Is drinking alcohol a sin?

[Chris_LaRock]

Somebody at work recently criticized me for admitting that I drink a beer with a meal from time to time. I argued that moderation and the lack of moderation is what makes it a sin or not but she still insisted that I shouldn’t be drinking at all. Is drinking alcohol a sin?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Moderate drinking is not a sin. Only if someone cannot control his drinking should that person completely abstain. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air
(CCC 2290).

You might point out to your friend that Jesus himself drank alcohol and apparently to such an extent that his contemporaries, who lived in a wine-drinking culture, accused him of being a drunkard (cf. Matt. 11:18-19).