Rum Cake and Pres McKay

[Anonymous]

I posted a longer version of this over at Mormon Matters, but thought I would see what the reactions here might be. Here’s a snippet.

I just started reading Greg Prince’s book, David O McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. It’s been a great read so far. Prince tells some interesting stories about President McKay and the Word of Wisdom. From page 23,

Quote:

At a reception McKay attended, the hostess served rum cake. ”All the guests hesitated, watching to see what McKay would do. He smacked his lips and began to eat.” When one guest expostulated, “‘But President McKay, don’t you know that is rum cake?’ McKay smiled and reminded the guest that the Word of Wisdom forbade drinking alcohol, not eating it.”

Here is the link to the full post: http://mormonmatters.org/2010/09/07/coke-rum-cake-and-president-mckay/

Do you think Mormons will ever relax to President McKay’s position on the Word of Wisdom? When I was first married, my wife surprised me and cooked with wine. Do others cook with wine?

[Anonymous]

Quote:

Do you think Mormons will ever relax to President McKay’s position on the Word of Wisdom? When I was first married, my wife surprised me and cooked with wine. Do others cook with wine?

First question – I doubt it.

Second question – Yes. My wife has always cooked with wine – even when we were first married and we were both happy, content, card carrying members.

I have a TBM brother who use to make “beer chicken”. Great stuff. He quit doing the recipe a few years ago when he got called as a bishop. It was sad for me to see. He became very serious, uptight and anxious. Now that he has become a SP, he’s a completely different person than I knew 15 years ago. I hope it’s for the best, but I don’t know.

[Anonymous]

I read your article. Good stuff.

I thought the comments were interesting. Especially yours about the members who think they know more about the WoW than Pres. Mckay. It’s never okay to question or doubt conservative prophets like President Grant, but when good LDS members don’t like what a “liberal” prophet has to say, it’s okay to call them out. ironic, isn’t it.

[Anonymous]

For your first question-Anything can happen. As of right now I think the judgement some members pass in regards to the WOW and how another individual practices it are harsh. I’m not sure if people will become more strict or if this is the worst of the worst with picking apart the WOW to pieces. Hopefully people will handle WOW issues in a more mature way when it comes to judgement etc. in the future … again it could also become even more dissected. Time will tell.

I don’t cook with wine because in my short life I haven’t had many opportunities to build up my recipe book of dishes that are actually good. We usually just drink the wine …. if we buy it, but that is hardly ever.

My grandmother (who is not LDS) makes chicken marsala, which has alcohol in it, and it is amazing! I could eat it every day.

So many dishes that are not American have alcohol in there recipes. That is a lott of heaven to miss out on if you decide not to eat anything cooked with alcohol. IMO it is very unfortunate to miss out on different cultures foods b/c of alcohol use but I’m happy to have had the chance to try so many different ethnic dishes that happen to be cooked with alcohol.

We just went out to a Japanese grill last night with the big flames and all. They cook with Vodka, I believe … my DH, one year old daughter and I all ate our dinner. I never second guessed even my daughter eating the food. And now I will eat my leftovers!

[Anonymous]

There is an older post about this exact same quote. I’ll try to find it and see how many comments there were.

I love that quote – and I think it happens in principle LOTS more often with FAR more members than most people think.

I have no problem cooking with wine – unless the person is taking nips from the bottle as they are cooking. 😆

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if the church will relax on the Word of Wisdom back to Pres McKay’s understanding, but I sure hope we do! I had a bishop on my mission, and he said his favorite smell at church was the smell of cigarettes. That meant someone was there who was trying to become a better person.

I listened to a podcast from Covenant Theological Seminary a while back, and the teacher said that if Jesus were alive today, he would hang out in bars. “The whole need no physician.” That is why the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus–because he hung out with sinners. But the reality is that is the people who need the gospel the most probably do hang out in bars. I think many church members act like Pharisees (especially concerning the WoW), and I wish we would follow Pres McKay’s example more often.

While in Independence, Missouri for the Mormon History Conference this summer, I visited an RLDS service just as it ended. They had a rock band that was still jamming. (It kinda felt like “holy roller Mormons”.) Anyway, as I talked to some of the members walking out of the service, they told me that they had an outreach program to the youth in the city–these youth had problems with gangs and drugs, and I guess the rock band was meant to attract them. I found the concept so interesting, and was impressed that they would change their service to meet the cultural needs of the people that needed to hear the message. I’m undecided as to whether I think it is a good idea or not, but I found their motivations 100% good. They even invited me to a baby blessing the following week. I was greatly impressed with their friendliness!

[Anonymous]

Here’s the link to the previous thread. I forgot I was the one who started it.

“David O. McKay on Uniformity” (http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1398&p=15766&hilit=rum#p15766)

It was pretty easy to find, since searching for “rum” on this site doesn’t yield very many results. 😆 😯 🙄

[Anonymous]

blech! I always hated rum cake. I worked in this office part-time when I was in high school (in northern VA / DC suburbs). Every time they had an office party, someone brought a rum cake. I remember they got one when I was going away to college, at a sort of goodbye office break/party. I choked down a slice with a smile to be polite.

When I become President of the Church someday, I will make sure to save everyone from that wretched dessert by explicit decree. I’ll let people drink rum with prudence and thanksgiving, but NO freakin’ rum cakes!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the link Ray. Sorry, I don’t get outside this particular forum very often… 😳

[Anonymous]

I wanna jam with the Holy Roller Mormons.

[Anonymous]

fwiw (a Rayism 😆 ), cooking causes much of the alcoholic content to evaporate anyway.

[Author]

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