On the Box: The Word of Wisdom

By way of update, I started this series, On the Box, as a way to get some of my issues out there, to exchange different ideas, thoughts, views, and beliefs with my audience, and, in a way, to get some things off my chest. I did a post last week about celibacy, which I took down after having it up for less than a day. I wrote that post out of anger and worded it in a way in which that anger and judgmental attitude was pretty apparent. I have a thin line to tread with these posts. I don't want to be too preachy--although I'm sure this one will sound pretty preachy--but I do want to put forth my interpretations and observations. I want others to feel free to challenge my ideas and present their own. That being said, Please feel free to join in the conversation. I would love to hear what you have to say! :)

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When I was a kid, I saw people drinking coffee and would turn up my nose disdainfully. I thought people who drank alcohol were bad, literally. And smoking? You might as well have been a Satanist.

Now that I'm older and, I'd like to think, much wiser, I know better. People who drink coffee, tea, wine, beer, and whiskey aren't bad people--I know because I'm one of them. But I've also learned something else: The Word of Wisdom is pretty wacky.


There are few things in the world that get to me more than hypocrisy, willful ignorance, and blind obedience. I hate when people say one thing and do something else that is just as bad. I hate when people know something is there but refuse to acknowledge it. I hate when people follow a rule simply because they've been told to. It's even worse when the original wording of that rule is basically tossed out the window and is replaced with some other interpretation.

There are three broad categories of things that I find fundamentally wrong with the Word of Wisdom: 1) We do things it says we shouldn't, 2) We don't do things it says we can, and 3) It's not accurate because the "revelation" was received in a time that was long before many scientific discoveries and thus does not demonstrate heavenly omnipotence.

Scenario #1: It's summer. You're planning on having your relatives and friends over for a 4th of July barbecue. You buy a huge package of pre-made burgers, and a package of hot dogs. You're standing there at the grill breathing in the pleasant odor of charred meats. The kids are playing games. The adults are laughing and telling stories. Then you all gather around the table and chow down on the burgers and hot dogs. You're all breaking the Word of Wisdom.

Scenario #2: It's a tradition: every Thanksgiving you cook a huge turkey to serve to your family. You saw a recipe you've decided to try where the turkey is wrapped in bacon. Mmm! Someone else brings a ham. You're breaking the Word of Wisdom.

According to the WoW, meats are to be consumed "sparingly" and "only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine..."or when you are in "excess of hunger." Why are these parts completely ignored today? After just under 200 years, we have decided that meats are okay to eat as much as we want? Or were those things written into the WoW because there were far fewer animals available back then, so the people were admonished to use them frugally? This then begs the question, was this a rule written for Joseph Smith's time or a rule written for our time?

What I learned growing up was that the WoW "commands" us to abstain from tobacco, alcohol, and drinks that contain stimulants (e.g. coffee and tea). I won't include tobacco in my arguments because, yes, it is bad for you. Whether chewed or smoked it causes cancer, emphysema, heart problems, etc. (As to being a handy remedy for bruises and sick cattle, as the WoW purports, I cannot attest.) But tea, coffee, and alcohol I will take issue with, and I will put them into two different groups because alcohol is clearly a different beast than tea and coffee.

First a question: why is it forbidden for Mormons to drink iced tea, hot tea, and coffee as a result of their containing caffeine, but it's perfectly acceptable to run to the local Quik Mart every single day for a 44 oz. Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, or Dr. Pepper?? Are coffee and tea inherently worse than caffeinated sodas? Or do we just avoid coffee and tea because those have become part of the Church's official doctrine? True, I've seen the odd statement here or there in a talk by a church authority that says something like, "All members of the church should abstain from anything that is habit forming." But aside from some orthodox fundamentalists (who were always regarded as odd, even by other church members), how many Mormons heed that advice? And, to take it a step further, who decides what is and is not habit forming? How often does something need to be done in order for it to be considered a habit? But I digress...

Have you ever taken a look at the list of ingredients for a typical soda? And diet sodas are worse! Even if it comes down to just caffeine, non-caffeinated sodas are still FAR worse than drinking coffee or tea! And don't get me started on "Monster" energy drinks and others of that ilk. If the revelation for the WoW had occurred today, would carbonated beverages be on the list too? I'm pretty sure they would.

