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Quick update: This is something I still struggle with to some degree. I stopped drinking it completely several weeks ago because it just was not okay for my marriage, no matter how much I justified it. Now that I have laid off, things in my marriage have improved a lot. I still haven’t mentally gotten past this issue, because I maintain that coffee and tea are both enjoyable to drink and come with good health benefits, and for me, help me study and engage better with the many people evaluating me in my program. My wife even knows that it makes no sense and acknowledges that, but is simply unable to permit it. I have taken advice from above posters and just supplemented with caffeine pills. Which does help some. Does it make any sense? No. Coffee and tea bad. When I drink herbal tea, I am asked: “does that have caffeine in it?” Diet Coke, good. Caffeine pills good. Decaf coffee okay? I don’t know because I don’t care enough to ask. Why would I pay $2 for a cup of coffee without getting a mental boost from it? I’ve heard that tannins in coffee are bad, but like most foods ie aspartame, that are proclaimed to be bad for you, it isn’t really. Unless you ingest loads of it in one sitting. Way more than you could get from drinking several pots of coffee. And no proven long term effects either. Anyway, I’m rambling. Just have to write down my thoughts sometimes. Anyone else going through a food crisis?
We are a religion of fear. Most religions are. I am not a coffee drinker, but my husband is. He has been a caffeine addict since youth. He finds the caffeine kick of coffee more long lasting and less brash. That said he would need caffeine to survive. I remember a fast and testimony meeting a few months ago, maybe a year ago, where our previous bishops wife was so grateful that Elder Whomever of the Seventy, who had just visited us for Regional Conference, had said that “Caffeine isn’t in the Word of Wisdom”, she went on to espouse how we add things to the rules that don’t need to be. I had to chain myself to the chair to keep from running up to the pulpit next, shouting a huge AMEN to her comment, and then begin to list all the things that aren’t in the 89th section or in the this covenant and that covenant.
Peace of marriage is important though. One of the leading Marriage Guru’s, Jon Gottman, states that supporting or fulfilling your spouses dreams is the key to long lasting happy marriages. Maybe on days when you are just heading up the wall, take a minute and pat yourself on the back for giving her a dream gift.
I would say don’t try to justify or analyze the WoW based on contents of the drink. If it is coffee brewed from coffee beans or tea brewed from tea leaves it is against the WoW. The WoW doesn’t say caffeine, it doesn’t say tannins, it says hot drinks which has been interpreted to mean coffee and tea. Sure you can nitpick and strain at gnats and hot versus cold, green tea, decaf, etc. In the simplest interpretation it’s the tea plant and the coffee plant. Thoreau wrote:I would say don’t try to justify or analyze the WoW based on contents of the drink. If it is coffee brewed from coffee beans or tea brewed from tea leaves it is against the WoW. The WoW doesn’t say caffeine, it doesn’t say tannins, it says hot drinks which has been interpreted to mean coffee and tea. Sure you can nitpick and strain at gnats and hot versus cold, green tea, decaf, etc. In the simplest interpretation it’s the tea plant and the coffee plant.
Or, Brigham Young could have been just as wrong about that as he was Blacks and the priesthood.
I ran across this the other day and this seems as good a place as any to share it. I’m linking as a URL so as to not make the page scroll on for forever: http://i.imgur.com/p9StFJL.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/p9StFJL.jpg” class=”bbcode_url”> Kinda puts things into perspective.
nibbler wrote:I ran across this the other day and this seems as good a place as any to share it. I’m linking as a URL so as to not make the page scroll on for forever:
http://i.imgur.com/p9StFJL.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/p9StFJL.jpg” class=”bbcode_url”> Kinda puts things into perspective.
Makes sense to me.In kind of a “what the hell do
Ieven matter let alone what I drink.” Boil carrots – OK. Boil potatoes – OK. Boil peas – OK. Grind up roasted peanuts, sugar, and oil – OK. Boil coffee beans and drink – On the highway to hell. 
But in answer to the question, I don’t drink it.
startpoor wrote:Does it make any sense? No.
I wouldn’t say I have any kind of food crisis…but no…the Word of Wisdom as we are taught it in the church makes zero sense to me.But…in all honesty and seriousness…I don’t think you can discount the blessing you have expressed about your marriage. That is real. Perhaps not explainable to WoW…but very real and very worth noticing.
