Word of Wisdom

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Questions

== Critics claim that Joseph Smith and other early Latter-day Saints didn't follow the Word of Wisdom. They point to accounts in the Church's own printed history where Joseph drank wine and beer, and Brigham Young admitted drinking coffee regularly.

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]

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The only official interpretation of “hot drinks” (D&C 89:9) in the Word of Wisdom is the statement made by early Church leaders that the term “hot drinks” means tea and coffee. Members should not use any substance that contains illegal drugs. Nor should members use harmful or habit-forming substances except under the care of a competent physician.
—Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Handbook 2: Administering the Church—2010 (Intellectual Reserve, 2010). Selected Church Policies and Guidelines 21.3.11

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History and implementation of the Word of Wisdom

Summary: Observance of the Word of Wisdom has changed over time, due to on-going revelation from modern-day prophets, who put greater emphasis on certain elements of the revelation originally given to Joseph Smith. Early Latter-day Saints were not under the same requirements as today's Saints are.

Specific criticisms related to the Word of Wisdom

Joseph Smith used tea

Summary: Critics charge that Joseph Smith drank tea, used tobacco, or encouraged others to do so, thus violating the Word of Wisdom as we practice it today.

Almon Babbitt followed Joseph in violating the Word of Wisdom

Summary: Critics charge that Joseph Smith violated the Word of Wisdom, and that another member (Almon W. Babbitt) followed his example.

subject=Brigham Young and tobacco

Summary: Critics charge that Brigham Young used snuff, tobacco, and tea, thus violating the Word of Wisdom.

Brigham Young's whiskey distillery

Summary: Critics note that Brigham had a whiskey distillery in Utah, thus encouraging others to violate the Word of Wisdom and showing his hypocrisy.

Growing tobacco in Utah

Summary: Critics charge that Brigham Young instructed members of the Church to grow tobacco in Utah, thus violating the Word of Wisdom.

Consumption of tea may bar someone from the Celestial Kingdom?

Summary: Critics quote Joseph Fielding Smith as saying that the consumption of tea may bar someone from the celestial kingdom.

Are we violating the Word of Wisdom if we do not eat meat sparingly?

Summary: Critics charge that Latter-day Saints do not keep the Word of Wisdom by eating meat "sparingly." ==

Answer

== The Word of Wisdom is "a principle with promise," initially given "not by commandment or constraint" (D&C 89:2–3). Today's Latter-day Saints are required to observe it more rigorously than those who came before them.

== Notes ==

1. [note] Deseret News (11 May 1870): 160; reprinted in Brigham Young, "Fortieth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Millennial Star 32 no. 22 (31 May 1870), 346. See discussion of the history in Robert J. McCue, "Did the Word of Wisdom Become a Commandment in 1851?," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 14 no. 3 (Autumn 1981), 66–77.off-site
2. [note]  Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:35.
3. [note]  Ezra T. Benson, Journal of Discourses 11:367.
4. [note]  Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 14:20.
5. [note]  Minutes of First Presidency and Council of Twelve Meeting, Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” May 5, 1898, LDS Church Archives; cited in Thomas G. Alexander, "The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 14 no. 3 (Autumn 1981), 78–88.off-site
6. [note]  Alexander, "Principle to Requirement," 79.
7. [note]  Alexander, "Principle to Requirement," 79.
8. [note]  This exception had been permitted by the Word of Wisdom from the beginning (see DC 89꞉5-6), though it was also clear that what one used for the sacramental emblems was not of primary doctrinal importance (see DC 27).
9. [note]  Alexander, "Principle to Requirement," 82.
10. [note]  See discussion in Joseph Fielding McConkie and Craig J. Ostler, Revelations of the Restoration: A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants and Other Modern Revelations (Salt Lake: Deseret Book, 1964), Doctrine and Covenants 89:2.
11. [note]  McConkie and Ostler, ibid.
12. [note]  Joseph F. Smith, Conference Report (October 1913), 14.
13. [note]  Gordon B. Hinckley, "The Scourge of Illicit Drugs," Ensign (November 1989): 48.off-site; James E. Faust, "The Enemy Within," Ensign (November 2000): 44.off-site
14. [note]  See, for example, Robert L. Simpson, Conference Report (April 1963), 53.;Boyd K. Packer, Conference Report (April 1963), 107. Early statements available in John A. Widtsoe and Leah D. Widtsoe, The Word Of Wisdom: A Modern Interpretation (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1937), 28 and Roy W. Doxey, The Word of Wisdom Today (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1975),10–13.
15. [note]  Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 12:157-158.
16. [note] Wouter Van Beek, "Covenants," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 1:333.
17. [note]  Mike Ash, FAIR e-mail list, 3 September 2006 (cited with permission).