Genie in Japan

Culture Clash.

So, today me and two of my roommates are at the grocery store shopping for nabe ingredients–nabe is a delicious stewy soup thing, where you put in vegetables and seafood and noodles and boil it all together in a pot right at the dinner table.  It’s cold and rainy, so we thought, “Aaaah, perfect nabe weather.”  I also thought “Hm a crisp, cold Asahi beer would go well with this hot and stewy nabe.”  So I grabbed a teeny tiny cute 100mL can and added it to our basket.Both of my roommates froze.  One asked, “What is that?”

“Birru,” I replied.

The other responded, “Wha-wha-what? Really?”  My other roommate, straight-faced, then went on to say, “No. Not in our house.  No one has and no one ever will.”
At this point, I’m thinking, you’ve got to be kidding me!!! For about the next five or so minutes, we were at a standstill in the middle of the grocery story aisle, both in shock and trying to reason with to back down.   I kept saying it’s just a drink.  She kept saying it’s not, not in Korea.  So I said well, I’m an American.   Then she said that there’s an unspoken-of rule that STINT houses are alcohol-free.  So I said fine, I’m backing down for today.  But I’m going to ask the staff if that’s really true.

I’ve had conversations before with Koreans about alcohol, and it’s pretty much taboo for Christians in their culture.  My stance–the Bible explicitly speaks against drunkenness, so I’m not cool with that.  My personal opinion, though, is that having the occasional glass of wine or beer is not sin.

However, the Bible does say:

“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” -Romans 14:13-23

So, there we go.  I am defeated. I will not drink in the presence of my Korean counterparts for the duration of this STINT.  There’s no point in arguing. I think it’s okay, but they don’t and that’s not going to change.  So to keep the peace, as much as it pisses me off, I gotta back down.  Wow.  The Bible is full of wisdom.