It's a matter of historical record that Joseph Smith was into both drinking and peddling beer and wine--oh, and was also known to smoke cigars:

(for Smith's personal use of beer and wine, see: "Did Joseph Smith Keep the Word of Wisdom?," by Donna Morley, at: http://www.faithandreasonforum.com/index.asp?PageID=32&ArticleID=194; for Smith's personal use of tobacco, see: Gary Dean Guthrie, “Joseph Smith as Administrator,” 1969 Brigham Young University Masters thesis, in which he quotes from "An Apostle’s Record: The Journals of Abraham H. Cannon, Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, 1889-1896," hardcover, cited by John Dehlin, "Joseph Smith as Administrator," on "John Dehlin's Blog," 11 April 2007, at: http://johndehlin.com/?p=175)
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But what about Smith's consumption of godliness-denying tea?

The Mormon Church currently defines tea as a "hot drink" that is forbidden by the Word of Wisdom. As Mormon apologist John Stewart has observed in his book, "Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet": "[N]o one can hold high office in the Church, on even the stake or ward level, nor participate in temple work, who is a known user of tea, coffee, liquor or tobacco."

Alas, cigar-smokin,' wine-and-beer drinkin' Joseph Smith drank tea, too (and, yes, you can throw in coffee, as well):

"[There is an] interesting entr[y] in Joseph Smith's diary that w[as] omitted when the 'History of the Church' was compiled. [In his diary] (March 11, 1843) Joseph Smith told of having 'tea with his breakfast.' When his wife asked him how he liked it, he replied that 'if it was a little stronger he should like it better.'"

"The Word of Wisdom is considered to be one of the most important revelations in the Mormon Church. A Mormon who continues to break the Word of Wisdom is considered to be weak in the faith. Breaking the Word of Wisdom is considered a sin which can bar a person from the Temple.

"Joseph Fielding Smith claimed that the habit of drinking tea can "bar" a person from the 'celestial kingdom of God.'"

"'SALVATION AND A CUP OF TEA. . . . [M]y brethren, if you drink coffee or tea, or take tobacco are you letting a cup of tea or a little tobacco stand in the road and bar you from the celestial kingdom of God, where you might otherwise have received a fulness of glory? . . . There is not anything that is little in this world in the aggregate. One cup of tea, then it is another cup of tea and another cup of tea, and when you get them all together, they are not so little ('Doctrines of Salvation,' vol. 2, p. 16)."


About coffee, the evidence is strong that Smith indeed drank it--and that, as a result of this sinful, Word-of Wisdom-breaking practice on his part, some Mormons apostatized from the faith:

"Since Joseph Smith . . . did not observe the Word of Wisdom, members of the Church became confused over the matter. George A. Smith related: ". . . [A] certain family, . . . arrived in Kirtland, and the Prophet asked them to stop with him . . . Sister Emma, in the meantime, asked the old lady if she would have a cup of tea . . . or a cup of coffee. This whole family apostatized because they were invited to take a cup of tea or coffee, after the Word of Wisdom was given.' ('Journal of Discourses,' vol. 2, p. 214)."

(Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "The Changing World of Mormonism," Chapter 18, "The Word of Wisdom," pp. 469,472, original emphasis, at: http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech18.htm)
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So, Joseph Smith has been sent packin' his bags, so to speak, to the Tea-lestial Kingdom.

Sweet.



Edited 16 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2012 10:38PM by steve benson.

Smith also engaged in polyandry, so he broke the laws of chastity too. He's a lost cause.

This subject is important because it represents the "open-gut wound" that is Mormonism (doctrine, history, living prophets, and only path to salvation).

In this example JS represents himself as a gateway to God and heaven, partaking in suggested forbidden tea which later on becomes elevated Mormon doctrine and understanding that will forbid all inadherant mankind entry into God's presence because they are not able to enter into God's temple on earth, but there are temple ceremonies for the dead which will will allow the less valiant in the pre-existence a chance to to talk with dead Mormon missionaries and hopefully accept Mormonism after a thousand year millennial cooling off period, but if they know on earth that tea drinking will deny them celestial privileges and reject that principle as of Christ through a living prophet then they will be cast out to outer darkness as apostates, the most abhorrent beings to Heavenly Father.

I have never seen first hand a grizzly car accident, but I believe we have here a nasty car accident of intelligence, faith, rational integrity, and principle. What an image. I know people that I have loved and have loved me who know all these things and are okay with going back to that same fountain for a drink and are teaching their children to teach their children to drink from the fountain too.

This is where some of my current sadness exists.

