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Yeah it’s more arbitrary and capricious than that.

The word of wisdom forbids hot drinks alcohol and tobacco, excessive meat consumption (ignored) and expressly allows beer (which is ignored and forbidden)

Joseph Smith drank coffee, alcohol and smoked cigars daily until he died. (From a bullet)

Brigham young had a whisky distillery.

But some orthodox Mormons for a time wouldn’t even eat hot soup.

But they would drink “Mormon tea” which was ephedra.

It wasn’t really a commandment until prohibition- and when Mormons disobeyed instructions from their prophet and voted to repeal prohibition en masse…they made adherence to the word of wisdom into a qualifier for temple attendance and as a result, heaven

Currently it means coffee and tea, alcohol and tobacco, and any drug boomers think is bad.

Mormons through the 2000’s argued about if it banned caffeine with no clarification from leadership. Orthodoxy and orthopraxy and a huge helping of virtue signaling.

Caffeinated drinks were not sold in BYU campus until somewhere in the 20-teens.

Then an apostle gave a nod to Diet Coke in a smirking reference during a conference talk.

By this time most average Mormons were drinking caffeinated soda that their parents forbid during. The 80’s anyway and many Mormon moms had huge Diet Cokes daily.

So where does it stand today?  

-Monster energy drink? Fine
-64 Oz dirty Diet Coke? Fine
-Hot coffee?  Forbidden devil bean juice
-Hot tea? Forbidden
-iced coffee? Forbidden devil bean juice. It’s a hot drink. LOL
-Iced tea? Also forbidden
-hot macha(sp?) tea in Peru? Allowed
-herbal tea? No problem
-decaf coffee? Forbidden
-hot chocolate? Totally good!
-alcohol? Forbidden in any form
-beer? Expressly allowed but forbidden
-weed? Forbidden even where legal unless a doctor says so and still culturally frowned upon for legitimate uses.
-opiate or Xanax addiction? Rampant in Utah but a doc signed off so you’re good.


Here come the Mormons to tell me I’m “distorting the truth”.

This is lived experience 45 years in the heart of Mormonism.  42 of those as a practicing orthodox Mormon who did not drink coffee but downed Mountain Dew.

Luckily genetics kept me thin, but I’m much healthier physically and otherwise since I pulled the eject handle.

I can “run and not be weary and walk and not faint” much better than I could when living the word of wisdom. So much for god cursing me for not obeying this “law of health”. LOL

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Could you expound a little bit on how the word of wisdom allows beer?

Genuinely curious. Never read through it.

One of my best friends is LDS. Back in high school the amount of soda consumed at his LAN parties was absurd. Never jived to me with the rest of their rules.

Fwiw his dad drank beer. Kept it in the garage. Married into the church and I always got the impression he didn't really believe all that hard. Maybe he just knew better than the others did lol

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The scripture counsels against "strong drinks", which at the time was construed to be hard liquor.  

Not drinking beer and any alcoholic beverage became a commandment from Heber J. Grant at around Prohibition.  The scripture itself (Doctrine and Covenants 89) specifically states that the contents therein are not by commandment or constraint, but a later prophet (Grant) pretty much made certain parts commandments.  

I find it interesting that there have been no amendments to the Doctrine and Covenants to override Section 89's verbiage and make it an actual commandment.  

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Looking st the actual text, I think it takes some creating reading and assumption to arrive at the conclusion that beer is permissible per the actual language of the scripture.

Section 89



So neither wine or strong drink are good, the exception being homemade wine used exclusively for sacrament.

As most people would put wine and beer in the same category of alcohol content, how is beer okay?

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Looking st the actual text, I think it takes some creating reading and assumption to arrive at the conclusion that beer is permissible per the actual language of the scripture.

Section 89



So neither wine or strong drink are good, the exception being homemade wine used exclusively for sacrament.

As most people would put wine and beer in the same category of alcohol content, how is beer okay?

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On average, wine has about twice the alcohol content of beer.  

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The WoW was generally voluntary health advice until the 1870s when it was emphasized more to create a distinction between Mormons and the Gentiles brought in by the railroad.  Even so most Mormons lived by its precepts before then, although many used tobacco and alcohol for "medicinal purposes only".  Most observers recognized that Mormon society was dry and sober when compared to the Union Pacific workers and the miners who followed them.

And beer contains alcohol, btw.  Which is expressly forbidden.