I have a confession to make….
I’m a Mormon convert and I drink coffee. Lots of it. I guess that makes me the worst sinner on the face of the planet because I don’t keep “the commandments” – or rather one of the commandments.
Other than that I’m a pretty good person. Seriously. I don’t drink or smoke, and I’m faithful to my spouse.
It all started when I was about five years old. My grandmother poured some of her coffee into a saucer so it would cool down and gave it to me. I’ll admit, at that age, I didn’t really like the taste of it too much. I just knew this was something all the adults around me drank, and I figured at some point I would learn to like it. However, as a Baptist I knew from an early age that alcohol, drugs and cigarettes were off limits, and I was fine with that.
I didn’t really drink it all throughout my childhood and teenage years, but it was there if I wanted it. All I had to do was ask. But why would I? Again, this was something the adults around me drank to get them through the day.
My “addiction” to coffee began when my youth pastor took a group of us youth to a nearby coffee shop one night after church. This was in the mid-to-late 90’s, when coffee shops were just becoming trendy. I ordered a plain cup of coffee. As the naturally intellectual type, I loved the atmosphere and felt at home there with the dim lighting, comfy couches and soft music playing in the background. Little did I know, I was about to enter my college years at just about the right time as coffee shops were increasing in popularity. And as a philosophy major, it worked out perfectly! How else do you think I was going to get through those late nights studying and writing papers? And it would seem I would need it even more through my first round of grad school. I could not have gotten through any of those years without my cup of Joe. (and I don’t mean Joseph Smith!)
So imagine my shock when the missionaries told me I had to give up coffee in order to be baptized. And I had to give it up that day! No more. Ever again. Not another drop. I tried my best to convince myself it was time to give up my adolescent ways, since my college days were over.
I honestly tried to give it up “cold turkey” for two months. However, I eventually decided the additional migraine headaches (which I suffer from anyway) were just not worth it. Also the tiredness and irritability that came with it took a toll on me. And now that I am back in grad school, I rely on it all the more to get me through my heavy readings and 40-page term papers. Somehow I’ve managed to keep it from my Bishop, even though some outside the LDS Church know I drink it. (I do not hold a Temple Recommend, by the way, so no worries there.)
So I’ll be honest. What really didn’t make sense to me was how could these eighteen or nineteen year old missionaries, who had never had a cup of coffee a day in their lives, sit there and tell me I had to give up coffee? Just like that? It would be comparable to me as a Baptist telling an alcoholic that he would have to give up alcohol in order to join the Baptist church. It isn’t quite that easy.
But on that same token, I wonder how many church members struggle with this- and other sins- from behind closed doors and don’t say a word to anyone in the Church about it.
Every time I hear the words, “Keep the commandments” at church, I die a little more inside. As if the whole of the teachings of the Law and the Prophets is summed up in “Thou shalt not drink coffee.” (Jesus did say that, right? And it’s stated clearly in the Ten Commandments.) And the more I think about giving it up, the more I want another sip.
I can’t help but wonder if this is God’s way of judging me for being so judgmental of those young people around me who experimented with alcohol (and other stuff) when we were teenagers. Matthew 7:2 says, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” I will admit, in all my attempts to be the “good little Baptist girl,” I could be highly judgmental of others; just as I know I would be judged severely by my Ward if they knew my little secret.
But as I understand the Word of Wisdom as stated in Doctrine and Covenants 89:9, it simply reiterates the following, “And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.” So what about hot chocolate or herbal tea? Apparently that’s okay? They have served both in Relief Society on occasion. So why not coffee too?
And as I understand it, the commandment to not drink coffee only followed because of later attempts to “correlate” the Church, as to distinguish us from other denominations.
And the sheer thought that breaking “the commandments” drives the Spirit away is absurd to me, considering I do receive promptings regularly and have had very strong spiritual experiences in the past.
I feel bad for those who do commit “real” sins. Like dancing! (a big no-no in the Baptist church!)
So excuse me while I check myself into the local Emma Smith Rehab Clinic.
Oh, and by the way, I really enjoyed the last church dance I attended. But, I don’t think my old Pastor would approve.
FYI: The above picture is an adaptation of an old Baptist hymn “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.”
Hot drinks refer to heated alcohol like a hot toddy or heated rum, not to coffee or tea. Feel free to enjoy you cup of coffee guilt free.
love that you said this. Much love
Also the “word of wisdom” is ” to be sent by greeting; NOT by commandment or constraint”. How can you break a commandment that was never a commandment according to the Lord himself?
My mom is a convert so I learned to love iced tea at and early age. Later, I discovered the joy of coffee. I always think of the spirit of the Word of Wisdom which is to take care of ourselves. So I don’t guzzle Mountain Dew by the gallon but I do enjoy a cup of half caf Americano on occasion. I think most of us tend to gloss over the part of very little meat. Really, most Mormons don’t follow the Word of Wisdom. We’re all a work in progress.
Agreed 100%
Newell and Avery, in their excellent biography of Emma Smith (“Mormon Enigma”), suggest that Joseph added tea and coffee to the list of proscribed substances to get back at Emma for making him inquire of the Lord regarding the School of Prophets’ use of chewing tobacco, which Emma had to clean up after each meeting.
When I was young, while my father was inactive and before my mother joined the church, she introduced me to iced tea, which I have since given up (and that she, too, gave up after she joined the church), but oh how I wish I could still drink, especially during the summer months. Nothing tastes better.
my grandfather was a soldier in World War 2 when he joined the church, and struggled with giving up his “sin juice” too. it’s kept a woman i visit teach from the temple.
and i think our mormon addiction to sugar is far worse for us health-wise. in all sincerity, have you tried the 12 step addiction recovery process the church has to find help from the atonement? because i’m thinking of trying it for my sugar problem. not that that’s specifically forbidden, but i don’t like knowing my body is a slave to something my spirit can’t control.
All her life my deeply devout grandmother, a granddaughter of Parley P. Pratt, struggled with the deadly combination of exceedingly low blood pressure and pulse rate. Toward the end of her life her physician, a bishop, ordered her to either ingest several caffeine pills daily or drink an equivalent amount of coffee. Faced with these choices and being an ardent consumer of sage tea, which she prescribed for every ailment under the sun, my pragmatic and blunt grandmother is reported to have responded: “Well, hell, if I’ve got to do it, I may as well enjoy it.” And so he did until her death, several times a day, presumably while on breaks from service in the Salt Lake Temple.
Cup o’JoeSmith errs in assuming that young Mormon missionaries haven’t enjoyed the pleasures of a cup of Joe in the morning.
I’m a Baptist married to a Mormon for 30 years. (don’t ask me how it works. It just does.) My Perfect-in-All-Other-other-ways Mormon husband is addicted to Pepsis. (He’s on-call at night and has to wake up.)
We had a dear Mormon friend , very intelligent, who kept failing his MEDCAT exams. Finally went to a psychologist and was diagnosed with attention deficit and was put on Ritalin. Passed his next MEDCAT with flying colors. But we had the biggest argument. I kept telling him he just needed to drink a cup of strong coffee before the test which he wouldn’t do—-but he did put those terrible pharmaceuticals in his body. 🙂
I’m sure most of you are no longer here but as a newer LDS, I love coffee too. I follow everything else pretty good except this and why you may ask? Because there are far worse ‘sins’ to commit and ‘commandments’ to break than this. The heavenly father and his son love all and forgive all. I’m sure they have bigger worries than whether someone drinks coffee or not. I wouldn’t fret too much on it.
Love it …I am to be baptized in 2weeks and I do not intend to give it totally up!
I should add that I love the LDS faith and follow everything else totally!