The low church opposition to alcohol goes back to England during the industrial revolution. You had millions of people going to work in the factories, which paid more than farm work, but it still wasn't much.
Often the men would get their pay and blow it all in the bar on their day off, and leave nothing for their wife and kids. If they would not drink, and would spend all their money on supporting their family, plus setting aside a little in savings, then they could make ends meet, and over the course of years their saving could actually build up enough to buy a little cottage, and to pay for the children to learn to read and write.
The temperance movement developed in this environment, trying to stop the scourge of alcoholic fathers leaving their families in poverty, starving and freezing. They had a pretty good point, because the masses were living in squalor, and yet actually had the resources to live well if they would be hard working, prudent, and frugal.