Caffeine#

From a letter 08 March 2018 to a daughter who had asked me, “When you were a missionary, was not drinking caffeinated soda a requirement for people to get baptized?” I reiterate the message that these are my private views, and that I don’t speak for the church.

Here’s my answer.

No.

Well, not explicitly.

As I’ve said before, many of the problems Latter-day Saints face in discussing the Word of Wisdom (WoW) derive from the fact that the phrase “the Word of Wisdom” has several meanings, which are not usually specified explicitly or even fixed throughout their conversation:

a. section 89,

b. what is required for baptism or temple recommends,

c. the Lord’s law of health.

Examples of how these meanings diverge: meaning a) says don’t eat meat except in hunger or winter, but that’s not enforced for b), whereas smoking marijuana violates b) but is not mentioned in a). Being overweight was mentioned in a recent General Conference as violating c), but is not mentioned in a) nor a factor in b).

The last official statement that I know of about caffeinated sodas, other than the unhelpful one a couple of years ago that says the WoW refers to section 89, is that somewhere around 1990 in a routine update to the General Handbook, the general authorities reiterated what they had said in 1972:

Regarding colas, the Presidency advised Church leaders through the Priesthood Bulletin in February 1972:

The Word of Wisdom, section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, remains as to terms and specifications as found in that section. There has been no official interpretation of that Word of Wisdom except that which was given by the Brethren in the very early days of the Church when it was declared that ‘hot drinks’ meant tea and coffee.

“With reference to cola drinks, the Church has never officially taken a position on this matter, but the leaders of the Church have advised, and we do now specifically advise, against the use of any drink containing harmful habit-forming drugs under circumstances that would result in acquiring the habit. Any beverage that contains ingredients harmful to the body should be avoided.1

Please reference at this point this brief, unofficial summary of official Church statements on the WoW.

Here is a way of thinking about it that I really like, from an “answer to gospel questions” from the Ensign in April, 2008:

Q: Is there anything wrong with drinking sodas with caffeine in them? Is caffeine bad? The Word of Wisdom doesn’t mention it.

A: Doctrine and Covenants 89:9 says we shouldn’t drink “hot drinks.” The only official interpretation of this term is the statement made by early Church leaders that it means tea and coffee. Caffeine is not specifically mentioned as the reason not to drink these drinks.

However, we should keep in mind this counsel given by President Boyd K. Packer: “The Word of Wisdom was ‘given for a principle with promise’ D&C 89:3. … A principle is an enduring truth, a law, a rule you can adopt to guide you in making decisions. Generally principles are not spelled out in detail. Members write in asking if this thing or that is against the Word of Wisdom. … We teach the principle together with the promised blessings. There are many habit-forming, addictive things that one can drink or chew or inhale or inject which injure both body and spirit which are not mentioned in the revelation. … Obedience to counsel will keep you on the safe side of life” (“The Word of Wisdom: The Principle and the Promises,” Ensign, May, 1996, 17–18.)

Pres. Packer is pointing out that we can’t have a missing, self-contradictory, or stupid theology. (Brief digression: This is comparable to my surprise to find that apparently some Saints think that an augmentation mammoplasty is appropriate. I know of no specific statement against it, but any theology I can think of that embraces Pres. Hinckley’s teaching below about earrings would be stretched beyond the breaking point to allow cosmetic plastic surgery.)

The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve have declared that we discourage tattoos and also “the piercing of the body for other than medical purposes.” We do not, however, take any position “on the minimal piercing of the ears by women for one pair of earrings”—one pair.2

(Note he did not say “it’s OK to have one pair of earrings,” as this statement is often misquoted.) Side point, Pres. Hinckley in that same talk also spoke about illegal drugs.

Here’s another thought about the WoW that I think uses this “sensible theology” approach:

Thus, each herb tea can be classified as a “hot drink” or “an herb to be used with prudence” only after we know what effect it has on the body. … Many herb teas do contain drugs whose effect is unknown, and “folk knowledge” is not a reliable guide. Any illness requiring drugs should be treated by a physician; and a prudent individual will not consume large quantities of any herb for any reason.3

(Note, the comment by Homer Ellsworth on family planning, at that same link, uses this same general approach, and accords pretty strongly with my views on that subject.)

One more similar comment. In all of Brazil, almost everyone drinks coffee and it’s part of social ritual. In my mission area, almost everyone drank chimarrão (a.k.a. mate), and it was an important part of the gaúcho culture. It is served by pouring near-boiling water into a container over shredded mate leaf and drunk through a metal straw with a perforated, enlarged lower end that keeps the leaves out of what you drink. Mate contains caffeine and (to me) seems about as close to the spirit of “hot drinks” as you get. The Church did not make an official statement about it but my mission president advised us that if investigators asked we should tell them it was not recommended. (Another member of our stake who served in northern Argentina asked me about mate and I told him I hadn’t tried it and why, and he was excited to tell me that no, that was all wrong, there is nothing wrong with mate, his mission president had told him so.) My points in relating that story are that on this point we are left to our own decision, but it need not be an uninformed one, and that sometimes local Church leaders have to make a judgment call that doesn’t necessarily make it doctrine for everyone everywhere.

Let me sum up.

  1. We get into confusion and arguments when we confuse the several possible meanings of “The Word of Wisdom.”

  2. The Lord’s law of health clearly applies to practices that do not keep someone from being baptized and are not listed in section 89.

  3. The most recent official statement of the general authorities about caffeine that I know of (the one from 1972) is not positive and is certainly not a statement that “it’s no problem.”

  4. The Church has generally tried very hard over the years to avoid getting into the weeds (pun not intended) about all the possible details one could ask about applying the WoW. The goal after all is to teach members to learn the doctrine and then take problems to the Lord, not to Facebook (or even to Church leaders).

  5. The Lord has advised us that sometimes we let the weeds grow with the wheat for a time, and Elder Holland gave a talk approximately in 1999 about how we focus on certain current teachings rather than on everything when teaching the world and the Church. In this vein, recall Lorenzo Snow’s experience, in which a true principle was revealed to him but he was instructed to keep it to himself until the prophet taught it. In other words, don’t go preaching to everybody that they’re wrong about things that the prophet isn’t telling them they’re wrong about.

  6. But! #4 and #5 don’t let us conclude that the Lord doesn’t care about these questions, nor that there is no better answer and no worse answer.

  7. I believe that a thoughtful, diligent search for relevant scriptures and words of the prophets over the years, combined with a little common sense, can help us form a consistent theological view of many questions that helps us make sense of them. We may not come to the same conclusion as everyone else, and that’s fine. However, in my opinion, we are much more likely to agree with others who have followed these same steps than we are with people who basically make their decisions on such issues by asking their Facebook friends or who decide that whatever they prefer is fine because there’s no specific hard-and-fast official Church pronouncement.

1

from Lester E. Bush, “Mormon Medical Ethical Guidelines,” Dialogue 12(3):97-106, Fall, 1979.

2

Gordon B. Hinckley, “Great Shall Be the Peace of Thy Children,” Oct., 2000, General Conference

3

Clifford J. Stratton, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, Aug., 1979