We Want to Know: How has your faith/religion/culture influenced your drinking (or not) throughout your life?

Alas, I wasn’t brought up with too much religion–my mother is Lutheran, from Sweden, and my father is Jewish, from the Bronx. We celebrated everything, and before my mom stopped drinking, at our Christmas table we had Aquavit and at our Seder table, we had Manishewitz–both, I will add (in reference to Helene’s essay about ice/no ice in drinks)–without ice. My parents grew up poor, my mom with no refrigerator, so there was no question of ice. One more thing: My mother said that, back in her day (she’s in her late 70s) in Sweden, women did not drink. Only the men. I’m sure it’s that way in many cultures/religions.

I grew up in a non-drinking culture. Nobody in my family drinks alcohol. My parents, my grandparents, aunt, uncles, etc. There was never alcohol in the house or at holiday celebrations. Our vice was sugar – cookies, cake ice cream, special bakery treats. When I was in my teens I tried drinking and loved drinking socially as I grew older. I drank my fair share in college and even spent a few nights praying to the porcelain gods, but…because of my upbringing – the “non-drinking culture” that I was born into-
I always felt guilty drinking. As if I were doing something terrible. I knew rationally that there was nothing wrong with drinking in moderation but I would always hear my father’s voice in my head admonishing me for partaking. Still to this day I rarely keep alcohol in my house. I will drink socially but never drink alone. Even now, at age 45, when I occasionally find myself going for that second glass of wine, I feel a twinge of guilt as if I’m commiting a sin. What’s amazing is that I ended up marrying an alcoholic. But that’s a story for another day…

My Dad’s side is Catholic, and my Mom’s Southern Baptist. We had alcohol in our home Christmas, but it was really for other people. They didn’t make me or my sister choose either religion, but we had compulsory Sunday School and vacation Bible school until age 13. I was always struck by the way Catholic relatives and Jewish friends drank openly at gatherings. I knew many Baptists who drank, but not openly and without guilt.

Captivated by the Jesuits in college and impressed with a local Catholic church’s political activism, I decided to become Catholic. We had beer at fundraisers and fellowships, and it felt quite natural. I am always amazed when my Baptist relatives oppose
drinking at family gatherings. As I said two years ago at a family reunion, much to the dismay of a distant evangelical cousin,
“Jesus drank wine all throughout the New Testament. I think of wine, especially good wine, as Jesus Juice. I get closer to my Saviour, doing what he did”. Well, I’ll just say she was pissed to say the least. I asked her to show me where in the Bible it said it was a sin to drink. She couldn’t.

I left the family reunion happy with my choice to drink, and without any religious conflict. I did however, have to smile when my mother later told me “moonshine” stories about some of the very relatives who thought it was so awful that I had a glass of wine publicly. I told my Mom my only regret is that I was drinking so-so $4.00 Holiday Inn House wine, and not something better-considering it really is Jesus Juice from my perspective. I’d have sprung for a nice Chateau Margaux if the situation had been different.