Tennessee Pastors Network President Dale Walker called on Tennessee legislators to reject a bill moving through the legislature that would allow for sales of wine and liquor on Sundays in Tennessee Tuesday.
“We have more than enough problems with alcohol abuse in Tennessee without making it even more easily and readily accessible, especially on the Lord’s Day,” Walker saidn in a statement, adding:
We are praying that the legislators will focus on the dangers of fueling even more addiction and harm to Tennessee families from these products rather than bowing to the demands of the liquor lobbyists and their large campaign donations.
Alcohol continues to devastate more and more lives, and our politicians are to blame when they allow an increasing number of venues for alcohol to be sold. Now they not only want more venues, they want to add an additional day for the sale of these products. Do legislators really believe the problems and challenges we face in Tennessee will be solved by more of our neighbors and family members consuming more alcohol?
I pray that Tennessee wakes up and defeats this liquor industry push for more alcohol sales. Sunday sales of liquor and other alcoholic beverages will not make Tennessee a better place to live and raise our families – it will simply pour more profits into the liquor industry.
Walker points to President Donald Trump as “a tremendous example to young and old alike by his stand of refusing to drink alcohol,” noting the World Health Organization estimates that alcohol is responsible for taking a life every 10 seconds.
State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, is the Senate sponsor of SB0923 while Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, is sponsoring the House version (HB0758). The proposal’s summary reads simply:
Alcoholic Beverages – As introduced, permits package stores to sell alcoholic beverages and retail food stores to sell wine during hours when beer is sold. – Amends TCA Title 57, Chapter 3; Title 57, Chapter 4 and Title 57, Chapter 5.
Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) opposes the measure, telling LocalMemphis.com, “We continue to see the epidemic of drunk driving and lots of other things, and societal ails that come from the use and abuse specifically of alcohol.”
In addition to Tennessee, 10 other states continue to ban Sunday liquor sales: Alabama, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Alcohol kills 88,000 every year. It kills more teenagers than all illegal drugs combined. We don’t need more of it .
It’s not the liquor lobbyists it’s the grocery association pushing this bill!