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Before I add my comments, you should probably watch this very typical handling of D&C 89, aka The Word of Wisdom. Alcohol is forbidden? Where? In fact, I think you'll find that the very last phrase of verse 17 not only approves beer, but even endorses it. "Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain". This NOT to say that I advocate beer. I don't. (Never could stand the stuff myself.) At least not what beer has become today. And that has to do with my next point, which is, I feel, the REAL point of the Word of Wisdom. You see, the first 3 verses were the original heading. And that makes verse 4 the original FIRST verse. And that verse points out that this revelation is "In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, ..." Sound like a major issue today? One you NEVER hear about in the predominant media? Monsanto. GMO. The practice of boosting the nicotine content of tobacco. The practice of lacing 'soft' drinks with caffeine. (Even my orange soda now contains it!) Did you know that the church used to have its own vintner for the sacramental wine? But all that, the wine and the beer, went away in 1921. Why? What else was going on about then? PROHIBITION! ... which took a bit longer to reach the more remote areas of Utah. And, in 1933, when (the entirely unconstitutional) prohibition went away (having already paved the way for the federal government's use of 'public health' as justification for its overreach), the church did not resume the use of beer, in general, or wine, in particular, for sacrament. In fact, almost no one noticed that hemp, which had also been banned, continued to be prohibited by the federal government, as well as marijuana, which various states, including Utah, had already banned in 1915. So, while, yes, the Lord has always banned 'pursuing strong drink', there's also been another problem paralleling this one, a problem with the purity and security of our food supply since even ancient times, and the former ought not be allowed to overshadow the latter. Even when I was a lad in Europe, there were still occasional problems with wine being poisoned by the vintners trying to improve its sweetness by adding diethylene glycol. And wine is the main food product we find in ancient shipwrecks, but, curiously, never beer. Wine (or brandy) even provided a means for the Nephites to overcome the Lamanites at one point. Wine became the first globally produced product which 'conspiring men' would poison, or use as a weapon against others. Is it any wonder then that God commanded the saints to avoid wine except for their sacrament? And then only when it was of their own manufacture? Clearly, this is not so much about personal habits as it is about the security and purity of the food supply we all rely on, which becomes increasingly important as we drift away from our agrarian roots, and as global mega-corporations buy up smaller food producers, including much of America's most productive farmland, and then bribe legislators to let them get away with selling us their frankenfoods. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |