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Question

 

Hi Gramps,

Would working as a bartender be against the word of wisdom. I was discussing it with a friend and you wouldn’t have to drink the concoctions but you would be enabling other to do so.

Boomer

 

Answer

 

Dear Boomer,

I’m going to save you some time. No, working at a bar is not a good idea. As we get older we sometimes have to work jobs that we do not like or approve of. While working at a convenience store to pay for college, some of us had to sell cigarettes, beer and lottery tickets to customers. It wasn’t a fun part of the job, but convenience stores exist for reasons other than selling lottery tickets, beer and cigarettes, so most of us would say that working at a store would not be immoral.

However, bars are totally different. They exist for one reason. To serve people alcohol. While just serving alcohol might not be immoral, when you are around it for 10+ hours a day the temptation to try some it, even if you don’t drink, will skyrocket. More so, being around people drinking alcohol will make it much easier for you to drink alcohol. Like it or not, the company we keep greatly effects our behavior and our moral choices. Including the company we keep at our workplaces. While not everyone will live up to our standards, it’s important to make sure we don’t overwhelmingly surround ourselves with people making questionable life choices. Working at a bar does exactly that.

It’s tough to make a living Boomer, and it’s easy for us to point our fingers and tell people not to work this or that job when we aren’t paying their bills. Sometimes though, it’s obvious that even if we have bills to pay, there are better and more moral jobs out there that we should be doing.

Hope this helps,

 

Gramps

 

 

 

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