Mormon dietary laws, as interpreted today, prohibit members from
drinking tea (though non-caffeinated herbal teas are excluded from this
restriction). Green tea is also forbidden, even though it has less than
half the caffeine of a can of Coke (which gets a thumbs up from Church
leaders).
Green tea is as much a part of Japanese culture as red wine is a
part of the French. It is embedded in hospitality custom as well as in
religious aesthetic and artistic sensibilities. So when I went to Japan
as a fresh convert and missionary and tea-totaler, I was eager to help
the Japanese to accept Christ and reject the “foolish teachings of
their fathers.” It is difficult for me to believe now that I spent
eight months in Japan’s premier tea-growing region and even walked
between the rows of tea plants without ever enjoying a cup of it.
When I lost my belief in Mormonism some years later, I made the
conscious decision to drink green tea. While I’ve sometimes had to
fight discomfort or residual guilt when turning my back on LDS
practices, I felt triumphant when I returned to green tea after my long
hiatus.
Everything about it felt right. It was deeply soothing. It
complimented the flavor of steaming rice perfectly; it nurtured my
thirsty Japanese soul.
0 responses so far ↓
1 nee // Aug 31, 2007 at 7:39 pm
I never heard anyone comment on the green tea officially. Perhaps they have in recent years…? I knew people who choose not to have it and those who did. I asked my bishop once and he said something to the effect of nothing specific had been said but “let your conscience be your guide”.
2 xJane // Aug 31, 2007 at 7:54 pm
I thought coke was off limits (b/c of the caffeine, obviously), although my source of Mormon beliefs is…wait, I don’t have one! So I don’t know where I picked that up…I’m glad that you’re a tea drinker, now. How did the Japanese react when you told them to stop drinking it? I’m trying to figure out whether discarding the beliefs of your parents (something I did pretty willy-nilly) or cutting out a major food group would be more difficult…
3 Elaine // Aug 31, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Huh. I wasn’t aware that there was an official “okay” for Coke from the Mormons. I know, when I spent two months at BYU in 1975 (before I fled), I got treated like I was an ax murderer or something by most of the people in my building because I drank Pepsi and was unapologetic about it.
At any rate, if I was of the disposition to believe such things, I might think that my over-sensitivity to caffeine was some sort of punishment for the amount of it I drank as a kid. The truth is, I was always sensitive to it and just didn’t realize that all that Pepsi was the reason I had chronic insomnia all through high school.
Not that that was a completely bad thing…I saw some wonderful (and some wonderfully awful) movies and had loads of extra reading time during those years because I never got to sleep till two or three in the morning.
4 Jonathan Blake // Aug 31, 2007 at 10:38 pm
There really hasn’t been anything truly official either way on green tea or coke. The church leaders are (intentionally?) vague and evasive.
5 Eric Robeck // Sep 1, 2007 at 5:41 am
I didn’t start drinking tea until I began travelling to Mongolia a year ago. Though there are a lot of varieties of tea in Mongolia (in order of popularity: Mongolian milk tea, English tea, black tea, and green tea) green tea rapidly became my favorite. By that point I was no longer a believing Mormon, so I didn’t feel guilty drinking it. Besides, green tea drinkers of any religion have medical science on their side!
A hot cup of tea is one of the best antidotes I’ve found for my frantic schedule. The scalding water forces me to slow down and sip it slowly, and with the right amount of sweetener (very little), it is soothing without being stimulating.
When explaining my religion’s dietary restrictions, many Mongolians nod their heads at our taboo against cigarettes and alcohol but they can’t believe we don’t drink tea. It has been a cultural institution for far longer than that other national drink, vodka.
I can’t imagine the reaction you must have received in Japan…
6 Anonymous // Sep 22, 2007 at 2:46 pm
i am very new to Mormonism to say the least. me and two of my friends met two missionaries at a park last month because one of them was very attractive and well, we are young (the three of us are 18, they are 20) and so we talked to them and all three of us ended up getting baptized. well, i havent been blessed yet, my two friends got baptized earlier than i did (they had religious backgrounds, i didnt, so it was easier for them to accept it) and i get blessed and recieve the holy ghost this sunday.
but see, i still dont know if this is the right thing for me. it pretty much requires me to change my entire lifestyle. i am contemplating skipping out on church on sunday.
but to the point of this comment: (sorry, lol)
about tea not being allowed: the missionaries told us that the only tea that we cannot drink at all, for sure, is black tea, which i have no problem with because black tea is rather discusting in my opinion and i hear its bad for your stomach anyways. they also said that they dont know about green tea which i do have a problem with because my favorite drink has green tea in it.
i suppose it is a stupid question to ask someone who is no longer a mormon, but i dont really know who to ask, do you know of a way to find out for sure what is and is not allowed?
