(1 Cor. 10:23 & John 16:12)

Shelem Flemmons