Do Quakers Drink Alcohol?

Friend:
So the three Quakers walk into a bar. They just stand there silently for about 20 minutes. Everyone else is like, what’s going on? The Quakers eventually notice each other, shake hands, and then walk out.

I wonder why they originally came in there.

They’re like, “Do you want a drink?”
Yeah.

And it also says you can have worship anywhere. You don’t have to be in a meeting house to have meeting.

Okay, so we’re going to make what we call a Quaker: rum, brandy, raspberry, and lemon.

Cheers. Cheers.

Very good. Yeah. Too lemony? No. Quakers can be a little sour sometimes.

Of course, in our house growing up, there was never any alcohol. My dad would even say that he was so dry that he rattled when he walked.

But what is the reason why Quakers originally stopped having alcohol? And then it seems like now that’s not a thing anymore.

You know, George Fox, in the mid-1600s in England, according to his journal, would often go in the evenings to have a pint of beer and have conversations with people. And I think probably when we got to the colonies and recognized that a lot of the ingredients that would go into beer or alcohol were coming out of oppressed labor—around the harvesting of sugar cane—and again, if we’re trying to create a society that’s equal, am I, if I consume a glass of beer, contributing to the enslavement or the oppression of people? And so I think that was a part of it.

Part of why Quaker women in particular were so active in the temperance movement is that they saw what was happening when their husbands would go down to the bar, maybe get in a fight down there, and then bring that anger back into the home. Things happened there that were not beneficial to the family.

It’s not like randomly handed-down moral codes, but they noticed: oh, if we drink too much, that disconnects us from our integrity. So we’re going to stop because of that—not because randomly alcohol is bad because God said so or something.

So, you know, I think Quakers have always been maybe accused of being too solemn, kind of like the Amish. You know—being too solemn. Do you guys really have fun?

I think of Quakers as some of the most fun people I know, because we can have a lot of fun without alcohol or anything else.

Sure. But if you had alcohol, it’s still fun. Within reason.

For me, the exciting part about Quakerism is that I hope we’re regaining that sense that Quakerism is a way of life. It is a journey. It’s not following a preset path, but it is an exploration about how you, as an individual, find that God within you and how you can walk with someone along a path—not determining the path for them or they for you—but that we’re all seeking to know the Light.

And I really appreciate crossing paths with you.

Cheers. Cheers.