pablo wrote: Can a Christian drink?

Yes. Water, milk, alcohol, etc.

If so, are there any wise guidelines?

Don't be a glutton. Don't drink to get drunk.

I mean, basically, let's cut to the chase and put some cards on the table.

Alcohol has a Christian heritage as shown below:

******

(from Rabbi Rudolph Brasch, Thank God I'm an Atheist, Collins, Australia, 1987, p. 60)

WINE AND RELIGION

The drinking of wine was an essential part of earliest religious meals. With wine man hallowed the sacred days and found communion with the divine. Jews still thus sanctify every Sabbath and holy day. When, as a loyal member of the Jewish community, Jesus celebrated the passover eve, at his Last Supper, he shared with his twelve disciples in the blessing and drinking of wine, traditionally and significantly refferred to by the Jewish religion as 'Sanctification', Kiddush in Hebrew.

The world owes many a famous wine and liqueur to monasteries. They developed the beveridges for religious reasons. The many services and celebrations held in the monastery demanded a plentiful supply of wine. To be self supporting, the monks planted their own vineyards, and the wine making became part of their daily lives. They became experts in the art and, not rarely, came to excel in one of the many varieties that they distilled. The quality of their product was no doubt not the result of accident, but was scientifically achieved by experimentation. On all occasions, however, the monks were prompted by the sincere desire to glorify God who - in the words of the ancient Hebrew blessing still used in Jewish homes - had 'created the fruit of the vine'.

Any funds raised by the sale of their surplus were used by the monks to help the destitute and the sick.

*******

Summarised from '1000 Remarkable Facts About Booze' - Richard Erdoes ( New York: Rutledge Press, 1981) .......

WINE

In ancient religions wine was often represented as the blood of the god(s). Wine drinking was originally a religious ritual. Wine is mentioned 521 times in the Bible. Anglican and Catholic churches use alcoholic wine for communion.

BOURBON

The Rev Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, was the first to distil Bourbon in 1789. It was named after the county in which he had his parish.

CHARTREUSE

Named after La Grand Chartreuse, the carthusian monastery north of Grenoble in France where the liqueur was originally made. In 1605 A F d'Estrees presented a manuscript to carthusian monks for an exilir of life. In 1762 Brother Jerome Maubec translated the text and, on his death bed, dictated it to another brother who made it.

BENEDICTINE

Dom Bernando Vincelli, a Benedictine monk, first distilled it in 1510 in the monastery at Fecamp on the Normandy coast. The letters D. O. M. on each bottle represent the Latin phrase Deo Optimo Maximo - To God, the Best, the Greatest (or God most good, most great).

CHAMPAGNE / BOTTLE CORKS

The French monk Dom Perignon, the father of Champagne, made the first bottle cork in 1668. He served as the Wine Master at the Abbey of Hautevillers. When he first tasted the champagne that he had made he exclaimed "Je bois des etoiles!" - "I am drinking the stars!"

BEER

Commercial beer brewing was first done in medieval monasteries. Gambrinus was the medieval Flemish saint of beer.

IRISH WHISKEY

Monks who arrived from Spain in the 12th century taught the art of distilling to Irish monasteries.

SCOTCH WHISKY

Irish monks brought their distilling methods to the Scots during evangelisation of Scotland.

********

Mark