The Lord's response, contained in D&C section 89, covered far more than just tobacco; it also restricted the consumption of wine, liquor, meat, and hot drinks (today interpreted to mean tea and coffee of any temperature). Although many Mormons understand this scripture as suggesting that all caffeine is bad and should be avoided, this idea isn't official Church doctrine; the Church allows members to decide that issue for themselves, and some members choose to drink cola.Sounds a little strange to me, but then I'm not the intended audience.
Having said all of that, yesterday I decided to restrict my consumption of coffee (and other caffeine-containing comestibles) to one mug in the morning (about 12 ounces). Yesterday I was really sleepy for a good portion of the day and today I'm more awake in general, but still feeling a little disconnected. Why put myself through this? Although this is the season of Lent (where many people decide to give up something and reflecting on how they are connected with "things" in this world), my reasons are more personal... I hate being addicted to anything and I had begun feeling the morning coffee ritual was necessary to get through the day. Also, my sleeping patterns have been screwy lately, so I figured it couldn't hurt.
What, if anything, are you giving up for lent? And what do you think of coffee/caffeine from a drug/ethics perspective?
4 comments:
This is going to be harder than I thought. During lunch, I mindlessly bought a fountain drink and before I realized what I was doing, I drank two glasses of Diet Coke. The strange thing is that I even thought about the fact that I wasn't drinking coffee as I went back for the second glass. Completely involuntary.
Oh well...
Way to go...remember the start of anything is the hardest...forty some odd days from now, we'll have to talk :).
The past couple of years I've given up, successfully, fast food for Lent. This year I'm going to abstain from meat twice a week (old-fashioned style of lent) and curb all starches and "white" sugars. Oh yeah, and pizza too. Wish me luck!
Coffee is not evil. However, if, like so many other things, it becomes a problem for YOU, then clearly its something from which you should abstain. Anything that exerts a controlling influence, against which you feel powerless, is dangerous. In this case, for an individual, coffee could be a drug.
Perhaps you're on a limited income, but dropping $10-$12 a day on lattes. Then decide you can't "afford" to tithe?
Paul was shown that it is not what you put IN your body, but what comes OUT that becomes sinful.
I don't think caffeine is a drug, but it can become a stumbling block.
So far the experiment is going well. I've pretty faithfully kept to one mug of coffee in the morning and no more caffeine throughout the day. My sleep patterns are much smoother and I'm getting better sleep. Not perfect, but then I'm only a little over a week into this.
If it keeps going well, I'm considering reducing or eliminating the mug in the morning to see what happens.
I like what y'all are saying and thanks for commenting! I'm not sure that I would put caffeine in the same group as cocaine or even marijuana, but I still consider it a drug.. albeit one that is about as benign as a drug can be (and certainly easier to quit than most).
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