Many young Latter-day Saints don't view drinking coffee as a violation of their faith's Word of Wisdom.
In the 1800s, members saw Smith’s guidance as exactly what it stated — a word of wisdom, not a commandment, said, chair of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University. Earlier Latter-day Saints drank, smoked and consumed coffee and tea. In the early 1900s, the faith’s leadership began to examine the Word of Wisdom anew, with debates surrounding coffee, tea and even caffeinated soft drinks.
The owners of Sandy’s Sunset Coffee Co. have witnessed that cultural shift since opening in 2008. The location has been a coffee shop for 45 years, but it mostly catered to older people, said co-owner McKenzie Norton. The goal was to create a welcoming space for everybody, Norton said, but not everyone understood that.More than a decade ago, a few years after they had opened, Norton recalled, a local spread flyers around the neighborhood falsely stating that Sunset Coffee was selling alcohol and illicit drugs over the counter. The women warned parents not to let their kids come to the shop.Norton took those allegations to the Sandy City Council and put a stop to the leaflets, she said.
The likelihood of the church lifting its restrictions on coffee and tea is nebulous, Mason said. There have been times in history when leaders have examined alternative interpretations — the Word of Wisdom, for example, also calls for members to use meat sparingly, which then-President Lorenzo Snow pushed for the church to adhere to in the 1890s. But there haven’t been any formal expansions on that policy since then.
Globally, Latter-day Saints have also combined culture and religious practices where formal doctrine does not fill in the blanks.substances like yerba maté in Argentina, masala chai in India, kvass in Russia and airag in Mongolia are seen by many as appropriate for members to drink, although missionaries often abstain.
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