To drink on Sunday or not?

One of the questions people who live within the city limits will see on their ballot concerns the sale of alcohol on Sundays. The question is worded as follows:
“Shall the South Carolina Department of Revenue be authorized to issue temporary permits in this municipality for a period not to exceed twenty-four hours to allow the possession, sale, and consumption of alcoholic liquors by the drink to bona fide nonprofit organizations and business establishments otherwise authorized to be licensed for consumption-on-premises sales S.C. Code § 61-6-2010(C)(l)(a)?”
People in favor of the question talk about economic development and point out it would be limited to restaurants. You would still be banned from buying alcohol in grocery or convenience stores on Sundays, and liquor stores would not be open.
Those who oppose the question cite concern about a rise in crime and the destruction of family.

FOR
The Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce is the group that first approached city council about putting it on the ballot.
“It’s purely economic development,” said President Grier Blackwelder. “It means more jobs, more dining choices and more of a tax base.”
Whether it’s Sunday lunch or a Sunday night sporting event, people sometimes like an alcoholic beverage with their meal, he said. Right now they’re going to Columbia and Florence to get that.
“That money is going out of town,” Blackwelder said. “Business people who have an early morning meeting will not come to Sumter Sunday night. They choose to stay in Columbia or Florence.”
Eddie Farmer, general manager of Wikked Buffalo Wings LLC, agreed.
“First and foremost, it keeps revenue here in Sumter instead of people traveling out of town to Columbia or Camden,” he said. “Even Camden is doing it now. You still have Sunday alcohol sales in private establishments. I think everybody should be able to get a little piece of the pie. Sunday is a big sports day, and Sumter is a big military town. They like to sit, watch a good game and have a cold beer. Why not have access to do that here in their own town?”
Not only does it keep Sumter dollars in this community, but it also might draw more businesses.
“I engage in commercial real estate, and I am the broker of pending sales with Buffalo Wild Wings to be located east of the new Spring Hill Suites conditioned on this referendum passing in November,” said Mack Kolb of Century 21 Hawkins & Kolb. “Sumter is a very diverse community. It’s not a small town anymore. We have people come from all over the world to live here now, and they do not understand for a large part our antiquated blue laws.”
He has talked to other restaurant owners who say if the law was changed, they would consider coming to Sumter.
As for those who say the passage of such a referendum would lead to an increase in crime, the chamber committee he’s on has not been able to find any evidence of such in its research, Kolb said.
“We’ve seen information in articles and studies that have been done on Sunday alcohol sales in restaurants that indicate it does not cause the DUI rates to go up or other major crimes to go up,” Blackwelder said.
Farmer agreed such a move would not lead to more crime.
“We’re doing it six days a week now,” he said. “It’s just one more day a week.”

AGAINST
As an attorney, Calvin Hastie has seen the danger and damage of alcohol abuse.
“I’ve had five CDVs — criminal domestic violence — cases in the last two days, and in every one of the five, alcohol was involved in the violence in one way or another,” he said recently.
That is why the city councilman is opposed to Sunday alcohol sales, a view he shares with many in the religious community.
“My opposition to Sunday alcohol sales is an extension of my opposition to the sale of alcohol any time,” said Ron Davis, pastor of Sumter Bible Church and administrator of Sumter Christian School. “My reasons are twofold. First, I am against the sale of alcohol from a Biblical conviction. Proverbs 20:1 says, ‘Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.’
“Secondly, I am opposed to the sale of alcohol from a family perspective. Homes are wrecked from abusive alcoholics, and homes are destroyed when drunk drivers kill someone in the family. The statistics are staggering; but yet the statistics are ignored by society while alcohol continues to mock and deceive as Proverbs 20:1 says it would.”
The Rev. M.H. Newton of Jehovah Missionary Baptist Church agreed.
“When I look at all the damage that has been done by alcohol and drugs in our community, I just can’t feel right supporting something like this,” he said. “Alcohol has caused a lot of damage and taken life from murder to people driving and having accidents because of their drinking. And of course, from a Biblical point of view and a spiritual background, I can’t support anything that takes the lives of people.”
People’s lives are worth more than the economic benefits such a move might bring to Sumter, Newton said.
“What is my reply to those who say it would help the economy? 1 Timothy 6:10 says, ‘For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows,’” Davis said. “Do we place money — the economy — above the families that are destroyed from alcohol? When we as a society have our priorities wrong, we ‘pierce ourselves through with many sorrows’ as this verse predicts. Sunday alcohol sales will only add more sorrow that comes from more crime.”
Hastie said such a move creates an obvious DUI situation.
“We’re asking people to go out and have a few drinks, then drive home,” he said. “Some say they have a designated driver, but the majority don’t. People talk economic cost, but let’s weigh human cost versus economic cost. Let’s be more progressive in our thought process. Let us be the leader in the state for growing our economy and not on Sunday alcohol sales.”