I was raised in a Baptist church by a tee-totaling family.
Here’s how I would answer your question.
In the time of Jesus, there was no evil associated with alcohol. People used it at appropriate times for appropriate purposes, and no one associated it with any evil. It would be the equivalent of drinking Pepsi today.
But for much of the history of the United States, alcohol has been associated with evil. Here …
Alcohol use and abuse by men was one of the main reasons why the Suffragette Movement gained ground. I just finished reading the biography of one of the leaders of the Suffragette Movement; she not only lectured on Votes for Women, but also for Prohibition of alcohol.
- During Prohibition in the U.S., organized crime grew and was rampant, mainly for the purposes of making and selling alcohol. Even after Prohibition was repealed, organized crime continues to flourish in the U.S… Nowadays, the adult crime syndicates work with teen gangs to recruit teenagers and children into their network of crime.
Friends, everyone should find this shocking–that for the sake of ALCOHOL, people were AND STILL ARE willing to break the law to make or purchase hooch, often knowing that they were buying from mobsters who were at war with each other and killed their fellow men and women as easily and carelessly as we kill flies.
How can Christians associate themselves with a substance that has so much power to lure good, decent people into committing illegal and dangerous acts?! How can Christians justify this?! I am amazed and just plain scared that Christians, especially Catholics, will argue in favor of alcohol use when they know the power of this substance. It’s like the Evil Ring from the Lord of the Rings trilogy–NO ONE should take a chance and use it because it has
too much power.
- Association of alcohol with date rape. Like it or not, it’s the Number One Reason for date rape and other crimes against women.
- Association of alcohol with drunken driving murders. Yes, these are murders. The person who drinks alcohol and drives a car is doing nothing different than a person who picks up a gun. And the reason that nothing happens to people who are arrested for DUI and DWI is that everyone does it, even people who should know better, like medical professionals, lawyers, pastors, and judges. Disgusting. Drunk drivers who murder innocent people should be made to suffer an equivalent consequence that their victims and families suffered. And people who are caught driving drunk should be punished so severely that they will never ever consider drinking and driving again, and if they do, they should be considered potential murderers and put away for a long, long time so that the rest of us will be safe from them.
- The association of alcohol with addiction (alcoholism), which can lead to loss of home, family, job, health, dignity. Visit any rescue mission. Visit the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, and witness the waste of human lives and hear their sad stories of one-time success and happiness ended by their addiction to alcohol. None of them started drinking with the intention of becoming addicted, but it happened anyway. People who have the tendency to alcohol addiction often don’t know it until it’s too late.
It’s hard for me to believe that Christians would ever use a substance that may be OK for them, but deadly for others. How arrogant of us! How selfish!
Stuckinavortex, you and others are right. The Bible never tells us to “not drink.”
But the Bible makes it clear in many places that we are to avoid sin and the occasion of sin, and even the “appearance of evil.”
For many Christians, not just the “fundamentalists,” this Bible and traditional church teaching about “avoiding the appearance of evil” is the reason that they avoid alcohol use and condemn its use by other Christians. There is little good associated with alcohol and much, much evil and heartbreak, a tragic history of sorrow. What I listed above is just a small sampling of the havoc and tragedy that alcohol use (not just abuse) has caused and continues to cause.
How Christians can endorse its use is beyond me.
This type of alcohol-associated evil didn’t exist back in Jesus’ time when He performed the miracle of the changing of water into wine. But it does now. We can’t live in the past, and we can’t cite examples of life in the past to justify actions today that are associated with so many tragedies, crimes, and heartbreak.
Alcohol use is not necessary for Christians to experience joy and freedom. We already have that.
I hope this answers your question. I recommend that you and others stop thinking that non-drinking “fundamentalists” are idiots. They are not.
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