Reader comments
Alcohol regulation protects community

If alcohol regulation protects the community, great, lets us as a community design laws which will intelligently allow its proper use and discourage its improper use.

Perhaps this is what Utah already has, perhaps we can improve on what we have.

I don't like the idea of a religion however stating specifically what particular laws ought to be. What brought me to this conclusion is the wierd laws that Islam has, women must be covered, not be able to drive, not get educated. etc.

Not only moslems, catholics if they could would outlaw reading the scriptures, birth control.

LDS would and have in times past gotten a law passed in Utah outlawing shopping on sunday.

I could go on, my point is this, society has no business passing laws peciluar to any one religion. Religions tend to have non sensenical rules in addition to their rules that make sense.

To often when a religion gets involved in trying to pass a law, it is one of their nonsenseical rules that they are trying get all people to obey.

Alcohol is more complex, however the LDS church should not try to dictate specifics for reasons stated above.

If you do not have Alcohol in the first place, or restrict it, you do not have to worry about its responsible use.

There should be a Law against Stores being open on Sunday, as Christian people will be required to work in them on Sunday and they and most likely their kids will miss Church. Mass still has Blue Laws and I have never seen a Blue Law that i did not like.

Laws against being open on Sunday or not open till a certain time. Protect Not Only LDS but people of all Faith Groups that hold Sunday as their Sabbath.

Even God rested on the 7th day and if its good enough for God then its Good Enough for me.

When I was a Child living in Mass, the Store was only open till 9PM, 1 Night a week, Mostly Wednesday. Sometimes Friday.

I also believe that if your Sabbath falls on a different day, you should be able to have that day as one of your days off.

Even in 3rd World Countries there is Great Respect for the Sabbath. This is seen as No great loss, and people are prepared and work it out.

If you have the Votes you have the right control your Community. As long as you act within reason and follow State and Federal Laws.

An example of this in Hawaii is Laie Hawaii. Home of BYUH. The Town is Dry, the stores closed on Sunday. No R Rated Movies and No Adult Section in the Video Store. The Rest of Hawaii is more or less wide open.

Sometimes State Law protects Alcohol Sales as in Arizona. None Sold before 1PM on Sunday.

The Voters in the Community have the right to set the tone of the Community.

Sometimes Christians and this includes the LDS are told by those that do not CTR, what the Community should do and how they should act in order to accommodate them.

We are right and they are wrong and it is as simple as that. We need to stop feeling bad and acting like victims and stand up for our standards.

There is nothing wrong with Alcohol restrictions. 16,000 people die each year because of misuse of alcohol here in the US. Take into account the "West Nile" warnings or "Mad Cow" scares where only a few hundred have ever died from such diseases, yet for some reason it garnishes attention. But the disease known as irresponsible alcohol consumption kills thousands every year and destroys countless others lives, yet all you see is beer commercials and displays of debauchery. Rationalizations and excuses.

If 16,000 people died every year in an equally violent and irresponsible manner, you would have legislatures up in arms trying to solve the problem. However, while Utah fatalities remain relatively low, lawmakers are now seeking to change things?

And to say this is only and LDS issue is absurd. Many atheists, deists and other theists abhor alcohol like they should. To equate the regulation of a dangerous substance to wearing a head scarf is laughable, if not sad.

There is the reason this state is in better shape than others and it certainly is not because of our government.

DICTATE is much too strong. the LDS church has stated obvious conclusions where we have benefited by our current liquor laws. i am interested in all religious/secular points of view regarding the many social topics that we face today.

The LDS Church is the cause of so much hardship in Utah
Ignorance is a good example
Everyone does not live like Mormons
Some of us actually know about Currant Events
Some of us watch TV and are Currant on the World outside
We are up on the News
We are Americans

Some of us know and read the Holy Bible.

We follow the 10 Commandments.

Love thy neighbor.

Bare no false witness against thy neighbor.

