Drinking alcohol - when is it enough

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JacktheCatholic

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It ought to be agreed that getting drunk is bad, sinful even. The Catechism teaches that to get drunk and drive is a grave sin. It teaches against getting drunk as a sin in general.

With States in the USA having different B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) levels for what is considered drunk, when is drinking alcohol too much? The State BAC or something else?

Personally, if you reach a point before the States BAC for being drunk where you have diminished reason, you are drunk and committing sin already. Do you agree or disagree?
 
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Depends. I’m a featherweight and would definitely be pretty hammered well before most State BACs lol.
 
Me too. I feel like I had enough before the BAC for my State and so, I stop.
 
Temperance… much is said with that one word.

Drunkenness is lack of temperance. Drunk driving is Grave Guilt. Mortal Sin, right?
 
So long as I do not have to put in a three paragraph long description after each post that clarifies the full requirments for what constitutes a Mortal Sin and legalease for the legalist wishing to perecute any and all possible threats whether a threat or not…

disclaimer needed?
 
JacktheCatholic said:
So long as I do not have to put in a three paragraph long description after each post that clarifies the full requirments for what constitutes a Mortal Sin and legalease for the legalist wishing to perecute any and all possible threats whether a threat or not…

disclaimer needed?
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If I feel the nheed, I just add in parentheses "assuming that the other conditions are met) or phrase it as “grave matter” (although growing up when we were taught that such-and-such is a mortal sin we didn’t go nitpicking with Sister about the need for the other conditions needing to be met).
 
Drinking becomes sinful the second you have chosen to lose ANY of your free will. The severity of the sin Increases with the level of intoxication. Bottom line if you do or am say anything that you wouldn’t normally do or say you have chosen to give up free will.
 
One thing I truly love about Catholicism is that it refuses to hedge on the question of alcohol use. While other religions frown upon alcohol use, with some even forbidding it completely, Catholicism insists upon our using our free will. While some may choose not to drink, it is not forbidden. Our free will is valued, therefore, it is important to use it to the greater glory of God. It’s not easy to figure out at which point it becomes a sin, let alone a mortal sin.

I would say that losing control due to alcohol use is, at the very least, a grave matter. When it threatens our work which we need to support our families, or affects the family dynamic as a whole, it is serious indeed! The more people our alcohol use effects is quite serious, it would seem. Especially when it causes us to neglect, or abuse our own children!
 
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I see Im not the only one who is irritated by the “define x” reaction to almost any comment.

The other one that gets me is “so you are saying saying that…”
 
The issue is proportion.

First, it is not always immoral to suspend the use of reason altogether; in fact, reason sometimes demands its own suspension. (Anesthesia, for example, or natural sleep.)

Second, what kind of activity is one bound to be doing at the moment? Or what may he or she reasonably be faced with as obligatory? Playing t-ball with your kids? Driving around the corner? Driving down the highway? Administering the sacraments? Helping someone deliver a child? Doing differential equations?

In general (i.e. the “normal case”), to suspend reason by drinking - knowing that you will do this - is going to be mortal sin. The line, to me, seems to be approximately somewhere near the “black out drunk” phase, where the memory ceases to function, yet while a person can still move around and speak and be dangerous to himself/herself and others. Simply feeling “off” or “definitely intoxicated” is not enough to constitute grave sin in most cases, unless one has special circumstances as noted above.
 
I had hepatitus many years ago and it really hits your liver hard, so the doc said ‘no booze for six months - zero exceptions’. I enjoy a drink but it was relatively easy to stop when you know you could become seriously ill. But gee, I didn’t realise how much nonsense was talked by everyone half way through any evening when I went out for the night…
 
I’ve been the only sober person at a party. It’s a lousy position to be in.
 
Welshrabbit said:
I’ve been the only sober person at a party. It’s a lousy position to be in.
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I am frequently the most sober person at the party. I actually quite like it, but I am a people watcher. I find it interesting to see how people and conversation changes when alcohol is involved.

I have, for many years, had a two drink maximum for myself. It’s enough to enjoy the occasional drink, but also enough to never end up drunk.
 
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Three phrases: Serious matter, knowledge it is sinful, intending it in spite of the sin.

Simple actually.
 
Legend said:
One thing I truly love about Catholicism is that it refuses to hedge on the question of alcohol use. While other religions frown upon alcohol use, with some even forbidding it completely,
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Why did Jesus turn water into wine, if we are not to drink?
 
“Serious matter, knowledge it is sinful, intending it in spite of the sin.”

Sometimes people like this kind of formula for mortal sin… It is not really simple at all, and this phrasing is even inaccurate (normally you see “grave matter, full knowledge, full freedom” - which is still fraught with ambiguities, though it is closer). Many people think abortion is not wrong, for example - do they get a moral pass? Many people also think drinking to the point of oblivion is fine. But it does not necessarily make them free of grave guilt. We are bound to know the natural law to various degrees, according with our state in life and education to the point in life we are at. See Romans 1…

An alternative way to think about it is the ordering of the person toward friendship with God, in accord with the order He has indicated through nature and through revelation. Acts which, by nature of their opposition of that order directly in what is essential to it, and done with the consent of the will (usually meaning some kind of deliberation), in a matter which one’s office or education requires or indicates he should or should be able to know what is right, will be mortal sins.
 
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Welshrabbit said:
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mrsdizzyd:
I have, for many years, had a two drink maximum for myself.
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That’s a good rule of thumb.
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I try to stick to two drinks per hour as well. At least for the first hour.
 
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