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One of Mormonism’s most well-known revelations is the Word of Wisdom. Apostle Lachlan MacKay of the Community of Christ discusses the historical context of the Word of Wisdom. It turns out that 19th century saints had no problem serving wine at weddings, and beer wasn’t forbidden. While many of us have heard of Prohibition, Temperance, and strong drinks, did you know that alcohol was used for ritual cleansing in the Kirtland Temple?
Lachlan: You get to Kirtland Temple and it expands a little bit. They would do a ritual cleansing outside the temple in the schoolhouse behind the temple or sometimes in Joseph’s home, so with cinnamon whiskey and perfumed water, ritual cleansing. Put on clean clothes. Go to the third floor of the temple, anoint the head with oil, sealing or confirming blessing of that anointing and then feet washing downstairs. That took weeks, so it’s not something you do in an afternoon. They spent months or years in preparation for that.
The process took weeks, and through that process, they understood that they were then empowered by the Holy Spirit and could go into the world. We wouldn’t allow our missionaries to go oversees until they had been endowed with power. So even 1839, most of the members have left Kirtland. There are new missionaries who were not there in the 1830s. Joseph had them detour through Kirtland—Theodore Turley, John Taylor among them. Brigham Young goes with [them] so that they can be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and only then could they sail to the United Kingdom.
GT: Oh wow. You also had mentioned they didn’t bathe everyday like we do now.
Lachlan: Yeah, so I think that cinnamon whiskey would cleanse,[1] it would sterilize. It would make them smell better, so it was purification physically, spiritually, in every way in preparation to go to the temple.
But that’s not all. Lachlan also tells about his fear of having a Word of Wisdom cook during youth camps!
GT chuckles: And then you also mentioned something about eating meat sparingly. I think you said some people wouldn’t eat between Easter and, was it Thanksgiving?
Lachlan: Thanksgiving. Yeah, I know Community of Christ members, this would not be typical at all, but I do know members who would not eat meat between Easter and Thanksgiving, which meant that whenever I visited there was tuna noodle casserole {chuckles}, because they didn’t consider fish meat. We do a lot of camps in Community of Christ, both as youth camps and family camps. My greatest fear as a kid was having a Word of Wisdom cook: not much meat, lots of whole grains, lots of fruits and vegetables. Now I spend a lot of time at camps, and my greatest fear is that we won’t have a Word of Wisdom cook.
What about the use of tobacco for cattle?
GT: Ok. There’s another reference that I wanted to mention. In fact I was going to ask this in the class today but I didn’t: the reference to tobacco. It says for “for all sick cattle.”[2] Tom Kimball was nice enough to send me a copy of Mormonism Unvailed, the first anti-Mormon book ever that Dan Vogel just recently put some awesome footnotes in there. I do remember E.D. Howe, who was definitely an anti-Mormon, a little bit over the top. It was kind of interesting to read that book. One of the things that he made fun of was the Word of Wisdom. He said, “well if you’re supposed to use this for sick cattle, what are you doing?” {everyone chuckles} [Joseph] didn’t prescribe that very well. Do you have any idea what that reference was?
Lachlan: I was just having a discussion with somebody who saw that it was often used for poultices,[3] maybe that’s the bruised part of the tobacco more than anything. The cattle part, this might be highly speculative, but it’s one of the things I want to track down. I was at the tow path on a canal in New Hope, Pennsylvania not long ago, reading an interpretive panel, and it talked about how the mules as they got tired would be given tobacco! {chuckles}
Lach has a lot of other amazing insights! Check out our conversation…..
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Don’t forget to listen to our interview with Greg Prince on the Word of Wisdom, as well as our previous episode discussing why the Word of Wisdom led to James Strang’s death in Michigan.
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[1] D&C 89:7 reads, “And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.”
[2] D&C 89:8 reads, “And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill.”
[3] a soft, moist mass of material, typically of plant material or flour, applied to the body to relieve soreness and inflammation and kept in place with a cloth.
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