Tobacco, Alcohol and the Mennonites

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   So far, no Mennonites own saloons. Spanish Lookout and Blue Creek have restaurants, but no alcoholic beverages are allowed to be sold in any store inside the community. Many liberal Mennonites see nothing wrong with a beer now and then and keep a few in the refrigerator but they do draw the line at tobacco; the wayward Kleine Gemeinde men also drink but more out of addiction than as a treat. But none of them are allowed to turn beer into a business within the community. Also, if the drinking becomes a problem that affects his family as in abusive behavoiur, the Kleine Gemeinde elders will step in and order him to leave the community. Old Colony Mennonites frequent the liquor stores out of personal necessity. Alcohol and tobacco are consumed by old and young alike, including some of the women, though within the church district they are not allowed to have a saloon. The drinking problem has caused broken homes and wounded children, emotionally and physically. Old Order (Hoover) are practically never seen or known with beer and tobacco nor will you see them visiting the stores to buy cases of beer. They shun such things not only as worldly but downright sinful. The occasional black sheep exists.
  Holdeman and Beachy Mennonites view the consumption of alcohol and tobacco as untolerable sins. The guilty person is spoken to, prayed for, admonished, rebuked or encouraged. If said person genuinely repents after committing such a thing, nothing else is done but a public apology is expected of him to the church. But if he persists in that vice, Satan has captured him and after careful and prayerful meetings, he is expelled from church membership (because spiritually he has already lost his membership with Christ) and cannot be reaccepted until he proves his repentance and acknowledges his sin. This is not a Mennonite regulation to them, it is a Biblical command found in Corinthians.

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