Opposition Is Becoming Vocal On Damascus Liquor Question

DAMASCUS, Va. – With anti-liquor signs going up and a prayer march through town last Thursday night, opposition is heating up to the liquor-by-the-drink question, which is up for a referendum vote on May 6.

"Most of the churches in the area just believe that the Bible teachers against the drinking of alcohol of any kind," said Wayne Baker, preacher at Laurel Avenue Church of Christ that put up a sign in opposition as soon as they learned of the referendum.

"It [alcohol] has always caused problems, and physical damage, but also spiritual damage. They’re relying upon the alcohol to deal with their problems instead of letting God help them."

He said there are also concerns that people who consume a mixed drink are "one drink drunker" and, if allowed in town, liquor by the drink would mean more intoxicated drivers and more people struggling with alcoholism.

The ballot question is: "Should the sale of mixed alcoholic beverages by restaurants licensed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board be permitted in the town of Damascus?"

Among those who signed a petition to get the question on the ballot are Mayor Creed Jones, Town Councilmen Mitchell Greer and Maurice Parris, and town council candidates Kenneth Upchurch, Tom Hayes and Don Morgan.

Baker said he won’t vote for anyone who signed the petition.

The list also includes several prominent downtown business owners.

The effort to get the question before town voters was spearheaded by Betty Miller, general manager at Damascus Old Mill.

She said she was asked by some town leaders – including town council members she would not name – to seek the change to generate more revenue for the town.

She said the Old Mill is also losing business because it cannot serve mixed drinks with meals and stressed that her establishment is not seeking to attract a bar crowd. The restaurant at the Old Mill currently serves beer and wine, but Miller said 95 percent of it is sold with meals.

"At first, everybody wanted it. And I guess somebody was upset about it and nobody knows. So we’ve done reached that point that we really don’t care," she said. "It’s pretty much a town issue now; it’s up to them [voters]. If they want to support it, fine. If they don’t want to support it, that’s fine too."

Miller said liquor by the drink and other issues will be open for discussion Tuesday at an informal town meeting to meet the candidates for office and ask questions. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Old Mill.

"They can bring up anything they want to bring up and say anything they want to say," she said.

Other churches are erecting opposition signs like the one at Laurel Avenue Church of Christ.

Robert Griffin, senior pastor at Faith Baptist Church, said more than 60 members of at least three congregations came together Thursday for an opposition prayer march through town.

"We’re very concerned about it because it would be detrimental to our town in our estimation because we have to deal with the people left behind by the drugs and the drinking and so forth," Griffin said. "We try to help them instead of getting them involved into it."

Griffin says while serving liquor might be good for business in the short-term, it would be costly to everyone in the long term.

"We’ve got a lot of transplants in Damascus who have just recently moved in in the last four or five years, and they’re generally the ones who are pushing this," Griffin said. "They bought businesses and they’re trying to improve their businesses, and they’re doing it at the expense of the rest of the town."

He said he doesn’t know of any church in town that’s in favor of allowing liquor to be sold in town restaurants.

Four churches contacted by the Herald Courier Friday and Saturday indicated their congregations were opposed. Officials at those churches said they know of at least five other churches that are also opposed. No opinion could be obtained for one other church in town.

Jones, who attends First Baptist Church and says he does not drink at all, clarified his position in a letter to this newspaper Friday.

"I have not abandoned the beliefs of my church nor do I intend to go to restaurants to purchase alcoholic drinks should the people pass this," Jones wrote. "But as a public official ... I do advocate that the citizens should be allowed to vote on this issue and the town officials must uphold however the vote goes."

Jones said in later interview that he won’t share what his personal vote will be on the issue.

"The people of the town will be the ones to decide," he said. "I think it’ll do one thing, I think it’ll cause us to have a bigger turnout for the election."

Chad Byron, Jones’s challenger for mayor, said he will vote against the sale of liquor by the drink.

"I don’t think it’s going to be the best thing for the town," Byron said. "I think it’s an idea that stems from one or two specific business owners in town wanting to put a couple of extra bucks in their pocket."

Meanwhile, Wayne Guynn, pastor of First Baptist Church Damascus, said more could happen in opposition to the liquor issue.

"We really haven’t gotten together – yet, anyway – to have a coalition of churches or try to oppose it in that sense," Guynn said. "It was just as it came up ... our individual churches that were against it just spoke out against it."

He said the churches oppose the sale of liquor in town for Biblical reasons and also because of alcohol’s cost to society in the form of traffic crashes, domestic abuse and alcoholism.

He said while Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine, the wine consumed in Jesus’ time was diluted with water – and probably had an alcohol content of less than 2.5 percent.

While it made wine a safer beverage than water, he said it would have taken vast quantities of ancient wine to reach a state of drunkenness. He said as far as he knows, there were no distilled spirits at that time.

"We’re not against tourism. We’re not against people having a good time in town," Guynn said. "We want them to have that without having to drink alcohol."

Ginger Holmes a member of the church, said she and others in the congregation support their pastor. She said while many people who call Damascus home are just outside town limits and can’t vote, many who oppose liquor also live in town – and she thinks the proposal will be defeated.

"It’s gonna be interesting," Holmes said Saturday, in between a potluck supper and a church service, "but I think the Lord’s on our side."

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