It’s admirable and it’s important that the Rev. S. Matthew Glover took to the pulpit at St. Luke Church last Sunday to challenge the people of Barrington to face up to the plague of teenage drunks in their town.

Father Glover did what few seem willing or able to do. He pointed out the kind of painful truth that seems just too uncomfortable for much of the town to deal with. He charged that the town is in denial of its substance-abuse problem and covering up the facts about the alcohol related death of 17-year-old Patrick Murphy, who was killed last week while he was kneeboarding in an accident the police believe was alcohol related.

“Our kids drink because we drink,” Father Glover said.

But that’s not the only reason. Sure, if Mom and Dad are knocking down pre-dinner cocktails — or maintaining a steady alcohol diet in the comfort of their home — the kids are going to wonder about the attraction. The underage drinking in Barrington is not a new phenomenon. It has been going on for decades, and taking lives for decades, just as it has in a bunch of other places.

But there are things at work here that parents have nothing to do with and little control over. From the time a kid can sit in front of a TV, he or she is being set up to become a puking, falling down drunk.

The commercial message is as clear as a beach bunny’s smile: If you start to view the world by the fractured light spilling through the bottom of a beer bottle, then you are on your way to the party where you’ll be surrounded by six-pack abs and firm breasts and have sex and then more sex.

It is booze peddling done up like a tease. Two healthy women mud wrestle over beer and we are left with only one healthy response — “I’ll have whatever they’re having.”

It is the big difference between my time of early indulgence 45 years ago and now. There was always, it seems, the friend whose parents left for the weekend and left behind a well stocked fridge and liquor cabinet and the opportunity to get really sick with friends.

It’s gotten stranger and crazier in the last few decades. There’s pop culture conditioning going on. The message is aimed straight at raging teenage hormones — life gets better with every gulp. And, oh yeah, by the way, remember to drink responsibly.

And, of course, we have those nightly celebrity chasers on TV who have managed to turn alcohol rehab into a hot party credential. The latest wobbly star emerges from the platinum drunk tank, promptly drives a car into a tree and is made more famous for so publicly falling off the wagon. The hard-earned rewards of sobriety just aren’t worth getting excited about. The number of trips to the tank becomes the running score for a strange brand of celebrity.

It is not an excuse for anything, this bombarding of young sensibilities with the sexy promise of hard drinking. But it does add to the load of being a kid and being a parent. It adds to the challenge of explaining to a son or daughter how a drink can turn from a small, warm pleasure into a life wrecking disaster.

There is no easy way to find a balance, to accept the inevitable lure of drinking but temper it with the hard truth of mangled cars and dead classmates. Father Glover has done a real service for Barrington and beyond with his words from the church. He has spoken out in a way that is rare in the aftermath of teenage tragedy. He has pointed out how no one has to look far to find reasons for the senseless waste of young life.

Maybe he will be the person who finally convinces the people of Barrington that circling the wagons just isn’t the answer.

bkerr@projo.com