This is a problem in Utah

Did you even bother to carefully read the article? All three stated objectives cannot be refuted as to their social and community value. Furthermore, nowhere in LDS doctrine or practise can you find effort to deny its followers (or anyone else for that matter) the exercise of personal agency or choice. The LDS faith is perfectly within it's logical mandate to work towards any reasonable measures which will avoid the consequences of social ills such as the abuse of alcohol. When tragedy occurs as the result of alcohol abuse, impaired driving etc, YOUR taxes go up, YOUR health and accident insurance goes up, YOUR auto insurance costs go up. You need to get past your obvious distate for the LDS religion and accept the fact that you benefit immensely by living in a state where you are safer as a result of living here and many costs of living are cheaper as well.

Efforts by the LDS church to reduce the many negative consequences of drinking are laudable. Where the friction occurs is when the church is seen as arbitrarily imposing it's enormous influence on non-members, and visiting tourists with unusually restrictive, or down right weird liquor laws. If the church wants to discourage drinking in the market place of ideas, through reasonable laws, advertisements, and education programs etc. good for them. But they do their own public image, and the rights of drinkers a huge disservice with silly or irritating alcohol restrictions.

awesomeron, you're talking about one of those nonsensical rules that the first poster mentioned. I don't personally believe in any religion, and Sunday is the only day of the week I have time to go grocery shopping. In fact, my grocery list is sitting right here so I can go to Smith's as soon as I get my laundry done. Everyone deserves a day off, but I also think everyone should be able to pick the day they go to the grocery store--including Sunday. There is also the occasional emergency where you may be glad you can go to the store and buy some medicine or something similar. So no, I don't believe stores should be required to close on Sunday, although I do think they should be able to choose (and most grocers would choose not to because of profits at least). And now I've gotten completely off topic! :)

The article is right, 90% of the church statement is boilerplate safety-nanny language that could come straight from MADD or some other neo-prohibitionist outfit. Imagine the outcry if the church expressed the same concerns about guns!

To the extent that the church is serious about "individual freedom of choice," I would say the statement supports allowing smoking in clubs (which directly affects individual choice) more than it does eliminating private clubs (which really doesn't have anything to do with choice). So how about it, legislators: listen to the church and let adults decide whether they want to smoke while they get together for a drink!

Smoking isnt just a personal choice it effects everyone around you. Its called 2nd hand smoke.

In Utah county they are considering outlawing out door smoking in many places.

Before I would do that I would outlaw smoking in cars with children and perhaps in houses too.

TO AWSOME RON, Your saying that Sunday is the 7th day is off base. You must not have studied the subject.Sunday is and always has been the 1st day of the week. That leaves Saturday as the 7th day. If you will study the matter, you will find that it was the Cathloic Church under the direction of Emperor Constantine, that changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. One of the reasons for this was to distance themselves from the Jewish People. The Jewish religion still keep the 7th day Sabbath. To be fair about what day businesses should be closed, please study the Sabbath subject.

I agree with the post regarding smoking in cars with children. This should be illegal. Children can't decide when their parents make such decisions. We have mandated car seats and seat belts for kids, but allow them to be subjected to dangerous second-hand smoke. Personally I wish it were illegal to smoke in restaurants throughout the nation. A majority of people support these controls.
As for alcohol rules, I guess many of the anti-Mormon comments are from people who have never been to the Southern US. I have been through many areas that have DRY counties, meaning no alcohol can be bought or sold anywhere in the county. No exemptions. Much more restrictive than Utah, and yet these areas have very few Mormons.

If people want alcohol, they're going to get it somehow, no matter what. Remember Prohibition?

Utah should be a dry state. Yeah, if they want it they're going to get their alcohol, but let them get it in Nevada or Wyoming, if they want. To try to get into the liquor business, just breeds one hypocrisy after another.

When I was a kid in Utah, stores where closed Sunday. This like liquor laws changed once their was money to be made.

Some of us are not "Currant", the rest of us are just ignorant and uneducated.

Iwas raised in east,tn.that part of the state was DRY or so some thought.when it came up for a vote(alcohol)they would vote dry but drink wet.they had to go a short distance into virginia to get their booze and virginia LOVED IT.

IF YOU KNOW ABOUT THE LATEST EVENTS,
ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT KNOWING ABOUT BERRIES OR THE NEWS.