CAUTION: This post is chalk full of opinion, though I try to support it with scripture. Prepare to be offended and disagree.
I have often been amazed the lengths that members of the Church will go to in defending the Word of Wisdom. I almost find it humorous, as they seem to have little understanding of the principles contained therein, but it also has a very dangerous undertone. Some background will help set the stage here.
The Word of Wisdom is a very modern commandment. In fact, far more modern that most members seem to realize. You see, while the revelation in D&C section 89 was given in 1833, it was not until 1851 (or later, potentially as late as 1945) that it began to be considered a commandment. In fact, the text itself clearly states that the revelation was not given "by commandment nor constraint". This has little bearing on today, where we have been clearly commanded to follow the Word of Wisdom, but it is an important point to consider for reasons we will get to.
The question of why we were given the Word of Wisdom is crucial to a proper understanding of it. Some suppose that it is a law of health. In fact, many of our lesson manuals refer to it as such. However, the Lord never uses that term. I've hear dozens of "reasons" for the Word of Wisdom, but I find most of them to be full of folly. I recall an Elder I served with telling an investigator that Coffee was against the Word of Wisdom because it contained tanic acid, which is used in the tanning of cow hides. I had to kindly thank him for sharing what must have been a direct revelation from God, since I was sure God had never revealed such a specific reason to anyone I was aware of. Luckily, we don't have to guess or postulate at God's reasons. He is VERY specific in the revelation about the EXACT reason for it. He says,
"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of
Thus, we get from the mouth of the Lord the reason for his revelation. It is not that this or that is bad for your health - though we now know many of its prohibitions are bad for us. It was given because of the evils and designs of conspiring men. I can't say for certain what that means, but I can say that it gives me great peace. Why, you may ask. Well, here are some of the challenges that members often face with regards to the Word of Wisdom and a poor interpretation of it.
Medical studies sometime appear to contradict the Word of Wisdom. We can start with an easy one - a glass of wine a day can reduce the risk of hear disease. Many members will get up in arms about this. They will cite studies they have never seen (nor confirmed the existence of) that show grape juice will have the same impact. (I have confirmed those studies by the way, and they are real and not done at BYU) However, with a proper understanding of the Word of Wisdom, I could care less what the studies find. I am wholly open to the idea that some things prohibited in the Word of Wisdom may actually be good for me. God told me not to drink wine, he didn't say it was bad for me.
On a related note, many struggle when faced with scriptural accounts of wine. I have actually hear it suggested that Jesus didn't really turn water into wine, but into grape juice. After all, Jesus would have obeyed the Word of Wisdom. Well, there are two huge flaws in this logic. First, there is NO BASIS for the idea that the word wine meant anything other than wine. Second, there was no Word of Wisdom for Jesus to obey. It is a modern law, given specifically to the saints, and specifically due to the designs of men in the LAST DAYS. In other words, it doesn't matter if Jesus and Nephi and any other scriptural individual drank wine. If you don't believe it was alcoholic then you have to answer three points for me. 1. How did the people of Lemhi get their captors drunk enough to pass out with just plain old grape juice? 2. How did Labon get drunk and pass out on grape juice. 3. (and this is the hard one) How did ANYONE keep their grape juice fresh for more than a week? You leave a glass of grape juice out of the refrigerator for a week. Tell me what it tastes like after that.
OK, one more example and I'll wrap up. How do you feel about medical marijuana? Ignore the fact that it has been very poorly implemented in American society, and is highly abused in our existing system. Pretend for a moment that you could only get it as a pill, and you had to have a real prescription from a real doctor, and buy it at a real pharmacy. Would you ever take a pill filled with marijuana to relieve pain? I used to have an easy answer to this. NEVER! It's a drug. But that changed one day. My friend suffers from chronic pain. She's been on every pain medication out there, and has been addicted to at least 2 of them at various times. After dropping a medication that was causing as much trouble as it was good, her doctor suggested that she give marijuana a shot. Assuming it would make the decision easier, she went to her bishop. She figured he would tell her she couldn't, and that would be the end of it. Her Bishop, a MD himself, said something that caught her off guard, and dramatically changed my perspective. I wasn't there, but I imagine the conversations went something like this:
"Sister, how many medications have you tried?"
"Dozens."
"And how many of those were narcotics or opiates (nasty drugs)?"
"Most of them."
"And would you consider those medications drugs, if someone who didn't need them medically used them?"
"Well, yes, I guess I would."
"You know a thing or two about marijuana. Would you consider it a more or less serious drug that most of those narcotics?"
"Well, I guess I'd say it's pretty mild."
"So the concern is really that your narcotics come from a pharmacy, and marijuana does not?"
"Well, when you put it that way, I guess that is true."
"And perhaps that Marijuana is illegal?"
"Yes, that is certainly concerning as well."
"Do you know what the Church's policy is regarding the use of marijuana?"
"I assume it's against the Word of Wisdom."
"Actually, no. The Church has no position. It is left to the local leaders to guide. Clearly you are not interested in using marijuana as a drug, but as a medication. Therefore, I see no problem with it."
Now, in the end, my friend didn't end up going to marijuana - though the option is still there. But it was an enlightening concept. When we get a drug from a doctor or pharmacy, we don't think twice. Most of the women I know have taken narcotics after they gave birth. Many of them probably didn't even realize that the drugs they were taking were worth hundreds of dollars per pill on the black market as recreational drugs. Vicodin, Codine, and so forth, are NASTY drugs. Incredibly powerful and highly addictive. Certainly mind altering. Yet, we don't think twice. The Word of Wisdom states that God gave us every herb of the field to be used with wisdom and thanksgiving. I'm confident that some of those herbs, like tobacco, are meant to be used as medicine. Tobacco is a great herb for bruises. Heals them very quickly. But I can only imagine the looks I'd get from church members if they saw me buying a pouch of tobacco at the store. My point isn't that we should all support medical marijuana, nor that we should be using it. My point is that we need to actually think and consider deeply before coming to a judgment that is based more on culture than on doctrine.
Finally, to wrap up, I want to make a few things clear. First, the Word of Wisdom is modern day commandment. We are all commanded to obey it, and nothing I've said today should change that. Second, do not let your testimony be damaged by those things which appear to contradict the Lord's commandment. Man does not understand all that God does. The deeper lesson here is that it is dangerous to ascribe reasons to God's commandments. While you may think you know why he commanded x y or z, you could be wrong. And if you have the reasons wrong, you may find yourself in a very troubling situation. When the world's wisdom contradicts the reasons we think God has given a commandment, it is sometimes because man's wisdom is wrong, but it is also often because we misunderstood God's reasons. Lastly, do not judge others for things you do not understand. You may think they are in sin, but it is quite possible that it is you who does not understand the situation.
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