This is the collection of articles which were written about the Word of Wisdom to address the many issues, misinterpretations, and misunderstandings we have about this revelation head on. By confronting them I hope to help correct the foundational errors in our understanding of the Word of Wisdom, which in turn helps us to explain why some of the apparent hypocrisies and contradictions of it (like why we can have Red Bull but not coffee) are neither contradictions nor hypocritical. I try my best to explore and explain the purpose of the Word of Wisdom by looking at the text itself and what it tells us it is, not what we have said it is, and how it actually tells us to live, not how we say we should live. I address the historical enforcement of the Word of Wisdom, how alcohol mas been treated by the Church, the many errors we make on the issues of drinking coffee and tea as well as eating meat. Finally, I hope to help set us on a better path of following the Word of Wisdom in a spiritually healthy way that will build and strengthen our faith in Christ and the Restoration through a better understanding and living of this great latter-day revelation.
Tag: Word of WIsdom doesn't care about addictions
How To Obey The Word of Wisdom: Meat & Vegetarianism
There is a lot of confusion over exactly what the Word of Wisdom asks in regard to eating meat. Some, argue that the Word of Wisdom essentially commands that we only eat meat when plants are scare, such as they were in winter in the early 19th century, or during times of famine and therefore we should not be eating meat regularly and should instead have an almost or completely plant-based vegetarian diet. Having studied the Word of Wisdom and the rest of the Doctrine and Covenants on this topic, I have concluded that those arguments are incorrect. In this article I will demonstrate that, while the Lord warns us not to waste animal life because He will hold us accountable for each one we take, there is nothing in the scriptures, once correctly understood, which tells us that we should only eat meat in times of winter or famine. Indeed, repeatedly in the scriptures the Lord announces that He is pleased when we eat meat and that He created animals to be used by humans as sources of food and clothing.
How To Obey The Word of Wisdom: Tea and Coffee
Have you ever heard that coffee and tea are prohibited in the Word of Wisdom because they contain caffeine or tannic acid, because they’re addictive, or because they’re unhealthy? Errors like these are very often sources of confusion among the Latter-day Saints and others about exactly what the Word of Wisdom demands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of these errors do not come from the actual Word of Wisdom revelation, but from the additional rules Latter-day Saints have invented and added to the Word of Wisdom.
The result has been nothing but confusion, misunderstand, and apparent hypocrisy as so many of us have failed to understand what the Word of Wisdom teaches, why it teaches those things, and how to properly live it. I have undertaken here to hopefully correct these mistakes, and explain what are apparent contradictions and why they aren’t hypocritical or contradictory once you understand the Word of Wisdom and discard all the other rules that we have made up surrounding the Word of Wisdom.
Confronting and Correcting Word of Wisdom Myths
Lately, I have been thinking more often about the Word of Wisdom and common errors we Latter-day Saints make in our understanding of it. Too often I’ve heard people call it the “Lord’s Law of Health,” express distress that people can drink coffee but not soda, and suggest it is about not becoming addicted to stuff like caffeine or tobacco. While all of these have some kernel of truth to them, they are all fundamental misunderstandings of what the Word of Wisdom is and what its function in Latter-day Saint lives and society is supposed to be. And because we misunderstand the Word of Wisdom it often leads us to incorrect conclusions about how we should live it, mistakes which can even degrade our faith. Here I address these issues and seek to explain why thinking of the Word of Wisdom as a Law of Health is to misunderstand what it is, the blessings promised by it, and its role in Latter-day Saint lives and community. Once properly understood common misunderstandings of it, such as it forbids caffeine, and seeming contradictions, such as not drinking coffee because it is unhealthy but being fine with drinking energy drinks, are cleared up. Hopefully this helps Latter-day Saints better understand the Word of Wisdom, live it as God has commanded, and enjoy the blessing from doing so in their lives.