Would that make witchcraft a sex-linked trait?
Got your spell on me baby
Got your spell on me baby
Yes you got your spell on me baby
Turning my heart into stone
I need you so bad, magic woman
I can’t leave you alone
[Darth Vader]I find your lack of caffeine … disturbing. [/Vader]
I like my coffee like I like my witches … weak and bitter.
(I rejected “ground up in my freezer” as needlessly inflamatory.)
I’m missing the coffee = witch connection. Obviously, there’s no real connection and no real witches for that matter, but why the hell should even the looniest of parents or school principals make this connection? Why didn’t every other teacher and student who drank coffee (what, half the school?) get accused of the dark arts?
Seriously, someone help me out here…
As I understand it, Mormons don’t consume coffee or a lot of other caffienated beverages. So I suspect the non-mormons (apparently a very small minority in the school) were the only ones who did drink coffee.
Heck, if it’s Bosch being talked about I’d like to see a presentation here. I’ve always found his stuff fascinating but don’t know much about it.
Mormons are against caffeine.
If you had read the article you would have seen that it most certainly was not half the school, but only the fired teacher in question and a part timer who snuck a few sips so he/she wouldn’t be seen drinking it.
Good to see the irony of the fact she was teaching “The Crucible” wasn’t lost on them…no, wait, it was.
The only other non-LDS teacher, a Catholic was aso fired at the same time, and that both of them were replaced with LDS teachers, despite the reason given by the school that the firings were because of a need to cut down staffing.
So that’s TWO possible big fat lawsuits.
I’m trying to remember what an ex-Mormon friend of mine told me, so I’m a little shaky on exact details. Mormons believe that caffeine, or any other substance that would alter the usual functioning of the mind and body, is bad because that’s not how god wants you to be. The body is a temple, accepting god as your boss, sort of thing. What is witchcraft all about? Why perverting the natural course of God’s plan! So caffeine = witchcraft. Any Mormons around here who can tell me if this is even close to what they might be thinking?
What I don’t get, is why caffeine is bad, but say, aspirin is okay. God doesn’t want you to have a little extra energy, but that headache he gave you is okay to get rid of.
I’ve read all but the newest and don’t get what a squib is either. Granted, I’ve only read them once and just to see what the fuss was about. So what is a squib in the world of Harry Potter?
Someone of wizard blood who has little or no magical ability.
Is there, perchance, another source to this story than the Salt Lake Weekly? I can’t find anything online other than it and a bunch of message boards quoting it. I find a couple of things mentioned in the article questionable regarding descriptions of LDS persons.
BTW, the LDS church isn’t against caffeine; it’s against Coffee, Tea, Tobacco, and Alcohol. Those members of that church who refrain from caffeine do so based on their own interpretation of the Word of Wisdom (D&C 89).
This is true, but “Those members of the church” is practically all members who observe the WoW, since Church leaders stood behind the effective ban on caffeinated beverages. Until they came out with caffeine-free versions, LDS folk didn’t want to drink Coke or Pepsi. I heard they didn’t have Coke machines at BYU until the no caffeine version became available. (There’s a great Grondahl cartoon showing a Church official going up to a Coke Machine, layin on hands and sayiong “Heal!”, and the machine sprouts a “Caffeine-Free!” banner.)
Woah!
[qutoe]17 Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.
[/quote]
Mild drinks made with barley or other grains would signify beer. It seems to me that the prohibition is on distilled spirits, or hard-liquor, but beer would seem to be okay.
Herbs, eh? Sweet, sweet Mary Jane you’re alright I see.
But hot drinks being bad is just loopy. Hadn’t ol’ Joe Smith heard of hot chocolate?
From the link:
9. And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.
Really, no hot drinks? Hot chocolate or herbal tea? Am I reading that right? Seems like a strange rule to have if you are going settle in Utah where the winters can be pretty brutal.
At siome point someone noticed that a common thread in the “hot drinks” of coffee and tea was caffeine, and logically extended the ban to cola drinks (and, I assume, Mountain Dew and its ilk), even though they’re served cold. The thought of hot chocolate entered my mind, too. Not only is it hot, but it contains caffeine. I never found out what the ruling was, and, to tell the truth, I can’t recall any of my LDS friends drinking hot chocolate.
On the other hand, they did eat chocolate products (my LDS office mate used to eat two chocolate pies for lunch, yet never gained weight), yet chocolate contains caffeine, but it isn’t a drink…
At this point the reasoning enters one of those weird warps like Catholic laymen arguing about eating meat during Lent on a Friday, but you’re crossing ther International Date Line… and at that point I say that officials in somebody else’s church can make the rules about dietary practice, and not be subject to my feelings about logic and consistency.
Some time ago, not long after the revelation, the church leadership interpreted “hot drinks” to mean, specifically, “coffee and tea.” In other words, the ban is on coffee and tea, regardless of at what temperature said drinks are served, and also on foodstuffs made with coffee or tea. Hot chocolate and soup and other warmish consumable liquids are not banned. So, to sum up:
Hot tea = hot drink = banned
Hot coffee = hot drink = banned
Iced tea = hot drink = banned
Cold coffee = hot drink = banned
Hot chocolate =/= hot drink =/= banned
Hot soup =/= hot drink =/= banned
Cold potato soup = gross = should be banned*
*personal opinion
Thanks for clearing that up.
Well, Monty, I’ll grant you that it’s their club and they can interpret the rules anyway they want; but that doesn’t make any logical sense to me. The WoW was written in English, right? At least with Biblical prohibitions you’ve got translation issues to make room for interpreting one thing as not what it is on the surface. But how does “hot drink” translate to anything other than “hot drink”? It seems to me that the leadership interpreted it the way they wanted it to be, regardless of the plain meaning of the words. Is there some explanation of how they arrived at that conclusion?
I’ll not argue against your cold potato soup position.
Now, why would someone nicknamed Homebrew be interested in, well, home brews of any kind? 
Logic? You’re kidding, right? After all, we’re talking religion here!
I’ve seen & heard explanations about why it was interpreted that way; however, most of those, if not all, have been “Mormon myths” (urban legends). I considered searching the Church’s online Gospel library but there will be far too many hits for Word of Wisdom or any of its particulars.
I’m still curious if there’s another source for the story linked in the OP. Someone screaming, “She’s a witch!” just hasn’t been in my experience of observing my co-religionists over the past 20 odd years.