This week I got an email from a college friend. In it, there was this fun question:
I have a question. I was teaching my youth sunday school class about the commandments and Word of Wisdom came up. As per usual, I told them that there was nothing in the word of wisdom (or since then, officially) about caffeine. I pointed to the caffeine blip in the newsroom last fall where it was specifically mentioned. Anyway, the RS President’s daughter is in my class and I got an email tonight about me “saying it was okay to drink caffeine.” You know this stuff. What else is there out there that talks about the word of wisdom and caffeine?
So I thought that I could use this email and my response for this blog post…
Word of Wisdom and caffeine. Unrelated issues or directly related? Really, it’s the Mormon debate of the late 20th century. Why late 20th century you might ask? Well, to answer that, we’d need to go back to the beginning, back to the world and world-view in which Joseph Smith gave the world the revelation. The view of the medical field at the time was obviously misguided by today’s standards, and some treatments were attempts at balancing the humors by drinking “hot drinks” with emetics. This likely exacerbated his older brother Alvin’s illness and played a role in his death.
Really we can avoid the rest of the 19th century if we’d like because the fact that Brigham thought they should be used sparingly (“If a person is weary, worn out, cast down, fainting, or dying, a brandy sling, a little wine, or a cup of tea is good to revive them. Do not throw these things away, and say they must never be used; they are good to be used with judgment, prudence, and discretion. Ask our Bishops if they drink tea every day, and in most cases they will tell you they do if they can get it.“), that Brigham saw coffee as part of Zion and the United Order, and that our 3rd and 4th Presidents saw them as a very minor component of the Word of Wisdom when compared to the much more important part of avoiding eating meat, doesn’t really affect our argument.
By the mid-20th century, many Mormons equated caffeine as being synonymous with the ban on “hot drinks,” especially with the rise in popularity of Coca-Cola. This reminds me of a great story about the beloved prophet David O. McKay:
“During intermission at a theatrical presentation, his host offered to get refreshments: “His hearing wasn’t very good, and I got right down in front of him and I said, ‘President McKay, what would you like to drink? All of our cups say Coca Cola on them because of our arrangement with Coca Cola Bottling, but we have root beer and we have orange and we have Seven-Up. What would you like to drink?’ And he said, ‘I don’t care what it says on the cup, as long as there is a Coke in the cup.'”
– David O McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism pg 23
– David O McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism pg 23
During Romney’s presidential campaign several news programs stated that caffeine violated the Word of Wisdom. Part of their evidence for this claim was the fact that BYU banned caffeinated drinks from campus. The church moved to stop that incorrect information (a good summary is here). BYU gave a response that the lack of caffeine on campus was because there was no demand for it. 😉 LOL, sorry, give me a moment. That line makes me laugh every time.
I have to assume that the parent who contacted you did so because she believes that caffeine is actually in some way a violation of the Word of Wisdom.
If she believes it is always wrong to have caffeine, then she needs to be corrected.
If she believes that caffeine is part of the ‘spirit of the Word of Wisdom’ or that it is some unwritten higher law, then she should be satisfied that you said that the church clarified that caffeine is not specified as being part of the word of wisdom and leave her to personally (or in her family) add more levels of rules (Jesus was a big fan of that btw).
Perhaps she doesn’t view it as being against the word of wisdom per se, but feels that by saying so that it somehow encourages the kids to go drink dozens of energy drinks. If so, maybe emphasize how you focused on moderation in all things in the lesson (except of course when it comes to the no-no ‘not even once’ items).
My snarky advice is to also let her know that you’re going to talk about Jesus next week and wanted to be sure not to offend by saying things like Jesus pal’d around with harlots and publicans, and gave men fish which possibly ruined their incentive to learn to fish.
However, my best advice is to try to approach things with her in the spirit of love and understanding. Maybe it was a game of telephone. Maybe she’s been taught her entire life that caffeine is in fact a violation of the health code of Mormonism. Maybe a kind answer from you will do more to help her correct her views than any other approach.
Best of luck!
Geoff Nelson
Geoff was born in Northern Utah and raised primarily in Central California. He received a BS in Biomedical Physics from Fresno State, a MS and PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford, and is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah working as a Clinical Medical Physicist. He served his LDS Mission in Donetsk Ukraine. He's married and has two boys and two girls. He is currently the ward organist and primary pianist.
