Alcohol

I have a friend being ordained in the Wesleyan Church. I believe he'll have to sign a lifestyle covenant that will forbid him from drinking alcohol. When I ask "Why?" the immediate response is, "We don't want to cause anyone to stumble." I wonder what that means. Does it mean that we don't want to cause anyone to drink? Or, we don't want to cause anyone who has a drinking problem and is sober or not, to drink again? Or, we don't want people who are not Christians to stumble in coming to the cross because they see Christians drinking and that is taboo? Obviously there is no Biblical commandment to refrain from consuming alcohol. Drinking wine was clearly the practice of Jesus. I frequently hear the argument that the wine during NT days would have been so watered down that it would have not been truly alcohol. But if that is true, how would it have been medicinal when Paul recommended it to Timothy, or how would the guests at Cana possibly have gotten drunk from it, or how would people that Jesus was accused of cohorting with become drunkards? I wonder if at some point, not drinking for supposedly religious reasons might cause someone to stumble in coming to the cross. In the culture of the earlier to middle parts of last century, people expected that Christians abstained and if they didn't they were backslidden. But now, if people abstain for "religious reasons", do they just appear like Mormons who won't drink caffeinated beverages ... kinda spooky & weird? One could make the argment that they do not purchase (i.e. consume) alcohol because they don't want to contribute to the whole alcohol industry. I think good arguments could be made there. But certainly it leads to all sorts of other ethical questions of "What other products am I not going to buy because I don't want to contribute to whatever industry?" So do we really cause people to stumble when we consume alcoholic beverages?