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High plains snifter: after 118 years without a liquor store inside their city's limits, Lubbockites are on the verge of voting with their thirst.

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Victory Life Baptist Church, in Lubbock, is located on the southwestern edge of town, past the encroaching brick-home developments and box stores, out in an expanse of yellow, treeless fields so flat you can stand on the church's doorstep and watch the membership approach from miles away. About eight hundred loyal churchgoers here each Sunday to listen to the lanky, baby-faced 35-year-old pastor, Brad Jurkovich; they find his youthful enthusiasm, as well as his unapologetic and unembarrassed conviction, refreshing. One recent Sunday, for example, he grabbed his lectern, leaned forward, closed his eyes, and addressed the Lord by saying, "God, you are so great. You are just awesome."

Such passion for worship, some would argue, is flagging among newer generations of Lubbockites. The strict moral code that has defined life for decades on this stretch of the plains has lately shown signs of erosion. Case in point: the referendum on May 9 that would authorize package sales of alcohol countywide. Lubbock was the largest dry city in the country until 1972, when voters finally gave restaurants and bars the benediction. They confined liquor stores, however, to a single precinct, a little Vegas-like oasis at the edge of town known as the Strip. Now Lubbock seems to have outgrown it: The proposal to allow package sales is drawing bold, even strident support. For Jurkovich and his parishioners, it's as if aliens have invaded the city.

"I have struggled to find in Scripture 'Thou shalt not ever take a drink,'" he told them on the Sunday I visited. "I wish I could point to words that said that. I can't." He nonetheless encouraged them to vote against the proposition. "I understand we...

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