"The WoW, counsel for the weakest of Saints, elevated to some confusion down the line about whether or not drinking a Dr. Pepper suggests a non-compliant nature" What a Work and a Wonder!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2012 11:56AM by gentlestrength.

I believe Christ and God should be taught as not caring about tea and Cola.

I used my protracted paragraph in the above post without pause for breath to try and create the tortured mania that is Mormonism.

Although I am unattached to the higher teachings of God, I have to believe that Christ would see the Pharisees and Saducees in Mormonism. If I recall he didn't care much for them, probably the most in angry he was reported to become.

What do current Christians and others think?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2012 02:36PM by gentlestrength.

I just think it's too bad the poisoned tea (or was it coffee) didn't work out that well...

Paranoid, Phony And Polygamous Prophet Joe Claims His "Child Of Hell" Wife Emma Poisoned His Coffee . . .


INTRODUCTION: THIS TIME JOSEPH SMITH CONJURS UP VISIONS OF POISONING

Joseph Smith’s inventively lustful claim that God commanded him to practice polygamy ended up causing him all kinds of grief (including contributing to his death at Carthage, Illinois, after he had ordered a newspaper press destroyed for having exposed his polygamous affairs).

Before he was actually murdered, however, Jumpy Joe suspected that even his wife was out to kill him over his polygamous philanderings.
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ATTEMPTED COFFEE KILLING: JOSEPH’S HALLUCINATORY HANG-UPS OVER A MURDER-MINDED EMMA

In their book, "Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith,” LDS authors Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery write of Smith’s polygamy-produced paranoia:

"Although Emma's attempt to accept plural marriage brought temporary peace to the Smith household, neither Emma's resolve nor the peace lasted long. Emily Partridge commented that Joseph 'would walk the floor back and forth, with his hands clasped behind him (a way he had of placing his hands when his mind was deeply troubled), his countenance showing that he was weighed down with some terrible burden.'

"The strain in his private life, coupled with threats from marauders and dissension within the church and community, began to affect Joseph's health. On Sunday, November 5, Joseph became suddenly sick and vomited so hard that he dislocated his jaw and 'raised fresh blood.'

"His self-diagnosis was that he had every symptom of poisoning. But he was well enough in the evening to attend an Endowment Council meeting in the room over the red brick store.

"According to current medical literature, no poison available in 1844 was caustic enough to pool blood in the stomach so rapidly after ingestion as Joseph's symptoms indicate and still be so ineffective as to allow the victim to pursue normal activities within a few hours . . . .

"Twenty-two years later Brigham Young described a 'secret council,' . . . at which he said Joseph accused Emma of the poisoning and 'called upon her to deny it if she could . . . . He told her that she was a child of hell, and literally the most wicked woman on this earth, that there was not one more wicked than she. He told her where she got the poison, and how she put it in a cup of coffee; said he, 'You got that poison so and so, and I drank it, but you could not kill me.' When it entered his stomach he went to the door and threw it off. He spoke to her in that council in a very severe manner, and she never said one word in reply. I have witnesses all around, who can testify that I am now telling the truth. Twice she undertook to kill him.' [Young] did not elaborate on the alleged second occurrence, but in 1866 Brigham's rhetoric could well have been stronger that Joseph's actual words, for it came at a time when Brigham was particularly hostile toward Emma.

"Evidence suggests that Joseph indeed accused Emma of poisoning his coffee. His diary records that he and Emma did not participate in the Prayer Circle at that meeting . . . . This is particularly significant because members were asked not to join the Prayer Circle if they had feelings of antagonism toward anyone else in the group. Only unusual circumstances would have restrained them. Apparently Joseph believed at the time that Emma poisoned him, but strong evidence suggests that his self-diagnosis was mistaken and, therefore, so was his accusation of Emma.

"Five weeks later Joseph again experienced sudden nausea and vomiting. 'I awoke this morning in good health but was soon suddenly seized with a great dryness of the mouth and throat, and sickness of the stomach, and vomited freely . . . . I was never prostrated so low, in so short a time, before, but by evening was considerably revived.'

"He mentioned being 'somewhat out of health' on January 21, 'somewhat unwell' on April 2, and 'suddenly taken sick,' on April 28 . . . .

"Acute indigestion, food poisoning, ulcers, gallstones, and other diseases cause a reaction similar to Joseph's. Certainly Joseph's life was filled with the emotional tension and conflict that traditionally accompany ulcers. When he had his second attack of vomiting early in December, his diary states: 'My wife waited on me, assisted by my scribe, Willard Richards, and his brother Levi, who administered some hers and mild drinks.' . . . In this instance Joseph portrayed Emma as a helper and nurse instead of the instigator of the attack .

