A Curious Question About Eucharist and Some Christians

[Gil Hamilton]

OK, this is something that occured to me today that I figured I could get a satisfactory answer here.

Some Christian groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and some fundamentalist groups have prohibitions against drinking alcohol. This brings up an odd question to me. If they are forbiddin from drinking alcohol, how to they do the Holy Eucharist? I know communion isn't just a Catholic thing, they did it at the Episcopalian church I used to go to. So do they just not do it or use juice of some manner as Christ's blood or what?

[Gil Hamilton]

Ghetto Edit: I got a partial answer from my mother just now, who's massively full of Christian facts. Some groups with alcohol prohibitions use grapefruit juice appearantly. This practice was started by a Presbyterian Elder by the name of Welch. You'll notice that "Welch" is also the name of the man who invent pasturized grapefruit juice and the brand name is his company. This is not a coincidence. It happens to be the same man.

I'm still wondering about other groups though.

[Akhlut]

I might be wrong, but I think some churches don't even celebrate the Eucharist anymore because, if I got my Catholic-bashing, Jack Chick arguements straight, the Eucharist is actually some pagan ritual. Like everything else Catholic.

So, that'd resolve the dilemma for some churches that have the "no-alcohol" rule in effect.

[Cairber]

Many christian secs do not have the eucharist. For example, I went to a mass at a "non denominational" church last sunday (cant judge without ever having been to one) and their mass was simply songs followed by the pastor talking about a very specific few verses from the bible followed by a meet and greet downstairs. They believe in the the "Lord's Supper" but they do not remember it by acting it out in mass.

As I am a catholic, this is kinda where my knowledge on this ends

[EmperorSolo51]

OK, this is something that occured to me today that I figured I could get a satisfactory answer here.

Some Christian groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and some fundamentalist groups have prohibitions against drinking alcohol. This brings up an odd question to me. If they are forbiddin from drinking alcohol, how to they do the Holy Eucharist? I know communion isn't just a Catholic thing, they did it at the Episcopalian church I used to go to. So do they just not do it or use juice of some manner as Christ's blood or what?

Before converting back to Catholicism, I was once a member of the JWs. (Though I was baptised as a Roman Catholic, My mother and father were Baptists. Dad became agnostic/irreligious and Mom became a JW later in life. I was forced to attend somewhere around the ages of 5 and 10. I later rebelled in my teens and became a Roman Catholic which signaled the end of my Mom's JW days as she became a Thiest.) as part of JW dogma, there is no Eucharist. JWS rationalize this as Jesus meant that Drink of His wine and Bread were metaphors and not really his blood and Body. By doing this JWs also ignore or leave out the holy transubstantiation which is the process by which the Bread and Wine were turned into Jesus's Blood and flesh.

During Passover/Easter, Bread and wine were passed around and not eaten. That was the only time that the Bread and wine were trotted out. IIRC, the bread and wine were a symbol of mose's passover meal and not the Holy Eucharist.

[Surlethe]

OK, this is something that occured to me today that I figured I could get a satisfactory answer here.

Some Christian groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and some fundamentalist groups have prohibitions against drinking alcohol. This brings up an odd question to me. If they are forbiddin from drinking alcohol, how to they do the Holy Eucharist? I know communion isn't just a Catholic thing, they did it at the Episcopalian church I used to go to. So do they just not do it or use juice of some manner as Christ's blood or what?

Many denominations (e.g., Lutherans) practice Communion -- i.e., the remembrance of the Last Supper, without the whole blessing/transsubstantiation; however, AFAIK, the Eucharist is uniquely Catholic, although those Eastern Orthodox Here- er, I mean Christians may also practice it.

[Gil Hamilton]

Many denominations (e.g., Lutherans) practice Communion -- i.e., the remembrance of the Last Supper, without the whole blessing/transsubstantiation; however, AFAIK, the Eucharist is uniquely Catholic, although those Eastern Orthodox Here- er, I mean Christians may also practice it.

Episcopalians definately practice Eucharist. I know that straight up as I've done it.

[Elheru Aran]

Holy Communion, in most Baptist churches, is done with grape juice. I imagine most Protestant denominations, those that have a more stern eye towards alcohol in any case, do the same. The rest justify it by the 'If Jesus did it, why not us?' logic.

Basically they just call it Communion, nothing special really... it doesn't have the extra significance that Eucharist does for the Catholics and more traditional denominations. It is a symbol of their baptism and hopeful rebirth in Jesus, as reflected by most churches requiring that you must be baptisted before you may take Communion.

[Greymalkin]

OK, this is something that occured to me today that I figured I could get a satisfactory answer here.

