Why are Evangelicals so down on alcohol?

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I went to lunch with my grabdmother and a cousin today(who is Baptist I think), and I had two glasses of wine. She went on and on about how drinking contradicts a Christian life. When I said that Jesus drank wine she said it was really grape juice. I was just wondering if all Evangelicals think drinking is such a terrible sin and what the biblical basis for it is.
 
the best advice i have for this is to simply ask them what the first miracle Jesus preformed was.

water to wine. over a hundred gallons for people who had been partying for some time. if it was wrong to have any He would never have done that. its open and shut a little bit now and then is not a sin.
 
As far as the grape juice argument goes…

When Jesus spoke of putting new wine into old wineskins, did He mean unfermented grape juice? All you really need to know is a teeny bit about the fermentation process to know that an old wineskin (one that had already been stretched because specifically of the fermentation process) would burst. Only a new wineskin was used because it could handle the stretching.

old skin is like that. :eek: 🤷

in Christ
Steph
 
It is more of a Baptist thing than a larger Evangelical issue.

Evangelicals today are realizing that this is a “tacked-on tradition of men” that somehow got glued to their “bible-alone” beliefs.

I’ve heard the grape juice rationalization before too and even the person who said it seemed embarassed by how feeble a defense it is in the face of Jesus miracle at Cana. Note the servant’s reaction: they were amazed that the really good stuff was kept for last. People usually served the good stuff first and then bring in the cheap stuff. That trick inherently shows it is real wine, not grape juice. People do not get a degraded ability to tell good grape juice from poor grape juice by drinking the good juice first!
And the trick is still used at parties of all kinds. The cheap alcohol comes out when the good stuff has already dulled the senses!
 
No - its not all evangelicals. I think you will find divergent views on just about every theological topic (save some core Christian beliefs) amongs Evengelical Protestant Christians.

I’m with you on this one - wine is actually preached as good for the stomach in the New Testatement. It is not alcohol that is the problem, but the abuse of alcohol is.

Where does the prohibition come from? Probably from the fact that very devout Jews in the Old Testatment took vows abstaining from various things (nazarene vows) and this included alcohol.

Paul took this vow as well (reported in Acts) as part of his ministry to Jewish nonbelievers.

Blessings,

Brian
 
They are down on alcohol because they don’t separate the substance from the abuse of it. But this tends to be more the fundamentalist-leaning types. I know many evangelicals who drink moderately. All this reminds me of when I first became Catholic and had to get used to seeing alcohol (beer and wine) served at church functions – something I NEVER saw at any of the Protestant churches I had attended!
 
Here is a link to a thread a few months ago in which I debated alcohol use with about 99.9% of Catholics.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=249319&page=2

I hope the thread is helpful to you.

I was born and raised evangelical Protestant (Conference Baptist>Assemblies of God>christian church>Southern Baptist>Christian and Missionary Alliance>Christian Reformed>Evangelical Free Church in America).

I am totally against the use of alcohol by Christians, other than for medicinal purposes, cooking, and for Consecration by the priest during Holy Communion.

Recreational alcohol use was the biggest stumbling block to my conversion to the Catholic Church.

If tonight Pope Benedict XVI denounced the use of alcohol and declared that all Catholics would henceforth be teetotallers, you would hear me screaming for joy no matter where in the world you live!

You ask why evangelicals are so down on alcohol?

Evangelicals are down on anything that bends the mind. I know many evangelicals who will not indulge in caffeine because it alters the mind that God gave us and puts you in a position where you are not totally in control of your thoughts and actions.

Other things that evangelicals oppose are any use of the occult arts, yoga, transcendental meditation, any of the New Age techniques for “opening” up the mind, any kind of drug that is not prescribed by a doctor, “visualization” techniques, hypnosis, certain psychology methods that require an emptying of the mind, etc.

The reason evangelicals are against the manipulation of the mind is that this gives Satan an opportunity to creep in and destroy our faith. We need to take every thought captive and not allow any opportunity for evil.

Evangelicals (and I) will say, “Why do you need alcohol to have a good time?” The concept of using alcohol to enhance pleasure is totally incomprehensible to us–and yes, in this issue, I stand on the side of the evangelicals and count myself among their numbers, and if it isn’t Catholic, well, may the Lord convict me.