"He apparently failed to correct the conclusions held by Brigham Young and John Taylor, for Emma remained forever suspect in their minds.

"Stories of poisoning drew in another suspect: Samuel Smith's daughter Mary later wrote to her cousin Ina Coolbrith that Eliza R. Snow poisoned Joseph. She said that while Eliza resided in her Uncle Joseph's house Emma fixed Joseph a cup of coffee and Eliza poured something in it, then Joseph drank and vomited. Eliza had not lived in the house for nearly a year.

"Desdemona Wadsworth Fullmer, a plural married to Joseph by Brigham Young in July, wrote an autobiography in 1868 and related a bizarre dream that may have been prompted by rumors of Emma poisoning Joseph. She stated: 'In the rise of polygamy [Emma] Smith was going to poison me. I told [the dream] to brother Joseph. He told me it was true. She would do it if she could.'

"The talk of poisoning may have prompted Emily Partridge to say of this period: 'There were times, one in particular that I was really afraid of my life.' . . . She was far more likely to fear retribution from Emma than Emma was to administer it. But circulation of poisoning stories gave rise to apprehension and suspicion directed toward Emma." (pp. 163-65)
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BRIGHAM YOUNG ALSO ASSERTED THAT AN EVIL EMMA WAS OUT TO DO IN JOSEPH BUT WAS THWARTED BY FAITH

A suspicious Brigham Young with his own paranoia over Emma laimed in an 1863 sermon that she tried to kick Young and his pals out of the Church, as well as attempted to murder her righteously roaming-eye husband Joseph:

"In Joseph's da[y] she [Emma] tried to throw me, Br. Heber, Br. Willard Richards and the Twelve Apostles out of the Church, and tried to destroy the whole church and I know it.

"Joseph himself testified before high Heaven more than once that she had administered poison to him. There are men and women present today who can bear witness that more hell was never wrapped up in any human being than there is in her. She gave him too heavy a dose and he vomited it up and was saved by faith." ("BYA," vol. 4 Gen. Conf. 7 Oct. 1863)
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ANOTHER MORMON TESTIFIED THAT EMMA WAS TOXIC TO THE PROPHET BUT THAT GOD PROVIDE THE ANTIDOTE

In his journal, Charles Lowell Walker wrote:

"Br Snow . . . also related that when Emma, Joseph's first wife, heard of the Revelation [on polygamy] she sought the life of Joseph and tired to poison him, but he was delivered by the Power of God. ("Diary of Charles Lowell Walker ,” vol. 1, p. 438, 17 December 1876)
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STILL, THERE ARE THOSE LIKE SANDRA TANNER WHO THINK THAT EMMA REALLY DID TRY TO PICKLE HER POLYGAMOUS PARTNER-PROPHET WITH POISON

"The simple fact is that Mormon historians have already shown the Emma Smith/Joseph Smith/Polygamy story to be very different than the LDS would like to have it. I mean, come on, you have to ask yourself why Brigham Young once (in public!) claimed Emma Smith tried to poison Joseph, but now Mormons only talk about what a great marriage the Smiths had.

"Read 'Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith' or 'In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith' or 'Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling' - three books written by Mormons." ("Interview with Sandra Tanner on the Life of Emma Smith--Wife of Mormon Founder”)
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Conclusion: You wonder how a philandering Joe could sleep at night

Indeed, wouldn’t you be a bit of an insomniac too if you were convinced that your wife was conspiring to fatally spike your Kool Aid?



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2012 01:54PM by steve benson.

Thanks, Mr. Benson!

I thought I had read a post of yours a while back about it. I love the idea that Emma was so pissed off about Smith's philandering that she tried to give him a push in the right direction.

Too bad she hadn't gone down to Saint Louis or New Orleans for her stuff. I'm sure the voodoo mamas in either place could have set her up good in that department. And it wasn't like she wasn't already used to hanging around with creepy-ass voodoo types like Smith and family...

I get to use my imagination here, just as I expect Joe did. I like to imagine Emma would be much more competent in such an undertaking.

This would lead me imagine that Joe was lying in order to create a Paper Tiger in Emma, good for getting new wives and Priesthood allies. I also imagine Joe had it in his mind that if he were to be known as a man who had ingested poisin and survived, he would admired by those who read somewhere in the Bible that this was a sign of righteousness and God's Chosen. Amen. It's as good a story as any.

Does anyone know how common closet drinking, smoking, coffee, tea consumption is amongst TBM's?

As for me, yes, I had done some drinking and cigar smoking (high quality cigars only) as a TBM. Although I didn't start with coffee until after I left TSCC.

My desire of freedom to drink beer etc had nothing to do with my research out of the church.

Just curious.