Some Christian groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and some fundamentalist groups have prohibitions against drinking alcohol. This brings up an odd question to me. If they are forbiddin from drinking alcohol, how to they do the Holy Eucharist? I know communion isn't just a Catholic thing, they did it at the Episcopalian church I used to go to. So do they just not do it or use juice of some manner as Christ's blood or what?

The Presbyterian church my Aunt attends does not use wine, rather they used grape juice... I think this is pretty common. Of course there celebrating the Lord's Supper, rather than the Eucharist.

I understand that Wikipedia articles are not the best things, but their article on the eucharist isn't bad. Link

[Magnetic]

Holy Communion, in most Baptist churches, is done with grape juice. I imagine most Protestant denominations, those that have a more stern eye towards alcohol in any case, do the same. The rest justify it by the 'If Jesus did it, why not us?' logic.

Some of the conservative christian people say that the wine that Jesus either drank, or the water that was turned into wine wasn't fermented, thus non-alchololic. Not sure why they believe that, but I've heard it many times.

Yes, our church does communion. The pastor reads the account and we all take the little wafer together, then the cup, containing sometimes red grape juice, other times white grape juice.

[Surlethe]

Holy Communion, in most Baptist churches, is done with grape juice. I imagine most Protestant denominations, those that have a more stern eye towards alcohol in any case, do the same. The rest justify it by the 'If Jesus did it, why not us?' logic.

Some of the conservative christian people say that the wine that Jesus either drank, or the water that was turned into wine wasn't fermented, thus non-alchololic. Not sure why they believe that, but I've heard it many times.

Isn't wine, by definition, alcoholic?

wine ( P ) Pronunciation Key (wn)
n.

A beverage made of the fermented juice of any of various kinds of grapes, usually containing from 10 to 15 percent alcohol by volume.
A beverage made of the fermented juice of any of various other fruits or plants.
Something that intoxicates or exhilarates.
The color of red wine.

[Superman]

Not only that, but I believe Paul said something to the effect of "don't drink to drunkeness..." Kind of hard to get drunk on grape juice.

[Vendetta]

Isn't wine, by definition, alcoholic?

Semantics aside, if you want to preserve your grape harvest, and you haven't invented freezers yet, you need to dry it to raisins or make alcoholic wine out of it, the fermentation helps to preserve the product.

That's the reason things like whisky and vodka originated, it's the easiest way to preserve part of your crop.

[Rogue 9]

OK, this is something that occured to me today that I figured I could get a satisfactory answer here.

Some Christian groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and some fundamentalist groups have prohibitions against drinking alcohol. This brings up an odd question to me. If they are forbiddin from drinking alcohol, how to they do the Holy Eucharist? I know communion isn't just a Catholic thing, they did it at the Episcopalian church I used to go to. So do they just not do it or use juice of some manner as Christ's blood or what?

Methodists use grape juice. I understand that the Baptists do as well, and would imagine that it's the same for other denominations which forbid alcohol.

[CaptJodan]

Methodists use grape juice. I understand that the Baptists do as well, and would imagine that it's the same for other denominations which forbid alcohol.

SDAs use this method as well. Incidentally, they also claim that Jesus turned water into grape juice, not wine. Wine was just a....metaphore or something. I don't know, they really mess this shit up. Again...not wine...grape juice.

[Spoonist]

A side note is that most modern christians don't realise that the tradition not to drink alcohol comes from the mixed past with the muslim world. It's not in the bible, but it's in the quaran.

[EmperorSolo51]

A side note is that most modern christians don't realise that the tradition not to drink alcohol comes from the mixed past with the muslim world. It's not in the bible, but it's in the quaran.

Well, the idea of the Temperance movement goes all the way back to the Protestant Reformation. Most of your big Prohibition supporters were Calvanists for some absurd reason. The Catholic and Anglican Religions have no real problem with the sale and consumtion of Alchol as long as it is drunk in moderation. Infact, during the middle ages and even up to today, it is not uncommon to see Church Abbeys to have a distillery, where monks distill alchol for the use of the General public.

[Stravo]

What confuses me about this issue is that if you follow Catholic dogma the wine is no longer wine it is literally the blood of Christ so you're not in fact drinking wine. So what's the problem? Why swap it for juice if it is now the blood of Christ?

[Vendetta]

Infact, during the middle ages and even up to today, it is not uncommon to see Church Abbeys to have a distillery, where monks distill alchol for the use of the General public.

Depends where you are. In northern Europe churches were far more likely to have breweries, because grain is easier to grow and ordinary drinking water didn't keep.