Not going into the history of caffeine, prohibited and not, as it relates to the official interpretation of WoW, and not listing all of the caffeine contents of various beverages and chocolate items (because everyone has the Google and can look those up for themselves), I have a huge question on how members reconcile the stance that caffeinated sodas and chocolate are fine, but coffee (even cold coffee drinks? I'm not sure) and tea (but possibly not green tea?) are O-U-T OUT!

I left in the mid 90s, when caffeinated sodas we becoming more widely accepted out in the "Mission Field" of Oklahoma and beyond. I think the acceptance was actually wider in Utah at that point. My MIL, who didn't jive with the soda acceptance, blamed my Diet Coke drinking for my first miscarriage...bitch. So it was all still mixed up. We had a friend who was a chemist and worked on lithium battery research so needed to be sharp, sharp, sharp at work all the time. He would drink a 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke every day...instead of three or four cups of coffee. Same effect, different delivery method.

And yet we still read here about people having to hide their coffee makers, get dagger-filled looks when seen drinking the hot beverage by family, being told the coffee is evil by their 7 year-old brainwashed nieces.

But a half-gallon of soda every day is OKAY?

If all that soda is okay, what is bad about coffee and tea?

If the WoW on "hot drinks" was about caffeine, and that's part of some twisted mormon "health code", how come sodas?

Is the WoW really about the "hot" and not the "drink"? I don't think so. I think originally (historically) that "hot" WAS the issue as it was part of a health debate of that time, but has been debunked, except in cases of really REALLY hot which can lead to esophogeal (sp.) cancer with repeated use, but that's not how most of us take our coffee.

How do TBMs cog dis themselves on this? What is the justification and their explanations?

My sister and I had the same conversation over T-day. She was telling me about her bishop who drank a 2 liter of soda every day, yet refused to renew her TR because her DOCTOR prescribed drinking hot green tea for migraines.
On the bright side, this was the final straw for her and she stopped going to church after that incident.

The Word of Wisdom is NOT about health.

It is another ridiculous test of obedience to the whims of TSCC leaders. So, it doesn't need to make sense. It doesn't matter if present leaders contradict past teachings. It only needs to be obeyed without question (because we know where asking questions will lead you!).

That's kinda their public justification, which I guess is just another way they don't put pearls before swine. That's the "Milk" explanation. The "Meat" is do it on blind obedience and don't let the facts get in your way. I'm getting it. It's just been so long since I've lived like that...(yay, me!)

The extremely smart AND extremely TBM I work with openly says he doesn't know the who, what, why, and hows about caffeine...but states he doesn't touch any of it,,,,because that's what he's told to (not) do

...they'd explain that it doesn't matter what logical grounds there may or may not be to the WoW, it's ultimately about obedience. (Well, at least since the brethren changed it from a bit of advice into a requirement.) God could have prohibited pink food and beef jerky and it wouldn't matter why. You just obey.

But Mormons like to pretend they're really smart, that they knew before anyone else that tobacco and alcohol were bad. Also, given the spiritual void from their leaders, some Mormons like to take a little bit of a commandment to extremes to prove how damn righteous they are.

I also think that it's not about health at all, just another test of obedience. With tobacco, most people who don't use it didn't need a church to tell them it's addictive, they figured that out on their own.

I was told by a YW leader that we couldn't drink tea or coffee because of the tannins, not because of the caffeine.
She said that the tannins can cause cancer. I looked it up later and read that the tannins in tea can actually have health benefits and have even been shown to inhibit replication of the HIV virus. Tannins are also in things like grapes and cranberries, but I don't see those being forbidden in the WoW. It's embarrassing I actually believed her.

the sad thing is, that was about a year and a half ago. ha

The items banned under the Word of Wisdom were all things that mormons could not produce on their own. The 1830's leaders did not like their members spending money outside of their insulated (communistic) society so they banned products like tobacco, tea, hard liquor (not wines), coffee, and encouraged the sparing use of meat, since this was in limited supply.

The word of wisdom is dated and makes no sense in today's mormon society. It is NOT about health. It is about control and the prohibitionist mentality the church leaders, and many members, hold.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2010 02:18PM by vhainya.

Heh, reminds me of a joke.

What's the difference between Mormons and Christians?
The temperature of their caffiene.