Recontextualizing the Word of Wisdom
 

One of the interesting aspects of studying the WoW is how it has been given different emphases at different times in history. There's section 89, Hyrum Smith's declaration that the WoW would help people overcome their "murderous dispositions" and "beastly appetites," and that it was good to spare the life of animals, Brigham Young's 1851 statement, Lorenzo Snow's emphasis on not eating too much meat, John Widtsoe's scientific approach, Ezra Taft Benson's advoction of eating natural food and warning against food additives, and so on.

Unpacking my materials I came across a quote from Hyrum Smith from 1842. It was printed in the Times & Seasons. His article, titled "Word of Wisdom" connects not partaking of strong drinks (he meant liquor), tobacco, and hot drinks with teachings from D&C 20 and 87.

Here's Hyrum:

"Not only are they injurious in their tendency, and baneful in their effects, but the importation of foreign products might be the means of thousands of our people being poisened at a future time, through the advantage that an enemy might take of us, if we made use of these things that are thus spoken of as being evil; and be it remembered - that this instruction is given "in consequence of evils that do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men."

Hyrum seems to mostly be thinking of tea and wine and so on, but his more general articulation of "foriegn products" (and we need not thing of "foriegn" only, or even primarily, in nationalistic terms) has me thinking of contaminated food and toothpaste. It's certainly consistent with Hyrum's concerns.

You can take it to the bank that the next time I get to speak on the WoW I'm going to dig out this Hyrum Smith quote. I hope you do too. I think it's time to do a little WoW recontextualizing, and Hyrum Smith's quote is wonderfully relevant these days.

Interesting. That reminds me of what my mother would explain to me as a kid when she argued against fluoridation of drinking water. "If we let them do this, pretty soon the communists will be putting mind-control poison in our water supply."

The commies are after our precious bodily fluids!

I wasn't considering the old John Bircher fluoridation angle.

Hmmm....

sleeping, nice tidbit. wasn't john taylor a vegetarian?
i have never ever understood the anti-fluoride community. what a waster of zeal and energy

I don't know about John Taylor, but according to Jesse Evans Smith, her husband, Joseph Fielding Smith, didn't eat meat.

I'm pretty sure i heard something about that. but don't quote me on that. unlike yourself i'm no fountain of mormon history knowledge.


Did you ever about the Mormon made liquor Valley Tan?

It was sold to gold prospectors heading to California. Mormon moonshine.

I think there was a newspaper called the Valley Tan too.

Funny, I was just thinking how not relevant that quote is.

In Hyrum's defense, the series of laws and checks meant to prevent such poisoning were quite different in his day, than in ours.