Was G.K. Chesterton an alcoholic?
Christianity conceals facts about a hero
He is a Christian hero to millions, known for praises of “orthodoxy,” and Catholicism as the true faith. Was G.K. Chesterton also a fall-down alcoholic?
A startling charge had been made, I noticed, when doing research into his sexuality. It’d been denied—but there were clues.
His drinking came up in 2013.
There was a movement at the time to suggest Chesterton for canonization as a Catholic saint. A post at a Catholic site by one Steven Drummel suggested that Chesterton was no saint, since he drank a lot.
A well-known Chesterton enthusiast named Dale Ahlquist wrote a post in reply in which he said that Drummel was an agent of Satan, and added: “Let us be clear. G.K. Chesterton was a virtuous man.”
The proof he cited was that Chesterton had not spoken of himself as alcoholic. Chesterton wrote of alcoholism as bad, and was a champion of moderate drinking, as in an oft-quoted line in Orthodoxy: “we should thank God for beer and Burgundy by not drinking too much of them.”
Therefore, he wasn’t an alcoholic.