All posts by Geoff Nelson
This was a great commentary. Is too bad there is so much confusion on this issue which has become a defining issue in Mormonsim. The confusion leads to the inevitable Talmudic parsing of old conference talks and church press releases. Reasonable minds can disagree.
If only the LDS church had a living prophet who could inquire of the lord for some clarification…
I have lived a very, very imperfect life and the Word of Wisdom is one of the very few things in life I have actually been perfect at thus far. At least I think so but I have had caffeine though.
This subject is misunderstood and I’m glad you wrote this.
Thank you for this commentary. This is one of the questions I’ve asked myself for years. I’ve tried to research why does a cup of coffee keep you out of the Temple but our almost daily meat consumption doesn’t? The fact that many Temple recommend holders are overweight is a clue that they don’t really eat anything in moderation as the Word of Wisdom suggests (and I include myself in this category). I couldn’t find a single answer. I’ve been taught by the missionaries in no uncertain terms that drinking coffee is a sin. Are you now telling me that the Church (and I mean the First Presidency not the members) says it’s ok to do so? People, this would be an AMAZING day for me (an espresso and cappuccino lover) after 17 years of abstinence!
Well, the Word of Wisdom, as enforced today in temple recommend interviews, amounts to not using tobacco, alcohol, coffee, tea, or illegal drugs. They care a lot about those, but they really don’t care about the rest. I told my leaders interviewing me that I don’t do a good job following the WoW; they looked concerned and asked me why. I explain how much meat I eat (I have some like 4-5 days of the week) and how I probably overeat. They don’t care about any of that. They do care about coffee.
My son recently attended mass with a friend, partly to see what subjects could be focused on when all of the “don’ts” of Mormon culture were removed. He happily reported that the focus was entirely on love and service.
This probably explains our 3-hour blocks. Takes a long time to drill such a long list.
That last crack about fish reminds me of the old joke- give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you’ve ruined a great business opportunity.
Geoff loses credibility with statements like this: “Brigham saw coffee as part of Zion and the United Order.” BY was illustrating how Zion might free its members from labors that would be better served by efficiencies and specialization a la Adam Smith, and simply used examples from the menu of the day. Perhaps you should also have included dinner-serving choo choo trains and “Chinamen” as an integral part of Brigham’s view of Zion.
The point is that the definition of “hot drinks” as referring to coffee and tea (and not caffeine) was emphasized as early as Hyrum Smith (though it was not yet a requirement–changing addictive cultural habits would take time and the Lord recognized it, as seems obvious from the revelation itself) and has been made absolutely clear in the present day that this is the doctrine regarding the Word of Wisdom.
As a revelation “adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints,” it should come as no surprise that it is a minimal requirement and that the Lord was being especially lenient in what he revealed at the time. My guess is that the spirit of the “law” would suggest additional foods, etc., that should not be consumed or used (the revelation directly implies it). And that’s the (important) difference between Pharisaical prescriptions unrelated to the law and additional lines-upon-line that the Lord reveals to those who are anxious to receive his guidance (and to the Church itself, for that matter).
The Church will never define everything that we should be doing to live in accordance with the will of God. Members shouldn’t try to do so either (as with this particular case regarding caffeine). No commandments would be necessary if the members of the Church would willingly follow the Spirit and inspiration of the Lord.
3 points:
1-Your comment is factually correct and I agree with most of it.
2-I said “part of” as in he saw it included in his conception of Zion, not “an integral part of…”
3-I didn’t elaborate as I meant to keep my post brief. (Your comment is about half the length of my post)
It was the impression that Zion and coffee were somehow integrated (“part of”) that I was objecting to. It’s what I meant by “integral.”
John, the church is actually doing a pretty good job of defining everything that “we should do to live in accordance with the will of god.” And they are pretty clear that if you don’t live the rules as dictated by the church that you have no chance of true happiness. Fast, pray, go to church, ht/vt, serve in calling, pay tithing, dress modestly, don’t watch rated r movies, go to temple, wear your garments, do not study or read anything not on LSD.org, read conference talks, repent and confess to bishop, don’t swear, 3 hours church on Sunday, fhe, don’t look at women, don’t listen to worldly music, seminary, institute, marry in temple, don’t drink coffee or tea, etc, etc, etc. on pretty much every aspect of life the church tells you what you must do…checklists after checklists of righteousness.