History and Mystery of the Word of Wisdom

A smart woman behind me who had just finished her graduate studies at UCLA snidely doubted an idea under her breath during a lesson in Relief Society. I smiled knowing that her skepticism had a place with the story that was being told. After all, the most difficult challenge the Church has is getting their history straight. The story she was having a hard time swallowing was that of the Word of Wisdom.

I always knew that the Word of Wisdom revolved around an idea greater than Emma’s hatred for tobacco spit at the School of the Prophets, as she always was stuck cleaning it up. When reading Rough Stone Rolling I read Sylvester Graham may have influenced the Prophet Joseph, and I realized I needed to fully understand the truth behind the esoteric and elusive Word of Wisdom.

Knowledge and Revelation
Joseph Smith Sr. struggled with the drink. This fact must have plagued the Smith household. Let's face it - nobody likes a dad for a drunk unless he buys you great presents under the influence. The Revelation given to Joseph was at a time where public drunkenness had grown amongst Americans. Sylvester Graham, a Minister and temperance leader was speaking to New Yorkers by the thousands, particularly in 1831-1832. He believed in vegetarianism as well as abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee and was inventor of the delicious and nutritious Graham cracker. He began the Pennsylvania Temperance Society, which then became the American Temperance Society. Joseph would have been very familiar with these organizations as they were popular in the Western Reserve of Ohio at this time. In May of 1843 the Prophet did speak about temperance societies vaguely as it seems the Saints wanted to start one, and the Prophet advised merely to live by the word.

John A. Widtsoe wrote that part of the Word of Wisdom was abstaining from refined flour – this also falls in line with the preaching of Sylvester Graham. He insisted that refined flour lacked the health benefits of wheat flour, and even published bread making books to guide followers on how to make their own bread, hence the creation of the healthy Graham cracker. We know now that this trend is fairly accurate and true wheat flour is far healthier as white flour was a popular choice for the rich kings and when it was readily available to the public, they jumped on the opportunity.

Is there a direct connection between Graham and Joseph Smith or merely a philosophical health code in which Joseph pondered and prayed about, especially since it was affecting his own family, the Saints, and the general public?

As far as I can tell Joseph did not attend any of these lectures nor did he speak directly with Graham, but plenty of material and Graham’s writings would have been available, as well as the word of mouth information regarding the health code. It makes perfect sense that Joseph would have pondered this idea for a long time. Not just because Emma was disgusted by the tobacco spit. Because of public drunkenness, because of his father’s struggles, because the Lord believed the Saints were ready for temperance because Graham had a movement on his hand and people were attracted to this revolution against the use of these drugs, Joseph revealed the Word of Wisdom.


Reasoning
Between a Times and Seasons article (Oct 1842) and President Young’s arguments, the early Church argued the following in adhering to the Word of Wisdom:
-To live as long as the Prophets in biblical times – Prophets of old lived up to 800 years
-God made our bodies so his wisdom would be useful in understanding what is right for the body
-When a man drink his “temporary relief only binds the cords of bondage more severely around him.”
-Disease can easily take hold when disobeying the Word of Wisdom
-To save money as many poor converts from Europe pilfered their money away on these commodities

My personal thought is that the first reasoning is farcical - I don't personally believe that the Prophets of old lived to 800 years. They lived under a different calendar. They also would have been possibly drinking given that Genesis 9:20 asserts that Noah had a vineyard and Jews were early winemakers. To think that they weren't drinking is a misconception by early saints without archaeological evidence.

Early Obedience
A discrepancy:
“No official member in this Church is worthy to hold an office after having the word of wisdom properly taught him; and he, the official member, neglecting to comply with and obey it.” –Joseph Smith\, 1834

“After this meeting closed I met with the Twelve & High Priest quorum: the word of wisdom was brought up B Young says shall I break the word of wisdom if I go home & drink a cup of tea: No wisdom is justified of her children, the subject was discussed in an interesting manner all concluded that it was wisdom to deal with all such matters according to the wisdom which God gave that a forced abstinence was not making us free but we should be under bondage with a yoak upon our necks...”-Wilford Woodruff Diary Nov 7, 1841

It’s thought that Joseph himself still occasionally drank wine, even perhaps drinking a glass of wine before his martyrdom. But the lax attitude would be changed when the leadership role was to be taken over by President Brigham Young. The discrepancy was probably explained over the incredibly hard habit to break. In 1834 it's easy to say that you want to quit. Doing so is quite a different story - changing a culture of drinkers and tobacco spitters is quite a task, even with faith on your side.


Brigham Young Fluctuates, The Saints are Habitual

Brigham Young made it a personal goal to create a commandment from the Word of Wisdom. Interestingly enough, the Saints took several generations to break the habits of the Word of Wisdom. Like a convert today, it’s difficult to break a habit. It’s even more difficult if it’s still a cultural norm. Converts today have the benefit of a society that shuns even the appearance of “evil”. In Joseph’s time many Saints continued to struggle with the Word of Wisdom, dare I say most Saints.

