WRONG COLOR ;)
Posted on 03/03/2008 11:08:00 AM PST by greyfoxx39
Religious and cultural traditions collide in odd ways.
• Is it right to tell election poll workers, assigned to Mormon church meeting houses, to not bring coffee, sodas or anything else caffeinated to refresh themselves during their long day tending to voters?
-SNIP-
First, let’s look at the polling place duties and sipping Maxwell House in the meeting house.
Longtime Tempe poll worker Mary Ann Hemmingson has signed up to work the polls for the March 11 election. She’ll spend her 14- or 15-hour day in a church, but no longer one that belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I never sign up to work at a Mormon church because the board workers there are not allowed to have any caffeine on the premises,” she said. “That means no coffee in the morning and no Diet Coke in the afternoon. ... You don’t want to see what I look like without my daily dose of caffeine. It’s not a pretty picture.”
“The Word of Wisdom” portion of the Doctrine and Covenants, put forth in 1833 by church founder and prophet Joseph Smith, says that “hot drinks are not for the body or belly.” Add to that what H. Burke Peterson, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, said in 1975: “We know that cola drinks contain the drug caffeine. We know caffeine is not wholesome nor prudent for the use of our bodies. It is only sound judgment to conclude that cola drinks and any others that contain caffeine or other harmful ingredients should not be used.”
Advising followers to restrict what they take into their bodies is one thing, but applying that mandate to those people who perform a public job inside their buildings in a one-day stint seems to be taking things too Far.
(Excerpt) Read more at eastvalleytribune.com ...
Why don’t they let the heathens drink what they like? Maybe the caffeine and alcohol will hasten their deaths. They’ll just be baptized into the Mormon church when they die, anyway.
,-)
How many Mormons does it take to change a lightbulb?
One, if you are offering a Pepsi after they finish.
How many Pentacostals does it take to change a lightbulb?
One to change the bulb and two to catch them after they fall.
How many Calvinists does it take to change a lightbulb?
If God wanted light he would make light.
How many Baptists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Depends on the size of the church.
Etc. . . .
***No caffeine? I know plenty of LDS people who drink cola drinks.***
But, but, that is only if you have migraines.
I guess whisky is out of the question.
Abe Lincoln, Steven Douglas and company must be rolling over in their graves.
It’s the LDS Churches property. They make the rules what people working there can and can’t have. I don’t care if the property is being used as a public polling place, and I’d say the same thing no matter where, or whose religion, the polling place was.
If there’s a problem let the FEC handle it. Oh wait apparently no problem or there wouldn’t be a polling place there.
“...postum OK.”
Postum is served hot, isn’t it? I’m confused ;)
In the Word of Wisdom, “Joseph Smith says “hot drinks are not for the body or belly.”
What about hot broth? What about hot liquids in soup? What about hot green tea? What about a non-caffeinated soda that gets warm in the noonday sun?
What about a ham sandwich in a mosque?............
I live in a VERY Mormon neighborhood in Utan. There is a LOT of soda drinking, at homes, at church events, in ward houses. No coffee, no tea, but lots of hot chocolate (never figured that one out). That being said, I think the church has the right to set the standard for what goes on in their places of worship, even for civic events. The poll workers have a choice of working there. If it becomes too much of an issue, the polling place will be moved.
Then they: a) might not be devout Mormons, or b) their cola drinks don’t contain caffeine.
Unless I am misinformed, apparently the LDS gets a "special dispensation" when the cola drink is Coca Cola. I am guessing Coke donates a healthy sum for that dispensation on BYU's campus........
Because it never has been about caffeine, it is the tannic acid tea and coffee.
The ban on cola in the church is not universally accepted. The ban is technically on hot caffeine
Persona non grata?
WRONG COLOR ;)
+++++++++++
There is an answer to this question, I was even taught it when I took the missionary lessons about 40 years ago.
Jeepers, in some elections I wouldn’t be able to stomach voting for anybody if it weren’t for the liquor.
Seems like you chose to leave out the part that said this behavior was normal, no matter where the polling place was.
“The ban on caffeine is no different than forbidding smoking, she said. Whether it is a church, synagogue or mosque, “we abide with their rules.” Reed said occasionally there are public requests to cover up crosses or remove religious materials from walls or bulletin boards of churches, but the choice is to honor the host. Some, she said, may be offended, as occurred in 2004, when people voted in military armories and President Bush’s photo was on the wall at the same time he was on the ballot.”
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