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It's also the position of Pat Robertson, chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network. In his CBN Now site, Robertson says drinking alcohol is not a sin, but it's not good, either:

I do not drink alcoholic beverages for one major reason: My conduct might cause someone else, who is weak, to stumble. … In a country where there are at least twenty million problem drinkers, and millions of others who use alcohol to excess, Christians just cannot stand by and say, "I can drink alcoholic beverages because the Bible does not say not to." My conduct should be governed by the law of love.

Among the very few denominational statements on alcohol is that of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); which has its 1986 statement on the subject—as well as a history of its stance—on its official Web site. It is clear to say it disagrees with Prohibition, "a policy which would appear to attribute the entire problem to alcohol itself," but the denomination "encourages and supports personal decision to abstain from alcohol."

Not all Christians agree that the Bible has mixed messages on wine. In another widely disseminated work, "Wine in the Bible," Samuele Bacchiocchi says, "the Bible consistently teaches total abstinence as a divine imperative." Bacchiocchi and others believe that when the wine the Bible commends was non-alcoholic: "The 'good wine' Jesus made at Canaan was 'good' not because of its high alcoholic content but because it was fresh, unfermented grape-juice." This assertion is one of the issues discussed in Roland Bainton's "Total Abstinence and Biblical Principles," which appeared as the lead story for Christianity Today's July 7, 1958 issue, and which reappears today on ChristianityToday.com.

David L. Brown, pastor of First Baptist Church of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, has an original take on why Christians shouldn't drink: they're part of the royal priesthood, which has always been forbidden to drink. (The case is also made by Chris Warren at the New Covenant Church of God). "Drinking, even social drinking, cannot be legitimately supported by the Bible," Brown writes, "Every drink that is available today, even beer, falls into the category of unmixed or strong drink. Drinking unmixed or strong drink is forbidden in the Bible, except in two instances."

And then there's the concern of Boundless, a Focus on the Family Web magazine, which focuses its drinking article at Christian college students, particularly those at Christian colleges. Writer Clem Boyd notes that about one in five undergrads at Christian colleges drank alcohol in high school, a percentage lower than their state school counterparts, but still troubling. "By drinking, Christian students surrender their high calling, like Esau surrendering his birthright for pottage—an indulgence of the moment that has subtle and not-so-subtle consequences on relationships," Boyd writes.

The argument is not so far off from Clement's warning that "we must, as far as possible, try to quench the impulses of youth by removing the Bacchic fuel of the threatened danger; and by pouring the antidote to the inflammation, so keep down the burning soul, and keep in the swelling members, and allay the agitation of lust when it is already in commotion."

Ted Olsen is Online Editor of ChristianityToday.com

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April (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44