Christian religions that don't believe in drinking.

[tropaka]

We have a branch of our family who are Seventh Day Adventists...the devout ones don't drink, are vegetarian etc, but there's a bunch who cross their fingers

[NurseNell]

Free Methodists don't drink. They are not supposed to dance, go to movies, wear jewelry other than class ring or wedding ring and watch. There were a lot of Free Methodists at my public school.

[DarkAnts]

I went to Episcopal summer camp when I was a teenager and we had a song about Episcopalians and beer. It went:

There are no Episcopalians down in Hell,

Hell no,

There are no Episcopalians down in Hell,

Hell no,

They're all up above

Drinking beer and making love

There are no Episcopalians down in Hell,

Hell no!

I thought thought it was pronounced whiskeypalians :orcs-cheers: . I am not officially Episcopalian but, I do enjoy their services. I dont know if I will ever consider myself Christian again. The Episcopalians accept me for who I am and for what I believe.

[VVV]

Traditionally Baptists did not drink, and in fact there was a church covenant in the back of the hymnal that many churches used for years that included the phrase "abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating beverages." Most Baptists that I know of my parents' generation were complete abstainers. The majority of Baptists my age and younger that I know, do drink in moderation, but my church is way to the left on the Baptist scale. I'm pretty sure Independent Fundamental Baptists absolutely don't drink and probably the majority of Southern Baptists don't either. However, it isn't enshrined in doctrine the way it is for the Mormons.

[loratliff]

They would be sick of me very quickly! I have a glass of wine with dinner almost every night (unles I'm really tired, then it's coffee to keep me up for a couple of more hours!). Sweet Muscadine is great with pizza! :shifty:

Yep, we drink about 2-3 bottles of wine per week, plus the occasional cocktail so it's obviously interesting whenever aforementioned BIL comes to town. :lol:

[Seven Severn]

Uniting Church in Australia (which includes the Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church & Congregational Church)

This is very strange to me considering that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, disagreed with everything John Calvin ever wrote. How do they resolve free will (Methodist) and non-free will (Calvinist)?

[Kaylee]

There's a debate on another message board (mostly IFB and former IFB) over whether drinking at all is a sin or if the sin is just in being drunk. Most/all IFB (independent fundamental baptist) churches are totally against drinking and many preach against even doing business with stores or restaurants that sell or serve alcohol. Most IFBs do not drink, but some of the younger generation do, and more than that personally abstain from drinking but don't believe it to be a sin. Southern Baptists, as a group (ie, the SBC/GCB) are still officially against drinking but the last survey I saw said that something like 46% of Southern Baptists do drink.

eta: My former church (IFB) uses the old "church covenant" that so many others do, with the line about abstaining from alcohol. The former pastor preached against any sort of drinking frequently - funny now because he's really into good beer since he left the ministry and abandoned fundiedom for more moderate Christianity. The current pastor says he doesn't really believe drinking is a sin and will not preach against all drinking, but he does not drink because of the church covenant/traditions and because it could cause someone to "stumble" or think bad of the church to see him out drinking knowing that he is a Baptist pastor.

The interesting thing is that Baptists were OK with drinking prior to the Civil War and only became officially anti-alcohol in the 1880s and 1890s, as the Temperance Movement grew. The real irony is that so many fundamental Baptists preach about separation and not working with or picking up doctrine from other groups, but much of the religious angle of that movement and the religious support for being totally against drinking was taken from the Seventh-Day Adventists. It also tends to contradict the historic Baptist principle of individual soul liberty (freedom to follow your conscience in things not spelled out by the Bible), but that is largely overlooked in lots of areas these days.

[Coconut Flan]

Once a catholic and now eastern orthodox, the Lenten Friday fish fries would not have been the same without the beer and wine table. Both have wine at communion. Wine is served at special celebrations and I haven't seen a "dry" wedding reception yet. However, my Baptist neighbors are appalled at the sight of a beer on a table. Yet I have a Baptist friend who has recently taken up drinking wine.

[tacky]

Christian & Missionary Alliance, which is a lot like Baptist, but when I was growing up it was no make-up, no music besides hymns and classical type stuff, girls wear dresses, etc. It has loosened up a lot over the years, but they still don't allow alcohol consumption. I remember being taught in Sunday School that the wine talked about in the Bible was really grape juice and we always had grape juice for communion.

I was also kicked out of summer Jesus camp for playing UNO (cards lead to gambling and gambling is of the debil).

[apple1]

I was raised conservative Baptist, and the official stance was no alcohol. However, none of my family was ever asked to sign any statements about it. Grape juice was always used for communion.

My own father is still extremely against it; the idea of moderation is not in his thinking (he is really a black and white thinker about a lot of things).

I personally, as an adult, occasionally have a drink, but it isn't a big thing to me either way.