I’d always thought that LDS didn’t drink caffeinated beverages. recently I heard that they were allowed to drink Coca-Cola. It was further stated that this change occurred when the LDS church became financially involved with Coca-Cola. What’s the story?
IIRC (not a Mormon, mind), it was held that the prescription against caffeinated beverages in Mormon scripture had been misunderstood, and that it only applied to heated beverages. Thus, Coke and other cold caffeinated beverages were acceptable.
I have also heard the “drink Coke/Mormons invested in Coke” connection as well, and it has always struck me as a UL.
Sua
There’s a prohibition in Doctrine and Covenants against drinking “hot beverages”, understood to be coffee and tea. People have extrapolated from that the idea that caffeine should be avoided. So, some devout Mormoms don’t drink cafeinated soft drinks. However, there is no prohibition against drinking them.
Yes, the “LDS Church owns Coke” story is an old, hoary UL.
Whether or not to drink caffeinated sodas is left up to an individual’s choice/interpretation in the LDS Church. There is no specific prohibition, as Capt. Amazing pointed out, but many people feel that it is a good idea. In general, it isn’t considered a good thing to become dependent on any substance–so if someone began craving Coke every day, they might decide to quit (as my MIL did). Probably we would all be healthier if we avoided Coke, but the LDS Church hasn’t got a rule about it.
Captain A’s hit it spot-on yet again! I’m LDS and the prohibition against coffee and tea originally started out as an advisory against hot drinks. The church leadership determined early on that “hot drinks” were defined to be coffee and tea. Later on, the leadership decided that the Word of Wisdom (advisory against hot drinks, alcohol, tobacco, and wanton consumption of meat {this last you don’t hear about too much}) was directive in nature. Many LDS, on their own volition, have decided that the reason God prohibits the hot drinks is because of the caffeine in them. Others don’t worry about that and thus still drink Pepsi, etc., and most don’t worry about hot chocolate - a perennial favourite. In deference to the huge number of people in the Church who don’t consume beverages with caffeine added to them, church-sponsored events usually don’t have soft drinks with said alkaloid in them, although hot chocolate does show up often.
As one who was seriously addicted to coffee, I finally quit the coffee habit by avoiding caffeine in all its forms other than in chocolate. Apparently, for me, there’s not enough caffeine in the chocolate to knock me into a Java Junket.
Last year, I decided also to quit the alcohol and the meat consumption. I even avoid alcohol in mouthwash by using only the Rembrandt[sup]tm[/sup] alcohol-free stuff.
Anyway, here’s an interesting link for you: http://www.ldsveg.org/ that discusses the Word of Wisdom.
May one have herbal tea? I’d HATE to have to give up hot tea.
Guin: Not only may one have it, this one lives on herbal tea!
hi jack: Am i the only one who can tell the difference between coca cola and pepsi?
vanilla, who drinks iced tea every day.
What about drinking, say, heated milk? Is there are a prohibition against that?
To be more clear, can a devout Mormon drink a hot beverage that doesn’t contain caffeine?
vanilla-I can tell the difference.
Pepsi is sweeter, and Coke has more of a bite to it. I never noticed the difference until I got a Coke after always drinking Pepsi-which my mother prefers.
Me-I like them both.
What’s the reasoning behind prohibiting hot drinks? I mean, the original justification, not the various interpretations.
Heard from whom?
Stated by whom?
Seriously, when someone makes a claim, ask for proof.
And then when they decide they can’t because they don’t have any, you can deliver, with a flourish of course, the following from http://www.snopes.com:
hansel: The original justification is that it was revealed to the Prophet.
Doctrine & Covenants 89
You can read the entire section of the D&C at http://www.lds.org
Wait, if you can’t have hot drinks…why can you have hot chocolate and hot herbal tea?
Because the church leadership already determined that the particular phrase as used in D&C 89 meant only tea and coffee.
{I almost typed this paragraph out twice more…for emphasis.}
Back in the day, the only common hot drinks were coffee and tea.
OIC. Makes sense. Thanks, Monty.
Dang. I was in the military too long. It took me a while to recognize “OIC” as “Oh, I see” instead of “Officer in Charge.”
BTW, Guin. Did you ever try mixing Pepsi and Coca Cola together? My younger brother used to love that combination.
I do that, i call it “Poke”. My favorite is Pepsi and Mt. Dew combined in 96 oz. cups for road trips.
Dang, Tars. I bet you can “flintstone” the vehicle from California to New York with no worries about fuel!
Thanks. Very helpful.
Monty, the statement didn’t arise in a debating or proving context; a colleague was trying to figure out why an LDS coworker was drinking a Coke, and got this explanation from another coworker. She came to me because it didn’t ring true, and because I am generally a walking encyclopedia (or at least a walking data retrieval system).