Just some branches.
Is this attitude about alcohol common in Protestant circles? Is tee-totaling or something very like it expected of evangelicals?
I moved to a dry county about six years ago. It is also the bible belt. Whenever someone says that drinking alcohol is a sin I say, “Are you mormon, or is it muslim?”
That gets the conversation started nicely.
“Is this attitude about alcohol common in Protestant circles? Is tee-totaling or something very like it expected of evangelicals?”
Yeah, Baptist think it leads to dancing and Pentecostals are afraid that a drunk might understand what they’re saying.
As to causing people to “stumble” there is a difference between stumbling and triggering a bout of self-righteousness.
When I lived in China even the Baptist missionaries drank beer because the water wasn’t safe.
In my Assembly of God church that was pretty much tea totalling, one day the pastor was reading scripture on a subject that had nothing to do with alcohol, though in it there was a mention of drinking wine as a thing people do and is ok (I forget the scripture). In front of a congregation of about 800, the pastor closed the bible on his finger and said something like, “The greek word there means fermented wine, not grape juice.”
I commended him for his honesty.
I confess that, since becoming a Christian in 1981, I’ve never, EVER found a single scripture to support complete abstinance regarding alcohol. I did go alcohol free for about two years shortly after becoming a Christian because I was the drunkest guy at a party and, I believe, the only professing Christian there. I was seriously ashamed of that.
Methodists tee-total proudly for the most part. To see a notable exception—Hillary. Many Baptists take a dim view of alcohol. Some fundamentalist groups absolutely eschew it.
Lutherans and Episcopalians are fine with alcohol. There may be a little friendly competition as to which group serves the better wine at communion.
Evangelicals tend to be more accepting than not of social alcoholic consumption. I have yet to see the evangelical church that served wine with communion, though. They may exist, but in my experience it’s been grape juice.
Just some branches.
Some Protestant denominations are hard liners....some Baptists are against drinking and dancing and certain kinds of music