Now that the profits have said that caffine is ok, what is wrong with tea? I thougth that herbal tea was ok, since it does not have caffine. So now that caffine is ok, tea should be approved right? I have heard from missionaries that tea is still bad for you because of the tannic acid... but lots of herbal teas have tannic acid, and other foods like grapes. So what the hell is in herbal tea that makes it ok vs regular tea if it's not caffine? Any one talk to a TBM recently about this? I'm curious what they say now.
I'd ask my TBM family, but they always say that I'm "attacking them" whenever I ask a logical question. I guess I AM attacking them...with logic.
Such a tempest in a teapot! I ignore the word of wisdom completely as a guide because it's early 19th century advice and certainly not a commandment from god since it came from a made-up fraudulent book. I depend on modern health science and common sense to determine what and how much to eat or drink.
All joking aside, which is hard to do with this topic, there is some disagreement as to what constitutes temple recommend losing tea drinking.
The general rule is: - Herbal (contains no tea plant leaves) = OK, - Red Tea (technically an herbal tea as it does not have Tea leaves) = OK - Black Tea = Satan's drink, no temple recommend for you if you drink that. - Green/White Tea = Some disagreement here, most American TBM's would not allow it, but on my mission to Korea, everything but Black tea was not only allowed, but encouraged, since the water was boiled. In Korea, as a Missionary at meals with my Mission pres we drank all kinds of tea with only Black being off limits.
All that being said, my Mom won't buy anything that says tea, herbal or otherwise. The only "Hot drinks" she allows in the house is hot apple cider and hot chocolate and if they didn't serve those at church functions, she might even question those.
Ultimately, it depends on the bishop, a person might appeal to a higher authority, but really, he's the one who is the first sign off for a temple recommend.
In other words, it's not the caffeine, I was told this constantly as a TBM member and that there was something unknown in coffee and tea (especially black) that was "harmful" though no one could ever state what it was. It's all made up and used as a control factor to distract from real issues.
Now, I love Chai, especially Big Train Vanilla, I highly recommend it!
My guess is that they are saying not to drink any kind of tea made from leaves of the tea plant, camellia sinensis. This includes white tea, green tea, black tea, and oolong tea.
There are other hot drinks called teas that are not made from that plant. They could be herbal infusions containing fruits and flowers, or they could be made from yerba mate or rooibos.
I think the whole thing is silly and that you should just go ahead and drink any kind of tea that you like. But I think the confusion comes from the two different meanings of the word "tea."
WinksWinks Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Pfff! It's an obedience test, give up on finding > the logic.
Exactly. Mormonism would make slightly more sense if members would stop looking for rational reasons for things like the WoW or why polygamy was required then forbidden. It's just what God wants. End of discussion.
Well, there are a variety of reasons why tea is the choice drink of Lucifer and his dominions. In hell they have tea party's. Here on earth, tea is evil because of:
1) It's a hot drink (at times). As you know Hell is hot, and tea is hot. Ergo tea = hot = hell. It's quite simply a matter of mathematical equations, but you can't see that because you are an apostate, and you cannot see the finer spiritual things.
2) Tannic Acid my friends. We were told in the mission field that this culprit chemical is an evil lil' b*stard. Why you ask? I am not a prophet, nor a chemist, but tannic acid is of the devil. Trust me.
3) Avoid all appearance of evil. Tea comes from Tea Leaves, yes? Okay let me spell it out for you. Cannabis comes from leaves too. Avoid all appearance of evil. Don't consume anything that comes from a leaf. Tea is like Marajuana light..okay. Just say no.
4) It's a commandment. Who are you to question what is appropriate revelation. The gospel is not a buffet where you can pick and choose.
The problem with tea is that it's delicious to the taste and very desirable! In particular, black tea, white tea and my sister-in-law's various homemade teas are downright diabolical.
Drinking wheat tea (mugicha) in Japan while on my mission ruined all tea drinking for the rest of my life. While it was just ok when served hot during the winter, when it was served cold in the summer, it just reminded me of burnt water. Now whenever I try any kind of tea, it has that burnt water essence and I just can't drink it.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2012 02:03PM by fossilman.
Besides anyone knows that if you follow the prophet and he leads you a little astray that you are blessed anyway because you were exhibiting obedience. Obedience is a higher law so you don't need to make sense of anything that you are following.
No questioning, no doubting, no hesitation, and no opposition to the leaders is ever going to be considered acceptable.
So in summary:
Obey=You go to heaven and have a family.
Disobey=More training needed in sprit prision/hell/outterdarkness.
Yeah, as a missionary I said that tannic acid BS too, but it isn't written anywhere. Even as the TBM missionary I was, I knew I was lying when I told them about tannic acid being "the reason," but I had no other tool in my toolbox, so I used it.
This comes back to Doctrine VS Culture.
Why is herbal tea ok? Because the Bishop/RS Pres wouldn't scowl at you if you drank it.
It has nothing to do with D&C, because D&C very clearly says no tea. Herbal tea shouldn't be an exception to the WoW, but culturally it just happened because it made no sense to exclude it.
Honestly, it could have gone the other way just as easily, and culturally turned into "Anything above 98.6 degrees is a 'hot drink' and therefore naughty"
Careful... "because D&C very clearly says no tea."
Actually it says nothing so clearly, it says "Hot Drinks", it says nothing about tea or coffee specifically... that was how it was interpreted later. So, no more Hot chocolate or apple cider!
And remember, Wine is fine as long as you make it yourself...
It's all just silliness to keep the members controlled. They took what JS wrote down and changed it to meet their needs at the time and it stuck and is now used as a requirement for a temple recommend. It was clearly not required as revealed nor were the foods and practices the same as how it's now "interpreted".
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2012 03:57PM by Finally Free!.
The D&C does not contain a record of what JS asked. Did he ask about tea? coffee? or both? The D&C does give what god says, and that is hot drinks. Why wouln't he say tea or coffee? He also says this is a warning not a commandment, so why are leaders making it a sin, a very bad sin at that. Now modern day science is showing that hot drinks or anything hot is not good for digestion. If its too hot it can damage your insides. So god really is saying to use good judgement on what we eat and do, don't damage yourself which is what god should have said, or maybe it is just tea and coffee. Black tea is the best, unless I feel like getting crazy, then green tea is best;)
I always thought that the WOW was just another money thing. JS was going for united order but the sheeple wanted to have money for the comforts of life like expensive tea. Hench, God says stop all those habits and give the money to my man,JS....When they got on the road they couldn't complain about not having meat or other creature comforts because God had already banned all that.
When my nephew was on his mission in Italy recenlty he wrote in one of his letters home that they couldn’t baptize some lady because “she had a TERRIBLE addiction to tea”…
OK, I'm a greasy-knuckled engineer, not a scientist. I'm gonna get out my bad-o-meter (kind of like a pH meter) and a thermometer. I'm gonna record the badness of a cup of tea as it cools and see just at what temperature it changes from a bad hot drink to a not-bad cold drink. I'll post the results.
Maybe tea and coffee was different back then. Today we have ways to remove bad stuff. Maybe Tommy should ask again to see if its safer now to drink. This time ask the question better and even ask to just make tea and coffee better for us. If JC can make nasty water into wine and pork safe to eat, he can make tea and coffee safe to.