7 johnr // Sep 23, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Anonymous, did you end up going to Church today?
You’re right that joining Mormonism is a huge lifestyle change. It can offer a supportive community and a a powerful sense of security. It can give you all the tools for a stable family life. The social benefits far outweigh the costs if you believe fully and never fluctuate in your faith. But if you believe in progressive roles for women, or if you want to have the freedom to question and back out or to think freely, be prepared for much grief. Once I found that I no longer believed, it took me almost a decade to extricate myself from the Church and its society.
The commitment is a huge one–maybe the greatest one you’ll make your entire life. I recommend that you make sure that you are absolutely committed to Mormonism before you join it.
Whatever happens, I wish you the best on your journey.
8 Anonymous // Sep 27, 2007 at 11:46 am
I don’t see what the fuss is about. Call me a fundamentalist but I see no problem in drinking tea, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, etc. The prohibition against coffee, tea, tobacco, and alcohol were delivered in Doctrine and Covenants 89, a revelation commonly called the “Word of Wisdom.” The opening line of this revelation from the Lord states “To be sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days –“ To me, this is clearly a recommendation from the Lord not a commandment. It is a policy and practice of church leaders to discourage the imbibing of these substances but has never been elevated to “commandment” status.
I’m a true believing, church and temple going, very active Mormon. I regularly drink tea, iced tea, beer, wine, and mixed drinks. I don’t care for coffee or cigarettes. Every two years when my Bishop assesses my worthiness he asks if I follow the WoW. He never asks explicitly if I partake of the three substances. In my mind, I am following the WoW to the letter. My behavior is no different from the active Mormons that eat meat (also prohibited by the WoW). When a prophet of the Lord receives a commandment prohibiting these substances I will change my behavior. In the meantime, I don’t worry about what I might be partaking and focus on the key teachings of Christ: faith, repentance. and service.
9 Great Big Mormon // Oct 2, 2007 at 10:36 am
So blogs can be fun and all, but are often really bad sources of information. If you are really desperate to know the official LDS stance on coffe, tea, tobacco, meat, etc., you really ought to get your information from the horse’s mouth. Go to lds.org and click on “basic beliefs.” Or grab yourself a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants and read section 89. You could even drop by an LDS church one sunday (say, elevenish) and ask someone to point you toward the nearest bishop. Whatever you do, don’t look to bloggers or “anonymous comment leavers” to give you clear or reliable information, especially when it comes to religion.
As for you, anonymous, I’d never call you a fundamentalist because that implies sticking to the fundamentals. One fundamental is honesty. If you’re attending the temple AND smoking cigarettes, you obviously have no problem lying to your ecclesiastical leader in order to obtain a reccomend. Another fundamental of mormonism is modern revalation. If you are willing to invoke a dead prophet to justify disobeying a living prophet, you clearly don’t understand the doctrine you profess to believe. In that way, you are are akin to the present day polygamists who, professing fundamentalism, are excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, following centuries old counsel and ignoring the inspired leaders of today.
10 geneticblend // Oct 2, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Great Big Mormon, reading Section 89 tells you absolutely nothing about green v. herbal v. black teas, which is one of the key items being discussed here. The Word of Wisdom section of the “Basic Beliefs” link you mentioned also does nothing to clarify the section. Ironically, the bloggers provided much more detailed information than the official sites.
But I do agree with Great BM: go talk to a bishop. Better yet, talk to twelve different bishops, preferably from various parts of the globe. I suspect you’ll get varying riffs on what tea is in, and what’s out.
Also remember that the Church will always spin its information, often at the cost of honesty (church PR and instruction is set up in such a way that it will generally choose to withhold information if someone in a leadership position perceives that honest disclosure may endanger members’ convictions–though this may be changing, in the area of historical scholarship).
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