(photograph: artificial sunlight, 1/200, f/3.5, artificial light via 580ex)
Smoking hookah is one of my favorite new activities. My original experience with the hookah was several years ago when some friends started going to a local hookah bar on a regular basis to smoke. At the time I found it really annoying—mostly because I sensed a hint of pretention which may or may not have actually been there. But either way, I masked my personal bias against the hobby with some spiritual mumbo-jumbo which I’m sure I’d scoff at if I heard it today.
It’s a different story though. I can’t get enough of it (as a figure of speech, I’m not addicted to it. I just really enjoy it).
A few months back a friend who has long been into smoking hookah started inviting friends over to enjoy it together. That’s where I finally had my first experience with it. Shortly after that, my sister’s boyfriend gave me a small (but quality) hookah pipe that had gone unused in his basement for years. Since then, I’ve developed a great appreciation for it.
In a nutshell, for those who don’t know, a hookah is a water-pipe, usually used to smoke shisha—a wet, sticky, flavored tobacco. It was developed originally in India, then moved throughout the Middle East and is now gaining big popularity here in the States.
In a hookah, the tobacco is burned using indirect heat from a coal. The tobacco is placed in a ceramic bowl, covered with a tin screen, on which the hot coal is placed. When the user smokes, hot air is pulled through the screen, across the tobacco, filtered through cold water, and then inhaled. What is inhaled is a mix of water vapors from the shisha flavoring and smoke from the tobacco.
While it’s not altogether better for you than smoking anything else, the experience is completely different and almost entirely non-addictive. Which of course is a big plus.
But why do I write about this here? Because the hookah is more than a really soothing, relaxing activity to do while reading or watching a movie. It’s also an excellent conductor of conversation in the context of small community groups. Many of the best conversations I’ve had over the past few months have happened around a hookah pipe. I would equate it, in a way, to eating a meal together. But, hookah has a naturally mellowing affect on people. So conversations have the tendency to spend less time on flippant matters and more on things that really matter.
And, because it’s a mutually shared activity that groups can have a sense of shared “progress” in, It’s also a less awkward excuse to sit and have a conversation with someone than, say, coffee.
I have loved smoking hookah, and plan to continue to do so. I think in communities where people are open to it, it’s a great way to facilitate conversation without intimidating or creating a sense of expectation on people. Give it a shot. You might love it as much as I do!
Comment by Chris Owens — June 30, 2009 @ 8:15 am
So, not to be a legalist, I still have to ask: what difference do you see between hookah smoking and, say, sharing hits off a pot bowl or sharing a box of Camels?
Comment by William — June 30, 2009 @ 10:04 am
There are plenty of differences. i.e., it’s neither illegal, nor addictive. It’s more of a conscience thing. Some people just wouldn’t be able to do it. Of course, some people have been bewitched by the the culture into a fragile conscience and they ought to just suck it up and get over it.
Comment by Chris Owens — June 30, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
In regards to your last sentence, revisit Romans 14:13ff. I’m not saying that hookah smoking is an evil to be rejected (although, personally, I’ll pass!), but you have to admit, it would be on the fringes of acceptability for many faithful believers.
Comment by Chris Owens — June 30, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
Bill, check out this study put out by the University of MD. You might want to rethink some of your assumptions about hookah smoking after reading this: http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/cesarfax/vol17/17-23.pdf
Comment by William — June 30, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
Yeah, I already read it. There’s lots of studies out there saying roughly the same thing. Smoking hookah is ultimately just as bad as smoking cigarettes. Christians instead have the tendency to over-indulge in other things for the same purposes that are estimated to be nearly just as bad. Hookah is just another ultimately deadly alternative to the long list of other deadly things we do on a daily basis.
In regards to Romans 14:13, there’s a lot to be considered when asking what a stumbling block is and is not. Simply being something someone doesn’t agree with or is knee-jerk offended by may not be enough to make it a “stumbling block”, per se. Driving a new car or being good at music may be a source of envy for someone without those things. Yet in these matters we allow people to work out their own struggles with it. In fact, they must work out their own struggles with it. In a time when church culture dictates a lot of bizarre ‘convictions’ in people’s minds, I’m apt to think it does less to cause people to stumble and more to allow them to grow.
But, for the record in the last paragraph I said, “I think in communities where people are open to it, it’s a great way to facilitate conversation without intimidating or creating a sense of expectation on people”. I was eluding to idea that it shouldn’t be pushed on communities where people are already against it. But there are many communities, especially of young people, who don’t hold those traditional convictions and will be able to participate in the activity with total openness. And there, it may just be an excellent option.
Comment by Chris Owens — June 30, 2009 @ 1:53 pm
Okay– and I include myself in this question– is it faithful to Jesus to indulge in something questionable and potentially risky simply because other Christians indulge in other (perhaps more) questionable things? Isn’t holiness and purity the objective, not merely settling for the least common denominator?
I’d also suggest that there may be those prone to addictions like nicotine, for whom hookah smoking would be a stumbling block to being able to honor God with their bodies.
Are we to throw out all traditional convictions as being stuffy while thumbing our noses at their legalisms? Or might there be overlooked wisdom in some of those traditional convictions? Again, I ask myself this question as one who has often questioned certain traditional convictions.
Comment by William — June 30, 2009 @ 2:57 pm
While I see where you’re going with the question, I have to continue to disagree. There are a lot of words in your first statement that are used as objective but have very little objective ground. Faithful, questionable, risky, holiness, purity. While there are biblical guidelines that paint a picture for these words, there are no objective end all proofs to the arguments surrounding them. Each argument has a counter argument. In this case, the counter argument doesn’t win. It may not lose either, but it’s not a clear victor.
As far as addiction is concerned, I know from personal experience that there is virtually no addictive nature to it, except possibly a psychological addiction to the activity because it’s fun. Kind of like being addicted to hanging out with friends. There are even a number of people in this group who are former smokers who have had no problem with it at all.
There is certainly value in traditional convictions. No question. But no universal value. Virtually anything and everything people do have harmful affects or risks associated with them. In fact all of the human experience in a way is boiled down to risk management. From the food we eat to the places we work to the people we speak to. Many traditional convictions have the tendency to boil things down to an objective “this is good and honors God” or “this is bad and does not honor God”. But I think think that is far less frequently the case than would traditional convictions have us believe. Our walk with Jesus is a much more subjective experience. So, while I think there is clearly value, I think it may need to be examined on a less macro level (what is or isn’t exactly being done) and instead looked at and considered on a more micro level (why and to what end).
Comment by Chris Owens — June 30, 2009 @ 3:49 pm
Bill, if the Holy Spirit undeniably convicts you to smoke hookah in all holiness and righteousness to the eternal glory of the risen Christ, then more power to you!
Comment by William — June 30, 2009 @ 4:04 pm
Oh Chris, you can’t back out of a discussion like that! That’s like the Christian cop-out, the ‘agree to disagree’! Maybe we should just settle this discussion over a nice bowl of Chocolate Mint shisha.
Comment by Chris Owens — June 30, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
Me, back down from a discussion?? C’mon, you should know me a little better than that, Bill! I was testing your convictions towards your new hobby. And I’d relish a conversation about this… over a bowl of curry, maybe!