{"id":1265,"date":"2008-01-31T15:21:16","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T22:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2008\/01\/31\/no-to-caffeine-coffee-and-tea\/"},"modified":"2008-07-30T08:39:50","modified_gmt":"2008-07-30T15:39:50","slug":"no-to-caffeine-coffee-and-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2008\/01\/31\/no-to-caffeine-coffee-and-tea\/","title":{"rendered":"No to caffeine, coffee and tea"},"content":{"rendered":"

I run a Word of Wisdom Commentary<\/a> website, and as a result I occasionally receive emails with questions regarding the Word of Wisdom.<\/p>\n

A common theme in these emails is caffeine, and specifically President Hinckley’s mention of caffeine in a 1998 interview on Larry King Live<\/a>. In it, this discussion ensued:<\/p>\n

\n

Gordon B. Hinckley<\/em>: The word of wisdom covers many things. It covers the excessive use of meat, as I see it. It covers, in a very particular way, the use of tobacco and alcohol.<\/p>\n

Larry King<\/em>: By saying no?<\/p>\n

Gordon B. Hinckley<\/em>: By saying, by proscribing those things.<\/p>\n

Larry King<\/em>: No to caffeine?<\/p>\n

Gordon B. Hinckley<\/em>: No to caffeine, coffee and tea.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Proponents of the word of wisdom including caffeine use this as proof that it is church policy that we not partake of caffeine. All arguments aside of using a television show in a single country to introduce new policy, there is one thing to consider when reading this transcript.<\/p>\n

Punctuation.<\/p>\n

You see, when President Hinckley spoke, he did not indicate what punctuation he was using. As a result, all punctuation found in the transcript was introduced by CNN staff. Let’s look at the last statement of that quote with CNN’s punctuation:<\/p>\n

No to caffeine, coffee and tea<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See, this makes it seem like President Hinckley is listing off things we’re not supposed to consume. In other words, we proscribe caffeine, we proscribe coffee, and we proscribe tea.<\/p>\n

Consider alternate punctuation.<\/p>\n

No to caffeine: coffee and tea<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this case, President Hinckley is saying coffee and tea to quantify or clarify what he meant when he said caffeine.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we don’t know what punctuation President Hinckley meant, so we have to make an assumption. Personally, I think the latter example makes a lot more sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I run a Word of Wisdom Commentary website, and as a result I occasionally receive emails with questions regarding the … Continue reading No to caffeine, coffee and tea<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-word-of-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\nNo to caffeine, coffee and tea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2008\/01\/31\/no-to-caffeine-coffee-and-tea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No to caffeine, coffee and tea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I run a Word of Wisdom Commentary website, and as a result I occasionally receive emails with questions regarding the …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2008\/01\/31\/no-to-caffeine-coffee-and-tea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-01-31T22:21:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-07-30T15:39:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kim Siever\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kim Siever\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2008\/01\/31\/no-to-caffeine-coffee-and-tea\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2008\/01\/31\/no-to-caffeine-coffee-and-tea\/\",\"name\":\"No to caffeine, coffee and tea\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-01-31T22:21:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-07-30T15:39:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/99e996edc89affe5206808d3f65869d1\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2008\/01\/31\/no-to-caffeine-coffee-and-tea\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/\",\"name\":\"Our Thoughts\",\"description\":\"Thought-provoking commentary on life, politics, religion and social issues.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/99e996edc89affe5206808d3f65869d1\",\"name\":\"Kim Siever\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417c7b5f55d329bdd0f64ef4396831db?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417c7b5f55d329bdd0f64ef4396831db?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kim Siever\"},\"description\":\"Queer Mormon poet with radical political views. 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