Mormon Bloggers

Mormons are known for the revelation given to Joseph Smith commonly called the “Word of Wisdom”, which is the law of health.  Part of the Word of Wisdom includes things that individuals should not consume such as alcohol, and “hot drinks”, which the LDS prophets have interpretted to mean caffeinated tea and coffee.  I read a study on line from UC Davis that stated the caffeine content of some energy drinks can be as high as 294 mg/bottle, which is 50 mg more than the highest amount of your typical tea, coffee, or cola drink.  In addition, when you add the amounts of sugar to the drinks, they become something that definitely are more damaging to the body than any tea or coffee.  See the chart below for caffeine and sugar content in popular energy drinks: Drink Serving (fl. Oz.) Servings per container Sugar per serving Caffeine per serving Kcal Diet Rockstar Energy Drink™ 8 2 0g 80 10 Full Throttle™ 8 2 29g 72 111 Go Girl Sugar Free™ 12 1 0g 150 3 Lo-Carb... Read the rest of this entry »

1958 “Be Honest With Yourself” LDS advertisement. As Sistas in Zion scenario: Dick and Jane are guests at a dinner party at the home of Bob and Betty. Betty has prepared a lovely tray of cocktails which Bob is graciously offering to his guests. Dick and Jane are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,and Bob is unaware that Dick and Jane do not drink alcohol. Being a gentleman, (ladies first!) Bob offers Jane a drink. Before Jane can even respond Dick yells, “No! We do not drink alcohol. We are Mormons and we believe in the Word of Wisdom.” Dick then knocks the drink out of Bob’s hand spilling red wine on the new tie which Bob’s children lovingly handpicked from the Sears Roebuck Catalogue, and gave to him for Father’s Day. Betty, the ever prepared hostess, retrieves a bottle of club soda to offer as a drink to her sober dinner guests and use on the spilled red wine before any stains set. Bob tells Dick “not... Read the rest of this entry »

One of the newest articles on the lds.org website entitled “The Power of Early Preparation” caught my eye so I read it.  I thought it had some very good points to consider regarding raising and preparing our children for the future.  As I considered ways to help my own family, I pondered about the effects of Family Home Evening (FHE).  For those not familiar with the LDS faith, FHE is a night set aside each week (typically Monday evening) where families get together and have a spiritual lesson, a fun game, sing songs, and my favorite as a kid….make treats!  I have fond memories of FHE while growing up and try to make it a good experience for my little family (wife, 2 year old daughter, and one on the way). As I considered ways I could make FHE better, I decided to do some research on the effects of FHE on children.  I came across a very interesting thesis written by a BYU student entitled “The Effect of Weekly Family Home Evening Nutrition Behaviors in LDS Families”. ... Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t drink caffeine.  It is addictive.  There is no argument there.  Our church leaders have never come out and said don’t drink it.  But this is what they have said. “Is it against Church standards to drink cola beverages or any other beverage containing caffeine?” Answer – Bishop H. Burke Peterson This is a very perplexing question to many. Maybe we should lead into its answer by first recounting a true story. Many years ago the ruler of Babylon was King Nebuchadnezzar. There was a war going on between Babylon and Judah. During the war King Nebuchadnezzar’s army was laying siege to Jerusalem. After capturing the city, the king, knowing of the fine quality of the Judean young people, instructed his leaders to capture certain of these young men of Israel who had royal blood in their veins. They were known to be strong of body and of mind and skillful in all wisdom. King Nebuchadnezzar wanted to raise them in his court that they might be a strength... Read the rest of this entry »

Because the Word of Wisdom was discussed at the just-concluded 181st Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, discussion has naturally spread to the LDS Bloggernacle. On Grace for Grace, the need to move beyond the “accountable” part of the Word of Wisdom and to consider other aspects, such as the use of wholesome herbs, fruits, grains, and the sparing consumption of meat for overall dietary management to combat and prevent obesity, is discussed. Even before the conference, Jeff Lindsay was also discussing this expanded application on Mormanity. The “accountable” part of the Word of Wisdom is that part that affects temple worthiness as well as other specific forms of worthiness. The substances specifically and repeatedly identified by Church leadership as impacting temple worthiness are coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol, and recreational drugs. Consequently, if one refrains from using those substances, one can truthfully answer Yes... Read the rest of this entry »

