Comments on: The Whole Year Through: Melchizedek Priesthood, 1938

By: bbell

bbell — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:21:52 +0000

Hi Ardis….

My understanding based on my family history and my study on the WOW is that there was a 2 generation struggle with the word of wisdom that started with HJG and ended in the late 60′s. HJG had a real struggle with the members and even members of the Q12 over the WOW. There is a funny story in his Autobiography were he was traveling in rural Mormondom and was staying with the local SP’s family. He gave a blistering sermon on the WOW on Sunday morning and was offered coffee by the Sp’s wife at lunch that afternoon.

for example all of my Ggrandfathers were active LDS who smoked and drank who went inactive when HJG made WOW observance a requirement for a TR.

This dynamic played out in various ways church wide in the Great Basin during the 20′s-60′s

So with the WOW struggle in context its easy to see how a year could be filled with WOW lessons

By: Ron

Ron — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:46:42 +0000

Great info. I’ve always thought we only taught a small part of WofW, judging by the average girth of the members of my HP quorum.

By: Coffinberry

Coffinberry — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:19:53 +0000

A year’s worth of lessons on a single topic? Happens in Primary all the time. Every year. Like this year’s topic “My Eternal Family.”

Y’all should visit Primary sometime.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:45:16 +0000

The Widtsoes needed no external prodding to write this manual.

By: Chad Too

Chad Too — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:40:13 +0000

I’m guessing that this is somehow connected to Pres Grant’s indignation at the Utah Legislature voting to repeal Prohibition in 1933 (in fact, the deciding vote) against his lobbying.

It may have taken the Widtsoe’s a handful of years to do the research and put together the manual, but the timing indicates at least a correlation (I know, bad pun) to me.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:03:54 +0000

What about an entire year’s course on something central to our faith, such as, say, the atonement of Christ?

By: Steve G.

Steve G. — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:37:42 +0000

I have a quick anecdote about caffeinated drinks. I remember my dad went away to a conference for a summer and when he came back he confessed to us all that he made a mistake and drank something without reading the label and only later realized his mistake. My young mind was sure he’d partaken of alcohol, since he seemed so sincerely sorry he’d done it. It became so ingrained into my and my siblings’ minds that whenever we’d see advertisements for the beverage on the television we’d rediscuss the onetime sin of our father figure. Imagine my surprise as a college student when I discovered Mellow Yellow was not an alcoholic beverage and actually sat alongside the other soft drinks in the store aisle.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:57:56 +0000

Oh, and I’d love to take Ardis’ Plan of Salvation course as described in #21!

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:55:10 +0000

Coke drinkers? Here?! Ardis, I thought yours was a TBM blog…

Just kidding. Personally, I don’t think the WoW is such a big deal, other than demonstrating obedience. It seems whatever health benefits we Mormons get from it we compensate for by eating ice cream. I assume a zombie-like state every time the topic comes up at church (I’m spiritually shallow).

I may also hold a personal grudge. In my teens I’d drink an occasional coke (coke tastes good!) A non-LDS friend called me on it “hey, I didn’t think Mormons drank coke”. I patiently corrected him and tried to explain the WoW. “Hot drinks are coffee and tea? Sounds like caffeine. Means you shouldn’t be drinking Coke, either, and you know it.” Boy was that annoying, but I quit drinking Coke. And I’m still not happy about it.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:36:18 +0000

Steve G., the repetitiveness on Sacrament Meeting themes is because everybody insists on speaking solely to the broad theme, searching the same keywords on lds.org and reading the same talks, instead of picking some facet of the theme and personalizing it. Whether the Word of Wisdom was a good choice for a year’s course or not, you’ll see that every lesson was different — they didn’t just say “don’t smoke or drink” every week for a year!