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The Official "Ask A Mormon" Thread

JustTheTip said:
Question:

If Jesus, who according to the Bible (and I would assume the BoM but idk) lived a perfect life, could drink alcohol (and make it), why does Mormonism teach against it? And I get the no drunkenness part, I just don't get the no alcohol part.

My in-laws (non-mormons) are the same way. No alcohol ever. It's annoying.
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My take is the word of wisdom (as the mormons refer to the set of laws given under which alcohol is proscribed) is not a literal expression of what was always required of all believers forever and ever. Rather it is a set of laws to help members in modern times to live "in the world but not of the world", as mormons like to say as well. I view it as more of "the word of obedience" as I believe it is more a test of obedience in the face of temptation than it is directly rules of healthy living.

But if you want to bring historicity into it, why do we not see many tanners around anymore? And when was the last time you went to a cooper to get a barrel repaired? Times change, and that is the point of a living prophet, that the message can be tailored to everyone in a given time, and not always rely heavily on thousand year-old adages and norms. There was a time when brewing and fermenting made water and storage of juice safe for those times when it wasn't readily available in the absence of refrigeration. Of course people enjoyed getting drunk too, but the initial purpose of it was for feeding people safely.

Another example, in the time of Abraham it was socially accepted to hold multiple wives or concubines (which does not mean prostitute, fyi) due to the difficulties in child-birth and infant mortality (not to mention mother mortality) so those they viewed as leaders and people of importance had a better chance of successfully reproducing. Not every Joe Schmoe had concubines or multiple wives.

TL;DR, times change.
 
I get that Log, but I don't think you can say Jesus lived a perfect life, and then say we shouldn't do something He did because of a cultural change.
 
JustTheTip said:
Question:

If Jesus, who according to the Bible (and I would assume the BoM but idk) lived a perfect life, could drink alcohol (and make it), why does Mormonism teach against it? And I get the no drunkenness part, I just don't get the no alcohol part.

My in-laws (non-mormons) are the same way. No alcohol ever. It's annoying.
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Under Mosaic law, Jews abstained from pork products. That’s not because pork is evil, just that it was part of a covenant.
 
JustTheTip said:
I get that Log, but I don't think you can say Jesus lived a perfect life, and then say we shouldn't do something He did because of a cultural change.
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People don't do 90% of the things the Jesus did on a daily basis.

Can you imagine how silly it would be if they did?

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JustTheTip said:
I get that Log, but I don't think you can say Jesus lived a perfect life, and then say we shouldn't do something He did because of a cultural change.
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Bulletproof said:
People don't do 90% of the things the Jesus did on a daily basis.

Can you imagine how silly it would be if they did?

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BP said it well.

So should we all abstain from riding on cars, so we can WWJD? Or using cell phones? Or should we all eat only unleavened bread? Or should we all wear sandals instead of gym shoes or whatever? How about if we all shave with a knife if at all? If we don't adjust at least a little then it would really make no sense. You asked for the reason mormons do what they do and I gave you a reason. You can argue that reason all you want, but it won't make anyone go "hey you are right, Jesus did lots of stuff we don't do, I am going to throw this religious belief out the window and do whatever I want now". It doesn't really work that way. You can disagree all you want and make reasons for that disagreement, that is cool, and maybe you can get someone you have a personal connection to to question their beliefs as a results (I think questioning beliefs of any kind is healthy, be is religion or politics, or whatever), but there is really nowhere to go with it on an internet forum. But I wish you luck in getting your in-laws or whatever to realize they are dumb and to start getting drunk with you, whether they abstain from a religious stand-point or not.
 
LogGrad98 said:
In addition to bigb's succinct and effective explanation, the reason the Church keeps getting mentioned in connection to it is that the groups that do practice polygamy try to maintain some connection to the mainstream church (e.g. Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). I have had people ask me if I went to a mormon church or the regular fundamentalist one and if I practiced polygamy. That tie-in will keep it in people's minds that the Church practices polygamy even while they don't any longer.
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This confusion must be annoying for you and your many wives.
 
LogGrad98 said:
BP said it well.

So should we all abstain from riding on cars, so we can WWJD? Or using cell phones? Or should we all eat only unleavened bread? Or should we all wear sandals instead of gym shoes or whatever? How about if we all shave with a knife if at all? If we don't adjust at least a little then it would really make no sense. You asked for the reason mormons do what they do and I gave you a reason. You can argue that reason all you want, but it won't make anyone go "hey you are right, Jesus did lots of stuff we don't do, I am going to throw this religious belief out the window and do whatever I want now". It doesn't really work that way. You can disagree all you want and make reasons for that disagreement, that is cool, and maybe you can get someone you have a personal connection to to question their beliefs as a results (I think questioning beliefs of any kind is healthy, be is religion or politics, or whatever), but there is really nowhere to go with it on an internet forum. But I wish you luck in getting your in-laws or whatever to realize they are dumb and to start getting drunk with you, whether they abstain from a religious stand-point or not.
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I think you're misunderstanding. I'm not talking about minute details, nobody cares if Jesus wore sandals or not because it didn't have anything to do with his beliefs. Now if a religion that claims the Bible is true were to say that you can't wear sandals because so and so prophet said so, then I think it would be valid to say that Jesus wore them, and He never said anything about them. Trying to relate that to cars/cell phones or whatever is missing the entire point.

I just find the Mormon teaching on alcohol contradictory to how Jesus actually lived, and I was curious as to their reasoning behind it. That's all. I have no real desire to change my in-laws beliefs...I think they're fairly silly about it, but it's not a big enough deal to me to where I'm actually going to argue with them about it. I just don't drink around them, pretty simple. I know you were probably joking, but just to clarify, I think there's a huge difference between having a drink or two and getting drunk. I do drink alcohol, I don't get drunk. Big difference, imo.
 
Bulletproof said:
People don't do 90% of the things the Jesus did on a daily basis.

Can you imagine how silly it would be if they did?

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Of course, it would be silly. We don't need to wear a robe, grow a beard, or walk everywhere. I'm not saying we need to live the exact same lifestyle as Jesus, I'm just saying that if a religion that believes in Him and His teachings says we can't do something, it is more than fair to point out that He did that certain something, and He deemed it ok. That isn't saying we need to live the same way He did, it's just saying that if He did something, we should be able to say that it's ok for us to do too.

So if you want to wear a robe, grow a beard and walk everywhere and not use modern technology, that's totally fine. You don't need to, it won't make you any better of a person, but you can do it. I'm really just talking about the restrictive nature of some laws, and how we can decide whether they should be legit or not based on how Jesus lived.
 
Bulletproof said:
Mormons think Jesus was drinking grape juice.

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Except they don't.

The real answer to the question is we don't know why modern day prophets have said no alcohol. Just like we don't know why no coffee or beards at BYU for that matter. Having said that even though the no alcohol thing is weird and seems made up, I sure as hell am glad i was taught to stay away from it.
 
I thought Colton said something to that effect once.

But without refrigeration or sanitation grapejuice would become wine eventually. The powdery white stuff on the skin of grapes is yeast.

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