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Summary
- The Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican churches and many others allow a Christian to drink, so long as it stays moderate.
- Southern Baptists, the Assemblies of God, Nazarenes, the Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventists and Latter-day Saints ask their people to leave it alone.
- United Methodists say you may drink and then commend going without, and the Coptic Orthodox diocese in the southern United States advises complete abstinence without calling a drink a sin.
- None of the churches defends drunkenness, and they read the wine at Cana and at the Last Supper in different ways.
- The grape juice in so many Protestant communion cups goes back to a Methodist communion steward, Thomas B. Welch, who pasteurized it in his kitchen in 1869.
- Catholics keep wine at Mass, and a Vatican letter of 2003, taking up earlier ones, says a bishop may permit mustum, a grape juice, for someone who cannot drink wine.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture from the King James Version: Psalm 104:15; Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 23:31–32; Matthew 11:19; Matthew 26:27–29; John 2:9–10; Romans 14:17, 21; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 2:20–23; 1 Timothy 5:23.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2290
- Code of Canon Law, canon 924
- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, letter on low-gluten altar breads and mustum (2003)
- Irish Jesuits, The Pioneer Association; University College Dublin, The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association
- Orthodox Church in America, Lenten Fasting
- Orthodox Church in America, Fasting and Fast-Free Seasons of the Church
- Russian Orthodox Church, The Basis of the Social Concept, XI.6
- Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States, Alcohol/Alcohol Consumption
- Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, LCMS Views FAQ
- Episcopal Church General Convention, Resolution 1985-A083 and Resolution 2015-A158
- Presbyterian Church in America, 8th General Assembly (1980), Alcohol, Beverage Use Of
- Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 20
- Jehovah’s Witnesses, What Does the Bible Say About Alcohol? and Lord’s Supper
- Southern Baptist Convention, On Alcohol Use in America (2006) and the Baptist Faith and Message (2000)
- Baptist Press, Baptists & alcohol: Is the consensus shifting? (2018); J. Newton Brown, church covenant (1853); Baptist News Global, on the church covenant (2018)
- Assemblies of God, Abstinence from Alcohol (2016)
- United Pentecostal Church International, Holiness (1977)
- Church of the Nazarene, Manual 2023, paragraph 29.3 and the note on the Lord’s Supper
- The Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine (2010), Soldier’s Covenant
- Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief 22; Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual (2022); Adventist News Network, temperance pledge (2010)
- Doctrine and Covenants 89 and 27; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Word of Wisdom and Sacrament
- Christian Courier, What About Moderate Social Drinking?
- Ask the UMC: May United Methodists drink alcohol?; United Methodist Social Principles, Book of Discipline 2020/2024; Methodist History: Communion and Welch’s Grape Juice; The General Rules of the Methodist Church; Ask the UMC on Communion
- Wilmington Yearly Meeting of Friends, Faith and Practice
- National Association of Evangelicals, Alcohol Abuse (1989)
- Cuyun Carter and others, dietary study of Amish and non-Amish adults in Ohio, Nutrition and Cancer 63 (2011)
- United Church of Christ, About Communion
- Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), A Word to the Church on the Lord’s Supper (1991)
- LifeWay Research, Most Protestant churchgoers say they abstain from alcohol (survey of 2017), as reprinted by Baptist Standard
- SAMHSA National Helpline
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