Fallacious facts have circulated that early members were excommunicated for failing to live up to the Word of Wisdom. Most excommunications were like trials of criminals– they included many charges to bolster the claim against the defendant. A minor charge of Word of Wisdom abuse would be like adding “sodomy” to a rapist’s charge.

Brigham himself controlled alcohol by himself owning the distilleries and breweries in the territory of Utah and arrested bootleggers. I have always heard “Brigham owned breweries” as a justification as to why the Word of Wisdom might be a fraud. This is a fact taken out of context. Brigham owned breweries to have better control over the Saints and the territory concerning the Word of Wisdom, although I believe that Brigham did drink tea and drank it during his death while he was sick – another mystery…

Brigham struggled to enforce the Word vacillating back and forth with agendas changing during a demanding time. Sometimes it would be a high priority and he would find it extremely important, other times it would be on the back burner and the Saints found freedom. He concentrated mostly on changing the habits of the Youth, as the older generations could not break their habits.


President Heber J. Grant's Mission


President Heber J. Grant officially changed the Word of Wisdom to cultural change when in 1930 obedience became part of the temple recommend interview. In 1933 the US voted to repeal the 18th Amendment which constituted Prohibition. I had heard that Heber J. Grant changed the recommend interview after the vote. This is clearly a falsehood, however we can see that President Grant was very upset with the Saints and probably did continue his agenda once the Saints showed a clear disregard - this would be like Utah voting for gay marriage in Utah today!



“We are fundamentally for prohibition, and let me promise you right here and now, that if you vote for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, there will be a great many more professing Latter-day Saints who will be drunkards than there have been while the Eighteenth Amendment has been in force."


After the vote when the Saints repealed Prohibition:


“I feel to have charity at the present time for the Latter-day Saints who have voted for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, notwithstanding the fact that they knew very well, without my coming out and saying, ‘I want you to do it,’ that I would have been mighty happy if they had voted the other way. I lived in hopes, and I announced myself in public, that if all other states in the Union went ‘wet,’ Utah would go ‘dry.’Some of my friends begged me to come out and appeal to the people individually, to ask each and every Latter-day Saint to vote to maintain the Eighteenth Amendment."

The Aftermath

Clearly I think that the Saints now have a very "black and white" attitude towards the Word of Wisdom. It's like if you drink a beer its the slippery slope to hell - which we apparently don't believe in anyway. Videos show teens in a precarious moment where their salvation is on the line - drink with their friends and never come back to the church - or CTR?! OH THE AGONY!

The truth is that if one does fall into the gray area - which most of the early apostles and even our founder did - repentance is always an option. However this isn't really clarified in any of the teachings. Neither is the fact that some of our newer members or members in foreign countries who are having cultural adaptation problems are facing the same issues of our earlier members. When given this paradigm shift, we can start seeing our fellow church goers who struggle with love, empathy, and embrace them with the true love of Christ. Who also turned water into wine. And that wine was probably one part water, one part fermented grape fruit juice. Not just grape fruit juice which is what Mormon mothers love to tell inquiring children. Just sayin.

Purpose

I have many strong opinions concerning the gospel. Occasionally I see it fit to share these thoughts and ideas in Sunday school or in Relief Society, only to have a teacher retort with a baffled look or a comment, "That's not doctrine." Truthfully I'd like to discuss what doctrine is - that we have very little doctrine but perhaps Relief Society is not the forum to contemplate the idea of Brigham Young's Adam-God theory and how Prophets can be wrong.

I believe that the Church was founded on an idea that lends the Saints freedom of ideas allowing the Holy Ghost as a guide for truth. He is our liahona as we are seeking the mysteries of heavens, earth, our God, and the purpose of life. Prophets lead and guide us as well but they are one part of tools we may use - not the only tool along with the scriptures. I believe scientific discoveries, other theologians and philosophers, and mathematics can also provide insights that provide doctrinal truths and foundations that can in totality show that Joseph Smith restored Christ's correct Church.

After frustrating rameumptom-esque sheep mindlessly following the iron rod course without thought and believing that they are using their "faith", I finally decided the only outlet to really discuss my ideas and concepts with research and insight from many sources would be through this blog.

Like Hugh Nibley once said, "I refuse to be responsible for anything I wrote more than 3 years ago. Fore heaven's sake I hope we're moving forward here...I would say that 4/5 of everything I have put down has changed. Of course!" As well as "intelligence is examining your own inadequacy." I also subscribe to J. Bonner Ritchie's idea of protecting yourself against organizational abuse, and I think that certain members are far too judgmental keeping the less active from coming back and keeping those who are active constantly on their toes. I too can be critical (I just was!), but at the same time I also understand that there's room for both types of members in the Church.

The purpose of my blog is to explore some of my more "radical" ideas that I know I can't discuss openly with the core membership of the Church.