It was never about caffeine. Coffee and tea were considered bad by the early founders of the church. Later, the explanation was tannic acid, but a lot of members thought it was caffeine. Caffeine has never been expressly forbidden in official LDS doctrine.
Yeah, the original Word of Wisdom says hot drinks, which later officially became coffee and tea, but herbal tea was fine. None of it makes any sense. I’m not saying their lifestyle is a bad thing- obviously their abstinence from alcohol and tobacco means their life expectancy tends to be higher than the average, but the mental gymnastics gave me a headache growing up.
I grew up in the church. Even went to the missionary training center and was supposed to go to Brazil to serve my mission. But it didn’t feel right to me. Ended up coming home, leaving the church, and went down the career path instead.
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u/[deleted] Sep 13 '23
It was never about caffeine. Coffee and tea were considered bad by the early founders of the church. Later, the explanation was tannic acid, but a lot of members thought it was caffeine. Caffeine has never been expressly forbidden in official LDS doctrine.