1) the #1 need of the Church in Topeka right now is UNITY in prayer, in presenting Jesus and the message of the Gospel, not an attack on businesses that many (but not all) of us percecive to be evil;
2) the false unity created by attacking a common enemy is a poor substitute for true unity;
3) based on the persistent levels of traffic to these "sin business" pages without receiving any comments about them, or hearing from anyone that any church was actually using them for a prayer map, made me suspect that all I was accomplishing was providing free ADVERTISING for these businesses; and
4) the information in this list, which was completed in December 2002 and not updated, had become obsolete.
The original contents of this page are still available. I will provide them to any church, Bible study or prayer group on request.
Disclaimer: This list contains only businesses which the author believes sell or serve alcoholic liquor as their primary business. It should not include grocery stores which sell beer incidentally, or restaurants which serve alcoholic drinks but do not make liquor sales their primary business. It is derived from the telephone directory, advertising the author has seen from some of the businesses, reliable hearsay, and personal experience. It may be incomplete, and may also inappropriately list some businesses that no longer sell liquor as their primary business. Please report errors to the author using the e-mail link at the end of the page. It is presented for the use of persons and organizations preparing spiritual maps of the city, for prayer against the spirits behind these businesses, and for targeted evangelism. It is not presented to encourage picketing, vandalism, acts of violence or other illegal acts against these businesses. Christians must avoid such illegal acts. It is also not presented as advertising for these businesses.
Furthermore, I recognize that the Bible nowhere unambiguously prohibits the consumption of alcohol, even by Christians. It never explicitly states that no Christian must ever consume one drop of alcohol. Neither does it sanction the idea that there are "Christian" countries in which even unbelievers should be expected or forced to live according to Christian behavioral standards. Instead, the Bible unambiguously condemns only drunkenness, and teaches that Church leaders should not be persons given to "much" wine. Therefore, I, personally, draw a distinction between restaurants which serve alcoholic beverages with food, not expecting it to be used to excess, and traditional "bars" which exist to promote mild to moderate intoxication. If you know that any of the businesses listed as "bars" below is really, in spite of its name, just a restaurant, please let me know. I'll remove it from the list.
Note also that the list below is not intended as a boycott list. Since alcohol itself isn't unambiguously condemned in Scripture, I view the prevalence of businesses selling it as only a symptom of the spiritual state of the community, not an underlying cause. Alcohol sells so well because people have empty, painful lives and often-well-founded social fears that they need alcohol to anesthetize. They need to know Jesus and the Comforter. The solution is evangelism, not boycotts.
Topeka Spiritual Mapping home page
Data and information for those making physical maps of Topeka, index
God is spirit, and the source of life; alcoholic spirits are only a poor counterfeit.
"Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Territorial (Political) Fallacy, the error of teaching that "Christendom" is an area on the map of the world where everyone should be made to act like Christians.
|
|||||