Do you have alcohol in your house?

I learned early that I cannot control myself if I drink any alcoholic beverage, and so I do not drink any. Therefore, I do not allow any in my house. (I might be tempted, and could then NOT stop!) As for rubbing alcohol, I have had same in my house in the past, do not see a problem with that, but currently do not have any.

Bill :godisgood:

 

A good rule of thumb I find is if you're unfit to drive (ie: DUI) then you've overdone it, regardless of whether you're intending to drive or not. Also keep within the health guidelines which, by and large, are pretty similar to the DUI limits at least in this country. Inform yourself of the number of units of alcohol in each drink you have and don't go over three if you're a man or two if a woman per day. The formula for doing that is quite easy if you know how and have at least a nodding acquaintance with the metric system: the % alcohol of a drink is the number of units in one litre of the stuff. My 75cl bottle of Gordon's Gin, for example, is 40%; therefore in that bottle there are 30 units ie: ten times my daily permitted maximum intake. With beer it's more difficult to work out but, for example, a medium ale here would be, say, 3.8%. One pint is 568ml, therefore in one pint of that ale there would be 3.8x0.568=2.15 units. One and a half pints of the stuff, therefore, and you'd exceed your maximum quota for the day.

 

As a pastor I've seen too much bad from the stuff. It's not allowed in my home and I strongly encourage others to stay away from it. But, to say it's a sin to have a drink is going too far in my opinion. But, I don't know of many who can only drink one.

 

I don't doubt you at all, but all of my Christian friends who do enjoy alcoholic beverages, almost always have just one drink. The only exceptions I can think of involve two couples sharing a standard bottle of wine over a long evening with dinner, dessert and conversation/games. No one has more than two glasses over a period of about four hours. And most people also have a glass of water to go with their wine so they don't have to drink wine to wash down food.

I suppose it has a lot to do with the culture and circumstances by which you were raised. Alcohol was never forbidden in my home, although my parents rarely drank. My father would occasionally have a beer and my parents would occasionally have a glass of wine. At Christmas, the Baptist deacon next door would make spiked eggnog, but that was also taken in moderation.

The only member of my family I ever saw intoxicated (and it was only mildly intoxicated) was my grandmother, who was drinking strong sangria at a restaurant and didn't realize have much alcohol it was (the many sugars in sangria make it metabolize faster than standard wine, much like MD 20/20 and other "street wines"). She stopped drinking immediately after she noticed the effects.

EDITED TO ADD:
Since my parents didn't forbid alcohol and did not condemn it as something evil, I didn't grow up with the impression that it was "kept" from me or that it was a moral evil in itself. My father and I had a number of conversations about alcohol over the years, especially after the traveling TANE preacher (Texas Alcohol and Narcotics Education) would visit every year and try to guilt all of the youth group into coming forward and taking a pledge that we would never let alcohol touch our lips. I always resented and resisted the manipulation and was indirectly chastised by the preacher on several occasions for "not having the courage to take a stand against evil" and encouraged to "watch the example of these fine young people [those who went forward and took the pledge]." Well I watched, and most of them were involved in binge drinking most weekends. Some of them developed severe alcohol problems. As for me, I never touched alcohol as a beverage until I was 33, and I did it because I was offered hospitality (Luke 10:7) and it would have been rude not to accept.

I have never been intoxicated and have never wanted to be intoxicated. I've never had the slightest interest in drugs except for an extreme interest in getting morphine last February when I entered the hospital emergency room after my appendix had burst. (I was in extreme pain for about four hours after the appendix rupture until they gave me morphine.) I credit my attitude toward alcohol to the example set by my parents, despite the efforts of my church to make alcohol a stigma.

 

The Baptist churches where I grew up in the 40's, 50's, the people were absolute abstainers. Drinking alcoholic beverages was anathema. In one church, abstaining from alcohol was a condition of membership.

I think most Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada (the group) are abstainers, and I know the Regular Baptists abhor alcohol.

So, I guess it is a cultural thing.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I had an alcoholic parent and I find hard liquor repulsive. I did drink beer wine and a few times other liquor before I was a believer. After I became a believer, I still had beer and wine occassionally, but felt funny about it.

I don't drink at all now. I really don't see the point of drinking except maybe one glass of wine with certain meals. Even one glass of wine seems to make most people a bit tipsy.

I think the question is not "Is drinking a sin?" (though I know that's not the poll question), but rather, "Why drink at all?" In other words, if you drink, why do you drink?

I may do a poll on that.

 

Short answer - yes, though listing it all might make some think we're alcoholics :laugh: . Actually, we don't drink very often - a glass of wine or beer with dinner - and that not very often -- and that's about it.