Serious question:

In some Third World countries (South Africa is the one I know best), glue sniffing is a very big problem among a large percentage of the population---and it often begins when kids are years younger than the onset of puberty, especially if they have been thrown out of their homes and onto the streets to survive.

Some of these kids die, of course (murder/assault/injury/AIDS/starvation/exposure to the elements), but many survive into adulthood. Many of the ones who survive into adulthood are hooked on glue sniffing for the rest of their (probably fairly short) lives.

I have a personal interest in this since a guy (late teens/early twenties), who was obviously a glue sniffer, almost murdered me the first day I was in South Africa. (I was saved by a black woman who happened by and, in a most authoritative, grandmotherly way, actually YELLED him into running off. Deference to those who are older runs very deep in the society.)

I know that alcohol and illegal drugs can prevent an investigator from being baptized, but what about glue sniffing???

Does anyone know if glue sniffers can be baptized???

In my days of high priest hyperactivity I had to deal with a lot of missionaries, investigators, and new members, and here is what I found out: As long as the district leader wants to get a person baptised, he will get the zone leader to chop off on it. Then the mission president, of course, is good with it. The bishop can protest all he wants to: "I seen him sniff glue!", the bishop might say. "I can smell cigarettes on his breath and clothes!", he might say. But it's not his call. And if the missionaries want him dunked, he'll get dunked. It has little or nothing to do with illegal or legal drugs. If the missionaries want to bulldog that baptism, it'll get done.

What cludgie said.

Each mission has its own rules about 'WoW issues.' So, when I was out, our first MP said they had to stop smoking and drinking for at least a week prior to baptism. My second MP was more strict about it -- it was a month before he'd sign off on it.

There are regional variations, too. Some missions in South America let you baptize people that drink matte (a local tea). Some don't. There's a near-beer beverage popular in the Caribbean called malta; it's about .5% - 2% ABV depending on the brand. Some MP's told missionaries that investigators couldn't be baptized unless they stopped drinking it; others didn't care.

There's a lot of regional variation in how the rules get handled.

Is there a difference between sniffing glue and receiving revelation?

I was afraid this thread would come to this... and here we dangle.

I remember thinking, in youth, "is this bad or 'against' the wow".

It seems, like on many other things, it is more about the B. On The Block.