https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/mormon-church-warning-beware-those-fancy-coffee-drinks-n1043156

so here's my prediction about the future of this:

Change 1.0 - as the various convoluted Starbucks-style drinks expand to a vast variety everywhere you look, the church will just go back to basics and make a historic change: hot coffee and hot tea (exception for "herbal tea" which will be debated a bit) still disallowed. Everything else OK, but use moderation if in doubt. To look like they are trying to be reasonable and not too strict, iced tea and iced coffee will be allowed in moderation (new definition of "hot drinks").

Change 2.0 - I believe this will be precipitated by declining membership, and extremely dismal baptism conversions around the globe. To reverse the church decline, many changes will come forth from the Brethren (in desperation), and a real shocker will be eliminating the ban on coffee and tea. Alcohol and tobacco and illicit drugs will essentially be the remaining part of the WOW.

didn't they just double down on coffee

while we understand practical transitions to having 'the gospel' appear more palatable, at least as of now there's little or no path open to the GAs to travel to get there...


They'd have to overtly throw Joey under the bus, and 'they can't do that', at least not until much later IF their desperation is evident.


I myself see a clearer path to the winnowing point of view, the separating the wheat from the chaff mentality prevailing.


The GA POV doesn't accept any wiggle room in compliance-conformance, that's (IMHO) about 95% of the gospel currently.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2019 01:25PM by GNPE.

I think you underestimate the possibility of future change for TCOJCOLDS and various other religions.

Look at the Reorganized LDS church (now known as "Community of Christ") as an example. One hundred years ago, members of TRCOJCOLDS would strenuously deny any possibility of the changes that have actually occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries. Blacks got the PH, women got the PH, members can really believe the BOM or can choose to treat it as just fantasy and fiction, etc.

Obviously, changes for the LDS church are much slower to come than what the Reorganized church went through. Nobody can give a good timeline for future changes, but rest assured that the changes are absolutely coming: LDS women will get the PH, gays will be more accepted, gay marriage will be recognized and accepted, ban of tea and coffee will go away, and many changes coming eventually.

At one point in the mid 20th century, contraception was a big thing. The 1958 edition of Bruce R McConkie's MORMON DOCTRINE states that those using condoms or any artificial contraception are "in rebellion against God and are guilty of gross wickedness." Well, go forward a few decades, and the LDS views about contraception are completely different.

Change is absolutely certain for the future: the LDS church will undergo many changes in the next 50 years guaranteed. And 100 years from now, things will be quite different from what the church morphs into 5o years from now.