Shocking isn’t it? That’s what I thought as well when I saw the headlines of the Salt Lake Trib reporting that the vending machines at BYU were “accidentally” stocked with the caffeine laden beverage.
Ah, but then I read the rest of the story…
Apparently this was no big deal for the Church because they already sell caffeinated drinks at Brigham Young’s former residence the Lion House, as well as the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
You see the drinks are condemned, but making money off them isn’t. This reminds me of the Marriott. Tucked inside the drawer of each bedside table is a Book of Mormon which lies directly underneath the television pay per view guide for the questionable channels they have available.
Whatever happened to standing up for your principles? I can guarantee you that as a Christian ministry I would never carry questionable reading material, nor would I sell something I didn’t feel would be biblically sound just to appease the demand of the public or to make a few extra dollars.
D&C 89 which contains the inspired revelation for the Mormon dietary law known as the Word of Wisdom says that strong drinks aren’t for the “belly” and neither is hot drinks – vs. 9. What they’re referring to in that passage is caffeine. Joe Smith had to have a revelation about Emma’s tea and as the years went on this transferred to all caffeine – soda included.
Rules, rules, rules. All the religions of the world say you must do, do, do. Jesus Christ said – DONE!
Amen! Isn’t it a relief? I know I think of it every day I wake and know that I can rest in Him. My energy, my focus, my devotion is all released from the Law so I can dedicate my life to Him and what He’s done for me. As Christians it’s something we never tire of and as unsaved people what we were always hoping for. Amazing how that works!
Michelle
Well, I’m not shocked because it is a classic cover-up and they didn’t need to cover it up. They are so used to covering stuff up that by the time they discovered it was an mistake, the cover-up with LDS doctrine was already released. That made them doubly look ridiculous.
Why bother in the first place? What people don’t need are more rules to live by, especially those that are not necessary for life.
Well said, sage_brush!!!
An excerpt from my testimony;
I don’t know if it was because my dad was a convert to the church or what, but we lived the “Mormon life” to the letter. We were always taught about the Word of Wisdom growing up and of course tobacco and alcohol were obviously off-limits. But the tea and coffee thing was always a mystery to me. My grandpa used to drink Sanka, which is a coffee substitute of some sort and sometimes decaf coffee. My mom always drank herbal tea. So we were taught that it wasn’t so much that coffee and tea were not allowed, it was the caffeine that was in the drinks that made it forbidden. We couldn’t drink any soda that had caffeine in it. Coke, Pepsi, Mtn. Dew, Dr. Pepper, Sunkist, Tab (who would want to drink that anyway?), etc. If it had caffeine, it was a no-go. After I got saved, I was in a convenience store and there were 2 LDS missionaries in line in front of me. One had a Mtn. Dew and the other a Dr. Pepper. I told them (quite loudly by the way) that, “You guys can’t drink that; it’s got caffeine in it”. They told me the church had changed their stance on that issue and that the word of wisdom states coffee and tea because they are hot drinks that could damage someone’s insides. So I asked, “Well then is iced tea allowed?” To which I got a cold shoulder…
Oh Camden we’ve missed you around here! Glad to see you’re back!!!
Well growing up in Utah I was taught NO caffeine at all. Period, end of story. And because I never thought things through back then I didn’t give hot chocolate a second thought…until…I was going in for one of my doctor appts for one of my kids – can’t remember now which one it was. Anyway he told me that caffeine wasn’t good for the baby and that included hot chocolate. I looked at him dumbfounded and he said; “Yeah, I know you’re Mormon and this may come as a surprise to you but chocolate’s loaded with caffeine”.
So a doctor with no agenda gave me pause. Oh the Lord is funny!
And yeah, I was kind of a ding-bat back then…hopefully that’s changed. 😉
Michelle
Ya, my dad was on the “caffeine in chocolate” thing for awhile, but he loved chocolate so much that he used the “food sacrificed to idols” explanation as to why he ate chocolate. Unless it was spelled out in the ingrediants, it was good to go… It is hard, if not impossible, to find it spelled out on a candy bar wrapper or hot chocolate packet… and what kind of god wouldn’t let his children eat chocolate??? 😉
Sorry I’ve been away for so long… I will get around to sending you an “update e-mail” on what’s been going on…
Romans 15:13