I really liked reading the most recent post over at the Mormantiy blog.  The author, Jeff Lindsay, gives a very good analogy of why the Word of Wisdom is important, which is essentially to show commitment to Jesus by giving up things that could be harmful for our spiritual development. While giving up alcohol, coffee, and tea is something that most people have come to understand about Mormons and the Word of Wisdom, there are many more aspects within the Word of Wisdom that shouldn’t be ignored, and that I feel distance ourselves from our commitment to the Lord. The Word of Wisdom revelation discusses part of the reason behind it is due to the “evil designs of conspiring men…” who produce the substances.  It goes on to discuss the “do nots” such as alcohol, tobacco, etc. but then goes into the parts of the revelation that could be called the “do’s”.  This includes: using wholesome herbs, fruits, meat sparingly, grains (and even goes... Read the rest of this entry »

This latest Mormon Messages video posted on March 15th, 2011 contains excerpts from one of Elder M. Russell Ballard‘s Conference addresses on addiction. The full address, entitled “O That Cunning Plan of the Evil One”, was delivered during the Sunday afternoon session of the October 2010 General Conference. Elder Ballard held up the example of a fly fisherman to illustrate how Satan uses attractive lures to deceive people into embracing unattractive habits which can lead to addiction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry8-YIwnEcU But Elder Ballard concludes the message on an upbeat note — that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, addictions can be overcome. The Prophet Joseph Smith recognized how Satan would use attractive lures in the present day over 170 years ago. While Section 89 of the Doctrine & Covenants is famous for the Word of Wisdom health code, verse 4 foreshadowed an additional problem (emphasis mine): (4). Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto... Read the rest of this entry »

One of my callings in the Church is to help with Activity Days for girls who are 10 and 11 years old. At Activity Days, our group is focusing on the Faith in God program. We as leaders (there are two of us) work with the girls to plan activities that correspond with different facets of the Faith in God program, including Learning and Living the Gospel, Serving Others, and Developing Talents. Last week, we focused on the following activity option: Read D&C 89. Discuss how Heavenly Father blesses us when we faithfully live the Word of Wisdom. Help plan and conduct an activity to teach the Word of Wisdom to others. We decided to use the internet to share more about the Word of Wisdom with others. We worked together around my kitchen table to create a presentation on Google docs. So, what is the Word of Wisdom? I’ll let the girls answer that question. (They liked using the acronym W.O.W. so we helped them frame a subtitle around that.) Mormon Primary Children “WOW”... Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday at a work event I had a dessert that had been cooked with liquor.  My boss who was with me, knowing I was Mormon, asked if that was o.k. that I was eating that.  I hadn’t even thought about it being an issue and told him from what I could tell the alcohol was cooked out.  I guess from living in Europe where many dishes are prepared with alcohol I had become accustomed to eating food that had been cooked with alcohol. The interesting thing was that this morning I received an email from the LDS Living magazine that had a poll asking the two questions to LDS readers: 1. Do you use alcohol in cooking? 2. How do you feel about cooking with alcohol?  The question had been answered by close to 5,000 people.  Nearly 1/2 of the LDS population that took the poll said they cook with alcohol and 75% of Mormons felt either neutral or positive about cooking with alcohol. If you’re not a Mormon this is probably pretty trivial, but if you’re a Mormon where do you fall... Read the rest of this entry »

After reviewing one of my previous essays, a thoughtful reader asked my opinion about the idea of perfection and if the requirements for salvation had changed.  He said, “Open just about any page of the book of Leviticus and you’ll see laws that were of life and death importance to the early church, but not today. In contrast, there is no mention of baptism or confirmation in the Old Testament as a requirement for salvation, yet today, they are taught as essential.” He also asked about the need for the Word of Wisdom, temple ordinances, plural marriage and the second anointing. He concluded, “If God is eternal, and heaven doesn’t change, shouldn’t the requirements to get into heaven be the same, no matter when you were born or what culture you lived in?” Although his email was private, great questions like these deserve a response that can be shared in my blog so others who might be interested can benefit from the dialog. Perfection means completed The savior... Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to digress more into this when writing the science/religion post, so I decided to do a post on it,  a short one. Because it doesn’t really require that much room to say, that I don’t see that Orthodoxy is such a big deal for Mormons at all. For some, but certainly when I [...]  Read More →

~by Michelle A short answer about what Mormons do to bring in the new year is that, like many other people, we’ll throw or attend parties, or have family gatherings. Youth will sometimes have organized Church activities to be together in a wholesome environment. Some people will stay home and watch the New York ball “drop.” In my family of origin, watching football games is pretty much a given on New Year’s Day. Mormon New Year’s Eve parties and gatherings may be a little different than some, though, because we don’t drink alcohol. You can read Jenny’s response to this question from last year’s Ask a Mormon Woman post here. LDSSplash shares some New Year’s tradition ideas. What about New Year’s resolutions? Mormons are like others and will often set goals at the beginning of a new year, although the concept of goal-setting and improving oneself are really just part of Mormon doctrine to implement all year. Looking for tips... Read the rest of this entry »