I grew up drinking coffee sporadically, and still drink herbal tea and non-alcoholic brews. The WoW is still one of those that is definitely a “up for your interpretation” mixed with how stringent your local leadership might be if they knew mixed with who cared what the neighbors think a the caveat which it sounds like you got ultimately how it affects you and your family. Before I was a member I cleaned out a drinking fountain that the office staff would pour their old coffee into. It was always getting clogged. The drain pipe was always filling up with this light brown sludge.
My mother decided after drinking coffee for 30+ years that realizing that if she didn’t drink her normal two cups in the morning she would have a headache. She tapered off to drinking hot water instead as she felt it was healthier.
I give these two examples not to influence decicion, but just because they are on my mind. They’ve influenced my decisions.
LDS_Scoutmaster wrote:I grew up drinking coffee sporadically, and still drink herbal tea and non-alcoholic brews. The WoW is still one of those that is definitely a “up for your interpretation” mixed with how stringent your local leadership might be if they knew mixed with who cared what the neighbors think a the caveat which it sounds like you got ultimately how it affects you and your family.
Before I was a member I cleaned out a drinking fountain that the office staff would pour their old coffee into. It was always getting clogged. The drain pipe was always filling up with this light brown sludge.
My mother decided after drinking coffee for 30+ years that realizing that if she didn’t drink her normal two cups in the morning she would have a headache. She tapered off to drinking hot water instead as she felt it was healthier.
I give these two examples not to influence decicion, but just because they are on my mind. They’ve influenced my decisions.
The thing that gets me is how many (most) Mormons feel that “I am so much healthier than those gentiles drinking coffee, tea, and alcohol” and at the same time they are obese. Doctors are screaming that the #1 issue (at least in the US) is obesity, not coffee drinking. I had some minor health issues that cut my exercise last year and my BMI tipped into the “obese” category. I am MUCH more worried about that than if I happen to down 2 cans of diet coke a day. And I am almost back into “just overweight” BMI. Yeah!
Lookinghard, congrats on being overweight! Heber, absolutely. Probably not a blessing directly related to the WoW itself, but from earning my wife’s trust. It’s a pretty tangible way to show her I love her, and for her to see my efforts as such.
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startpoor wrote:Heber, absolutely. Probably not a blessing directly related to the WoW itself, but from earning my wife’s trust. It’s a pretty tangible way to show her I love her, and for her to see my efforts as such.
Thanks for sharing…it truly, truly touches me to hear you express that. Thanks for your example. I am kinda overwhelmed by the emotion of that expression of yours. What a great faith story…doing something that makes no sense, but doing it anyway out of love and seeing blessings from doing it for the noblest of reasons.
I was talking to my kids at dinner last weekend, and they observed that we aren’t “as Mormon” as some of the other families in the ward. I asked why that was, and it seemed to me that every example they cited was about me! One was that I eat coffee ice cream (I don’t drink coffee though), and we all drink herbal tea (not my husband, but to each his own). I also quote the Godfather, but I think that just makes me an American over 40. Anyway, mostly what it boiled down to was that the most Mormon families don’t seem to have anything else to talk about but Mormonism. Which sounds incredibly dull. There was also a heavy Utah component to being “more Mormon,” another disqualifier for me. I think everyone thinks the next family over is more Mormon than theirs but if we got to know them better we might see they are just “regular folks” just like us. Of course we all know a few Flanders families in our respective wards but we might be surprised there as well? Nah. hawkgrrrl wrote:Anyway, mostly what it boiled down to was that the most Mormon families don’t seem to have anything else to talk about but Mormonism. Which sounds incredibly dull.
I’ve found that to be the case in many walks of life. Branching out helps make us well rounded.
Congrats lookinghard, it’s a struggle as we all get older to be healthy. What’s healthy? Certainly not the buddy bar that I ate for breakfast. But I agree, there is double standard? with keeping the WoW and yet on the other hand being way off in some other area. Hawkgirl, what’s a normal Mormon family? I don’t think we’re normal but we do not live in utah, so I guess it’s relative. We’re not normal like calfornia Mormons I would guess. But like nibble said everyone’s family is different.
Startpoor and heber13 good points. There’s so many outcomes to our actions and not just the “I’m doing what’s right for me”
Quote:Hawkgirl, what’s a normal Mormon family? I don’t think we’re normal but we do not live in utah, so I guess it’s relative. We’re not normal like calfornia Mormons I would guess. But like nibble said everyone’s family is different.
That’s what I pointed out to my kids. They weren’t saying we weren’t a “normal” Mormon family just that we were somehow “less” Mormon, so that qualifier may go more hand in hand with the not having anything to talk about but Mormonism.
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