Drinking, Drugs, and the Moral Panic Around Both
Jesus turned water into wine at a party. The first-century Jewish world he inhabited had no concept of alcohol as inherently sinful. The question the tradition actually asks is not 'is this substance forbidden?' but 'is this harming you, harming others, or becoming your god?'
The Answer
The first miracle in the Gospel of John is Jesus turning water into wine. Not a modest amount — somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons -- at a wedding party where the guests had already been drinking. And when the steward tastes it, he tells the groom: most hosts serve the good wine first and bring out the cheap stuff when people are already drunk enough not to notice, but "you have saved the best till now" (John 2:10).
This is not the behavior of someone who believes alcohol is sinful. At the time of Christ, wine was a necessity! Remember, clean drinking water is a modern luxury!
The American evangelical tradition's complicated relationship with alcohol — ranging from total abstinence movements (the 19th-century Temperance movement was led largely by Protestant churches) to contemporary megachurches with craft beer in the lobby — has very little to do with what the New Testament actually says. The Bible does not condemn alcohol. It condemns drunkenness, and excess, and the loss of self-control that comes with it. Those are different things.
The question of drugs is more complicated, partly because modern synthetic substances didn't exist in the 1st century and aren't addressed in Scripture. But the tradition has a framework for thinking about it that is more nuanced than either "all substances are evil" or "do whatever you want."
The Jewish Reformer's Lens
Wine in the 1st-century Jewish world was not a vice — it was a staple. Water was often unsafe to drink. Wine was present at Shabbat (the weekly Sabbath meal), at Passover (four cups are required by tradition), at weddings, at festivals, at the conclusion of prayer. The Kiddush — the blessing sanctifying the Sabbath — is said over wine. The tradition is saturated with it.
The Hebrew Bible's warnings about alcohol are about excess and the specific social harm it causes, not about the substance itself. Proverbs 20:1 says wine is a mocker and strong drink a brawler — meaning that people who overindulge behave badly. Proverbs 31:4-5 warns kings not to drink, lest they forget their duties to the poor. The problem in both cases is the effect on behavior and judgment, not the wine itself.
The concept of Pikuach Nefesh — the principle that preserving human life overrides nearly all other religious obligations — is the most relevant framework for thinking about addiction and substance harm. If a substance is destroying your health, your relationships, your capacity to work and love and care for others, the tradition is unambiguous: the damage to a human life is a serious moral and spiritual concern, not merely a medical one. But this is about harm, not about the glass of wine at dinner.
There is also the concept of Kavod HaBriot — the honor owed to all human beings, including oneself. Using substances in ways that degrade your own dignity, or that make you treat others with less dignity, violates this principle. The tradition has always been more interested in the relational and communal effects of behavior than in a list of forbidden substances.
Catholic Social Teaching
The Catholic Church has never taught that alcohol is sinful. The Eucharist itself uses wine — not grape juice, wine — as one of its two essential elements. The monastic tradition produced beer and wine for centuries. Benedictine monks follow a Rule that explicitly allows wine in moderation. Dominican friars in the 13th century were encouraged to drink, carefully. This is not a tradition that has historically been uncomfortable with alcohol.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§2290) addresses this directly: "The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine." The operative word is abuse and excess. Temperance — one of the four cardinal virtues — is not abstinence. It is the capacity to enjoy good things in right measure. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Catholic theologian, considered temperance a virtue precisely because it allowed for enjoyment without loss of reason or self-control.
On drugs more broadly, the Catechism (§2291) says: "The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave moral wrong." This is a stronger statement — but it is grounded in the harm principle (damage to health and life), not in a claim that altered states are inherently evil. The tradition distinguishes between the occasional glass of wine and substances whose primary use causes serious physical harm.
The more interesting Catholic Social Teaching question is structural: who profits from addiction? The opioid crisis was manufactured by pharmaceutical companies that knowingly flooded communities with addictive painkillers. The tobacco industry spent decades suppressing evidence of cancer risk. The alcohol industry targets communities in recovery and markets heavily to young people. The tradition's prophetic question about who benefits from keeping people addicted applies directly here — and points toward the corporations and systems, not primarily at the individuals using substances to manage pain.
Sources & Citations
- John 2:1–11 — Wedding at Cana (New Testament) One of the four Gospels. Jesus's first miracle: turning water into wine at a wedding feast. The quantity (six stone jars of 20-30 gallons each), the quality ("the best wine"), and the social setting (a party where guests have already been drinking) make this an unambiguous endorsement of wine as a social good, not a tolerated vice.
- Ephesians 5:18 — Do Not Get Drunk (New Testament) A letter attributed to Paul. "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." The contrast drawn is between drunkenness (loss of control, degraded behavior) and the Spirit (attentiveness, presence, love). The wine is not the problem. The loss of self — the state in which you are no longer fully present and accountable — is the problem.
- 1 Timothy 5:23 — A Little Wine for Your Stomach (New Testament) A letter attributed to Paul, advising his protégé Timothy. "Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses." A mundane but telling verse: wine as medicine, wine as practical good, wine without moral freight.
- Proverbs 31:6–7 — Wine for the Suffering (Hebrew Bible) The Book of Proverbs. "Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to him whose life is bitter; let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more." This is Scripture recommending alcohol as a palliative for the suffering poor — a far cry from abstinence theology.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church §§2290–2291 The official compendium of Catholic teaching. Addresses temperance, the abuse of food and drink, and the use of drugs. The framework throughout is harm-based: the problem is excess, abuse, and damage to human dignity — not the substance itself in the case of alcohol, and specifically serious health harm in the case of drugs.
What Should We Do?
For everyone: The tradition's actual framework for thinking about substances is more useful than either the "everything is forbidden" or "everything is permitted" poles. It asks: are you in control, or has the substance taken control? Are you harming yourself? Are you harming others? Are you using this to run from something that deserves your honest attention?
A glass of wine at dinner is not a spiritual problem. Getting drunk enough that you treat people badly, make dangerous decisions, or wake up unable to account for your evening — that is the drunkenness the tradition warns against, and it has nothing to do with the substance and everything to do with the loss of the self-possession that love and responsibility require.
For drugs: the tradition's harm principle is worth taking seriously. If a substance is causing you genuine damage — health, relationships, work, the capacity to be present for the people who depend on you — that is a spiritual and moral problem, not just a medical one. Addiction is not a moral failure. It is a condition that deserves compassion, community, and practical help. But the tradition does not pretend that "it's my body and my choice" settles every question — we are made for relationship, and the people who love us have a legitimate stake in our wellbeing.
The structural question — who profits from keeping people addicted? — is worth asking loudly and politically. The opioid crisis killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and was largely the result of deliberate corporate decisions to prioritize profit over the safety of vulnerable people. That is a prophetic issue, not just a public health one.
For Catholics specifically: You come from a tradition that uses wine in its central act of worship and has been making beer and spirits in monasteries for over a thousand years. The virtue you're called to is temperance — not abstinence, not avoidance, but the capacity to enjoy good things freely without being mastered by them. That is a harder and more demanding standard than simply not drinking. It requires the kind of self-knowledge and honesty that can't be outsourced to a rule.