I get chastised for drinking tea and following a pescetarian diet (told up front by my bishop and others in the ward that I'm breaking the Word of Wisdom), yet in Church yesterday, FIVE people openly bragged about following a protein-only diet while the bishop was in the same room and he didn't care. In fact, he said it sounded interesting and that he wanted to try it.
And I'm not talking paleo, I mean like these people had straight meat, cheese, and eggs at every meal, no fruit/vegetables.
How am I breaking the Word of Wisdom but these people aren't?
I hate to sound petty or whiny, but it really got on my nerves.
The Word of Wisdom was never meant to be a guide to health (although that was a [bogus] selling point which was used)...
...instead, the Word of Wisdom was meant to be training (and reinforcement) in control, with each individual member re-upping their commitment to the leader and to the cult with every bite of food, or drop of liquid, consumed.
Many cult leaders do the same thing in their quite different cults, although the specifics of their approved diet are often also quite different.
The details of any of these cult-prescribed diets are unimportant...the entire point of the dietary discipline is the leader having unquestioned, and virtually total, control over the important aspects of each of those follower's lives.
The church ignores the eat meat sparingly part. They ignore the use of grains for mild drink parts.
They used to use the caffine is bad for you to not only ban tea and coffee but coke and pepsi until. ..... the prophet was spotted drinking pepsi. Now caffinated cold beverages are ok.
Some bishops allow teas that do not contain caffine.
As far as the moral high ground? They only have what YOU as an individual give them.
The church contrary to what is believed by many in utah is not a government agency and has no legal authority to tell you or demand that you do anything. They have the power you give them.
Sure they can chose not to associate with you but you can also choose to not associate with them.
Nobody gets to say they have the moral high ground, because they're biased. You can say someone else has the moral high ground. I wouldn't include Mormons in that group because their cult tactics to me are very immoral.
"... do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6.19-20).
I interpret that to mean,"Take care of your body so that God can work in and through you." I.e. exercise, prudent diet, appropriate medical care. Different people will practice this in different ways, some very well, others (like me, alas), not so well. A rule for me may not be the right rule for you.
I'm agnostic on the benefits of the high-protein diet. The issue is motive. Are they doing it to be healthy, or to lose weight and look good in size 6 dresses?
I think that religious food and drink prohibitions tend to reflect the biases of the given time period. For the WoW, that would be the 1830's. I prefer to follow the guidance of science. Tea has been proven to be a healthful drink.
As for a high-protein diet, I've followed it in the past. It's effective at helping one to drop weight, but I don't consider it healthy nor sustainable for long term use. If you want to look good for a wedding, fine. If you are trying to lose weight long term, I would look elsewhere. The weight that I lost on such a diet crept back on over time (twice.)
The "eat meat sparingly" is not nice and clear cut. It involves using the judgment of the meat eater as to how much is "sparingly." Therefore it doesn't make a good stick with which to beat the membership. However NO coffee, and NO tea, and NO alcohol, and NO tobacco (what about tobacco-free E-cigs? Has God spoken on those yet?) are easy to check, and therefore easy to generate guilt trips.
BeatMeatSparingly Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Isn't it obvious?! > Satan rides upon the waters. > Fish live in the water. > You eat fish. > You eat Satan. > You are what you eat. > You are Satan.
I would ask Bishop Holier-Than-Thou, why all the Mormons who live the WoW are getting as many diseases and are so unhealthy as the rest of society. what happened to the promise to receive health in the naval and marrow in the bone. Last I heard there are very few people suffering from an unhealthy navel and almost everyone has marrow in their bones. So what's up with that empty verbiage?
And I know a lot of Mormons and none of them seem to be finding "great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures." Most of them seem rather clueless and lacking in wisdom. Proof of this lack of wisdom is that they have to have so many rules to follow. People with great treasures of wisdom don't need to be obedient. They are already in on the plan.
"And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint?" Mormons? Puhleeze! Every time I call my mother I get a full list of every TBM she knows ailments and health problems. The only time they run and are not weary and walk and not faint is when they are taking the pills science has come up with or are walking on their knee replacements courtesy of man's technology.
And the Destroying Angel seems to be taking them at the same rate as everyone else. So I gotta call bull on this WoW promise thingy.
Ha ha. OMG. You are so right. Oranges. That's it. I've been looking at the WoW all wrong!
So I googled marrow in the bone and apparently it's a very expensive sought-after dish in all the best restaurants. Joe seems to have been very ahead of his time after all. How nice of him to wish those things for us.
Apparently though, to get marrow in the bone, you have to pay a lot of cash rather than just give up coffee and tea. Oddly enough people usually do have a glass of wine with it though. I guess there are still some kinks to be worked out.
I think normal people pick up on that, which feeds the LDS persecution complex. If people don't like you, you're either not likeable or their iniquity has them under the influence of Stan.