My Goodness, My Guinness!

As I write this I am raising a pint glass of my favorite beer in a toast to the folks at Guinness & Co. for their recent tasteful and touching ad, "The Empty Chair," and for their applaudible (is that a word?) decision to include an instrumental version of Anthony Stowalter's classic hymn, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," as the background track.  I do this as both a Christian and Guinness drinker. :)

The conservative Christian action group, One Million Moms (www.onemillionmoms.com), recently condemned Guinness for using the hymn in their ad, and called upon its members and supporters to petition Guinness to stop using the tune.  I sincerely hope their efforts fail. :)

Say what you will about One Million Moms (And believe me, I could say A LOT, but I'm choosing to restrain myself.), as a Christian and a parent I can at least agree that popular secular media is overflowing with unwholesome,  immoral, offensive content, and our culture's efforts to eroticize our children, undermine traditional family (and personal) values, demonize faith, and bombard us all with graphic imagery at every turn disgusts and distresses me.  I'm not saying that I agree with One Million Moms' tactics, or even that I believe their methods are ultimately all that effective.  A cursory perusal of the "Current Issues" section of their website revealed a few things that I would think any responsible parent concerned about his or her family's well-being would want to address, at least in the context of said family, if not the full blown take-down campaigns that OMM typically advocates.  But I also saw many, many "issues" that made me think, "Really?  You're in a tizzy over that??  With all the disgusting filth in the media today, you are seriously upset about that?"

The Guinness ad spot, "The Empty Chair," absolutely falls into the latter category.  In fact, not only do I think this ad is not remotely worth getting upset about, I think it should be applauded.  It's a great ad.  Watch it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx0MRawkrj4

This ad is about friendship and loyalty.  It's about honoring those who cannot be with us.  It's about hoping that those we love that are in harm's way will one day return to us safely.  It's about honoring the service of our men and women in uniform.  It's about friends who gather regularly for fellowship and miss their absent comrade.

And yes, it's about beer.  I get that.  I'm a sales person, and I understand how advertising works.  The ad is designed to create an emotional response and to cause viewers to connect those emotions and all of the positive themes I mention above with Guinness as a brand in the hopes that we'll buy Guinness as a result.  I get that.  And I say, "so what?"  We all know it's an advertisement, so it's manipulative nature is to be inferred and assumed.  The psychology of advertising doesn't make the ad any less positive or uplifting or touching. 

The use of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" as the background music is completely appropriate.  Read these lyrics, if you please:

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

O how bright the path grows from day to day,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

When someone we love is not only away from us but in harm's way, what sentiment, what song, could possibly be more appropriate than this?  When we seek to overcome our fear and dread, when we hope for security and safety for those we love, and we long for the joy of their return to our fellowship, what could be more appropriate than offering up a prayer that our loved one would be safely wrapped in the everlasting arms of a loving God?  We, too, can lean upon those arms for comfort until our loved one is returned safely.  Sometimes we need to lean on them for comfort when we learn that they will not ever be returned to us.

One Million Moms attempts to base their disapproval of this ad on the idea that alcohol and a Christian hymn are somehow incompatible.  Ludicrous.  While Scripture certainly condemns drunkenness and the sinful and destructive behaviors that often accompany it, there is nothing in Scripture or Christian canon that condemns alcohol outright.  Quite the contrary.  The Last Supper would have been a very different party were it not for alcohol.  The Last Supper was many things on many levels, but one of them was certainly a group of close friends gathering on a special occasion for fellowship and to share -- among other things -- some wine.  Christ's first miracle actually has Him creating an alcoholic beverage (Why?  Because His friends had run out of it at a party, and His mom asked Him to help out!), so we can assume He was not opposed to the stuff.  In fact the sharing of wine with His friends was such a meaningful event for Jesus that He promised not to drink wine again until he could do so with them in His Father's Kingdom (Matt 26:29).  Did you catch that, One Million Moms?  There will be social consumption of alcohol in God's Kingdom.  I hope you're not too offended by it. 

(Honestly, I think if Jesus decides to switch it up in His Father's Kingdom and have a beer instead of wine from time to time, he'd probably pick Guinness. Just sayin'.)

Ironically, One Million Moms is a part of the American Family Association, which was founded by Donald Wildmon, a United Methodist Pastor.  The United Methodist Church does not condemn the moderate, responsible consumption of alcohol.  In fact the denomination does not prohibit the use of fermented wine during communion, and consequently some UMC churches do still use it.

I believe that there is a also a good chance that Anthony Stowalter, the hymn's author, would not have objected to the use of his song in such a way.  Stowalter was a Presbyterian.  Here's a statement from the Presbyterian Church on the topic of alcohol:

"The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) does not advocate the prohibition of alcohol... Responsible and non-problematic uses of alcohol have been part of human experience and the Judeo-Christian heritage since the beginning of recorded history." (http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/101/alcohol/)

If Stowalter were like most songwriters, he'd probably just be amazed and thankful that his hymn was still known and popular a century after his death.  (Here's my favorite recent rendition for your enjoyment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCp05y7OoeM)

Of course I understand that the Guinness commercial is not depicting a religious ritual.  My point is that basing any condemnation of this uplifting and positive advertisement on an apparent incompatibility of Christianity with alcohol makes absolutely no sense.

It's things like this that continue to give conservative Christianity a bad rap in secular circles, adding credence to the idea that Christians are repressed prudes that would rather waste their energy getting upset about things that don't really matter instead of affecting real change by taking the love and hope of Christ to a hurting world.  One Million Moms has actually accomplished some good things.  They are raising awareness of the increasingly immoral and offensive content that is being piped into our homes by the media, and they are helping families make informed decisions about their media consumption.  They have made many media sponsors more aware of the content of the programs they support with their advertising funds.  But all of these positive things get overshadowed by ridiculous and unfounded witch hunts like their campaign against this Guinness ad.  It damages the organization's credibility and consequently makes them less effective as fewer people take them seriously.  One Million Moms should have instead chosen to applaud Guinness' choice of a Christian hymn for its ad music, and given them well deserved credit for going against the norm for beer commercials and making a wholesome, positive ad.

Guinness could have produced an ad filled with scantily clad models engaging in debauchery with a provocative background track from the likes of Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Rhianna, Robin Thicke, or any number of other artists.  If they had, most of us would have simply chalked it up as another typical beer ad.  But instead they opted to create an ad about love, hope, honor , and loyalty and back it up with a hymn about trusting God in our times of need.  To which I say "sláinte!"