I agree that many evangelicals are relaxing their opinions of alcohol. It breaks my heart. I see bottles of wine in the refrigerator at my parents-in-law home, and cringe. What’s become of us?

I am not posting this to try to convince you to adopt an evangelical position when it comes to alcohol. I am only posting this to help you to “get inside” the mind and heart of an evangelical. I know you’ll disagree, and I know that many will disagree strongly enough to blast my views right through the monitor screen. It doesn’t matter to me. Bring it on. Many have tried, all have failed. I am absolutely unmoving on this issue. The only person on this earth who could tell me to take a drink of alcohol would be the Pope himself, in person. And even then, I would tell him that I am obeying Him under protest.

I am NOT trying to bring anyone else over to “our side.” I am only trying to help you understand.

And I am advising you to AVOID all discussions and debates of alcohol with evangelical Protestants who are teetotallers. Would you believe that many out there are even stricter than me when it comes to alcohol?! Yes, it’s true! I know people who will not bring magazines and newspapers into their home, or will not own a TV, specifically because of the liquor ads. And my daughters’ alma mater will not allow ANY alcohol paraphernalia on campus, including any t-shirts, wine bottle candles, etc. Nothing.

So I am actually a moderate when it comes to alcohol!

Don’t go there. It’s better to avoid the issue and build bridges with teetotalling evangelicals. I can tell you right now–listen to me–that when they see you drinking a beer or a glass of wine, they will distrust you and they will probably stop listening to you talk about your Catholic faith. To them, alcohol is of the devil, and if you are using it, YOU are consorting with the devil. So they won’t believe anything you say about Catholicism and the Bible.

Is that drink worth it to you? To see your evangelical friends walk away from the Catholic Church? It had better be darn tasty for you to choose liquor over them.

I honestly think that if Catholics would stop drinking, many evangelicals would start listening. So we are at impasse, aren’t we?

I still have a very difficult time trusting fellow Catholics who drink, and most of them do. I accept intellectually that they have a right to drink and that they are not sinning unless they get drunk (exactly when does THAT occur?). But in my heart and soul, I still see “Demon Rum.” Sorry, Catholics. I can’t give you this one. And I know you don’t care anyway. Bottoms up.
 
Cat said:
Other things that evangelicals oppose are any use of the occult arts, yoga, transcendental meditation, any of the New Age techniques for “opening” up the mind, any kind of drug that is not prescribed by a doctor, “visualization” techniques, hypnosis, certain psychology methods that require an emptying of the mind, etc.
Click to expand...
Don’t tell me they’re against hypnobirth?!
 
Some oppose any use of medicine whatsoever but will drink coffee. They’re all over the map. I know one, sweet as pie, but she told a family who were supporting her and her child out of charity that they were bad for hiring a female helper for a disabled person (she believed women should be supported by friends and family and not jobs, period, though I think she’s softened up now) and accepting prescription antiseizure and antipsychotic meds. I’ve heard that elsewhere as well. I know people who won’t take aspirin.
One person I knew, a New Ager actually, thought alcohol was a statement of intent to hurt someone, nothing else, and looked on even the most occasional drinker with utter disdain. I tried for years to explain to him that most people are actually friendlier after a few but he was sure anyone who had a glass of wine did so for just one reason: to obliteratehis/her mind, and then do cruel things in a zombie state. I guess I’m glad some people don’t drink. For all I know that was a strong intuition letting him know that is what would happen if he started drinking. He just might have been overgeneralizing it.🤷 But if I went into a bar to see what time it was he’d be trembling and pallid when I came out and all quiet and then ask why I went in there, why a bar, why not go to another place? As if only terrible things went on in bars, even right by the door. If one of his friends had a sip of beer when it was hot, literally, he’d demand to know why.
 
This is a holdover from the 19th century Temperance Movement that many churches, not just supposedly conservative or fundamentalist ones, supported. I once saw a Universalist hymnal that had temperance hymns in it.

Evangelicals, even Baptists, in Europe and elsewhere are not into teetotalism.
 
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