Poll: Southern Baptists say Christians shouldn’t drink

A majority of Southern Baptist senior pastors and laity believe Christians should not drink alcohol and that using it could cause other believers “to stumble,” according to a new poll by LifeWay Research.

The survey asked Southern Baptist and non-Southern Baptist pastors and laity a series of seven questions about alcohol, ranging from their views on whether getting drunk is against Scripture to whether alcohol is an example of Christian liberty.

Among Southern Baptists, 77 percent of senior pastors and 59 percent of laity believe “Christians should not use alcohol as a beverage.”

Those percentages dropped when Southern Baptists were asked whether “Scripture indicates that people should never drink” alcohol.

Forty-one percent of Southern Baptist pastors agreed with that statement, while 34 percent of the laity did.

Those percentages are higher than they are among non-Southern Baptist Protestants. For example, 45 percent of non-Southern Baptist pastors and 45 percent of non-Southern Baptist laity believe Christians should not use alcohol as a beverage. (BP)