Moreover, there are myriad health benefits that come from naturally-occurring caffeine. The negative aspects of caffeine consumption generally only occur in people who "binge" or consume "large daily quantities" or "overuse." Moderation is key, as is the case for everything in life.

And tea!? The scholarly articles on the health benefits of green tea, red tea, white tea, and black tea are nearly endless! What's wrong with tea? I honestly would like to know. Caffeine? Really?

What the church should be outlawing, to keep our "body-temples" pure and healthy, are artificial ingredients, preservatives, and all the chemicals and fake crap that people gobble up without so much as a thought as to the harm it causes their bodies. If the church is that concerned about the body being a temple and keeping it clean and pure so the the Spirit can dwell there, then maybe it should advocate--in a more direct way than the odd obscure talk--for all its members to buy local, to buy organic, to read labels, to educate themselves on what they put inside their bodies. Maybe it should eschew sugary drinks and snacks that lead to obesity. Maybe it should even go so far as to ban kids from "overindulging" in video games and should tell families to limit their time spent in front of computers and television screens.

The Word of Wisdom doesn't reflect our time. Coffee and tea and even alcohol are the least of our health concerns.

In the 1830's, when the WoW was written, it was believed that hot drinks, literally any drink that was served and consumed hot, was bad for the body, as if one was burning one's internal organs or something. There is nothing at all mentioned specifically about coffee and tea. We've forced that in there throughout time. But why? Who started that? Where did that come from? Were you aware that both coffee AND tea were on the list of required items to take when the Mormons prepared to move from Iowa to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847!?

"Strong drinks" were considered liquors made through distillation (i.e. vodka, whiskey, rum, etc.), but "mild drinks," which the WoW expressly allows since they are made from grains, are fermented alcohols (i.e. beer). Here's a news flash: Joseph Smith drank both beer and wine! The WoW allows for it, as long as it's only beer and not liquor. The WoW also allows for the consumption of wine during the sacrament as long as the wine is made from grapes that you grew yourself. It's right there in the D&C, in print, in English. So why would a Mormon freak out if someone brought a six-pack of Miller Lite to a pot-luck dinner? (Never mind that many of today's beers contain an even lower alcohol content than the "mild drinks" of Joseph Smith's time.) I'm being very serious in asking this question because the Word of Wisdom does tell me I can drink beer.

So we eat meats all the time even though we shouldn't. And we don't drink beer even though we are allowed.

The fact here, to me anyway, is that the WoW, like all scriptures--like all literature, like all art--is a product of the era in which it was written. It was the product of Joseph Smith (and, if you do the research, Emma Smith, who was tired of cleaning up the tobacco spit on the floor after meetings), who was only familiar with the science of his time. (It is for this reason that the "revelation" didn't include something so simple as washing one's hands or boiling water to prevent the spread of diphtheria and typhoid fever, which killed many early Mormons.) Later decisions regarding what Mormons could and could not consume were largely economic (since Brigham Young didn't want their community's money being spent on expensive imported goods, like coffee) and social (all alcohol, including beer, was not banned until the temperance movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries). The church didn't switch to water from using wine for the sacrament until 1906. And adherence to the Word of Wisdom was not an official requirement for receiving a temple recommend until 1933.

So, while church leaders have tacked new things on through the years, my principal problem with the WoW remains very similar to my problem with so many other things in the church: It is open to way too much gray-area interpretation and lacks logic. If it was a revelation from God, wouldn't He have known that drinks that are hot are not bad for the body, that coffee and tea are actually healthy, and that there are myriad things we should really be abstaining from to stay healthy? Even though the world of the 1830's didn't have all the chemical and fake garbage "food" that we have today, it still could have been worded in such a way as to include them, such as eating only "pure" foods, etc. If I am to believe that our God is omnipotent, then how am I to believe that He wants me to abstain from having an iced tea with lunch. How do I reconcile the fact that in just under 200 years, the LDS church has shied away from the part of the Word of Wisdom that explicitly says that drinking beer is okay. (And WHY does no one else talk about this??)

What are your thoughts??


Selected Sources:
Doctrine and Covenants, Section 89
Fair Mormon
LDS History