Americans and Underage drinking?!

Americans and Underage drinking?

Why are Americans so against drinking under the age of 21? Is it really because of the law or does it have more of a religious reason?

I'm 21, been drinking since I was 12. Here 16 is the legal age. But drinking beer in a bar or at a party at the age of 13 is normal. What do you think of that? Do you think that affects our society or makes us different? Please speak your mind and explain some things to me.

The religious basis, if it could be called that, is probably due to the fact that the Methodists and Baptists pretty much frown on drinking. Predominently Catholic and Lutheran (and even Anglican) countries don't have as much bias against alcohol. The Baptists make up the largest single denomination in the US.

Although the anti-booze leanings of the Baptists and Methodists were initially developed as a point of denominational discipline during the early industrial revolution, it has evolved in the US as a touchstone of their beliefs. It has taken such prominence that alcohol use is equated with sin of the foulest nature. Just open a can of beer at a church picnic and see what happens. When pressed, however, most ministers will admit that the temperance required by their denomination is more socially, not Biblically, based.

The laws are a reflection of those who passed them, or allowed them to be passed. The US is still in the grips of a puritanical mindset where, to be the keeper of one's
brother, one is required to be an unsufferable, meddlesome busybody.