WoW - Abiding wisdom

You might think that getting some dietary guidelines from God would be a pretty big deal and that believers would readily conform to those guidelines out of their simple love of righteousness, and yet in the years following the revelation now called the Word of Wisdom few, if any, dietary changes took place in Mormonism. Even Joseph regularly ignored the wisdom of the revelation he himself received. Isn't that strange?

It took the LDS Church until 1921 to more or less figure out how it wanted to interpret the Word of Wisdom and make adherence to it a requirement to enter the temple. That means it took 90 years to figure this shit out, nearly a century before Mormons decided God might really be on to something. Isn't that incredible? It seems to me that God really could have cleared things up at any time, like anytime during the eleven years of Joseph's life following the initial revelation.

Why didn't people take this divine counsel more seriously? Why didn't the Church leaders understand it sooner? Were all of the prophets up to Heber Grant leading us astray? Are we being led astray now?

WoW - divine origins

It's pretty much clear to every Mormon that the Word of Wisdom is a inspired counsel straight from God for the benefit of all who wisely decide to heed its words. Don't use tobacco? Nailed it! Don't abuse alcohol? Nailed it! Eat your veggies? Nailed it! Eat your grains (and drink others)? Nailed it! Don't kill animals unless you have to? Nailed it!

Who cares if God's law of health missed the boat on coffee, tea, sugar, recreational drugs, prescription drug abuse, mental health, social health, physical exercise, and diligent study? And anyone who tries to argue that God's instruction on alcohol is confusing or contradictory can just shut the heck up! All that bad, confusing, or absent information can easily be rationalized away.

The bottom line is that the Word of Wisdom obviously came from a divine source. There's no way in hell Joseph Smith was simply parroting the popular tenants of the temperance movement of the 1820s and '30s! Or is there?

Maybe Joseph didn't need God for this one after all.

WoW - hot drinks

"That the children may live long / And be beautiful and strong, / Tea and coffee [...] they despise" says the hymn. Tea and coffee are what we are now to understand by "hot drinks" in Section 89. It just kind of happened that way, but it definitely makes sense. Consider how wise God has been in protecting his children from a drink that does not negatively effect your health. Now consider how infinitely wise God has been in prohibiting a drink that has significant positive effects on your health.

Don't let actual science beguile you on this matter, though, and don't you dare try to worm your way around the wording of the verse - iced coffee and ice tea are still no-nos. Temperature is not the issue here, even though originally is was very much the issue which is why, in addition to coffee and tea,  you couldn't drink hot chocolate, hot cocoa, hot soup, or any other hot liquids.

But look on the bright side, the ban on hot cocoa and soups never really stuck, so all that stuff's good too. And if you thought the ban on coffee and tea was about caffeine/theanine, you were wrong:

"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." (Priesthood Bulletin, Feb. 1972, p. 4.)

So drink all the non-harmful habit-forming substances you want, hot or cold, as long as they don't include coffee or tea. Herbal teas and Postum, for example, are just fine! (Just make sure you avoid the appearance of evil!)