I took a Mormonism class this semester. It was an interesting class taught by a non-Mormon who grew up in Magrath, a small, Mormon town in Southern Alberta. It was a balanced class that expanded my understanding of the early church and its related factions.<\/p>\n
One thing it made me think about was the Word of Wisdom. We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t touch on it much, but as we reviewed it in class, I was thinking about how we as Mormons generally don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live the Word of Wisdom in its entirety.<\/p>\n
The most prominent component that came to mind is found in D&C 89:12\u00e2\u20ac\u201c13:<\/p>\n
Yea,\u00c2\u00a0flesh also of\u00c2\u00a0beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used\u00c2\u00a0sparingly;<\/p>\n
And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be\u00c2\u00a0used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or\u00c2\u00a0famine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Most members of the LDS church interpret this to mean a restriction on meat eating, which is kind of funny since most Latter-day Saints don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t practice limited meat consumption.<\/p>\n
Notice these verses, however, indicate not meat generally but specifically the flesh of beasts and flesh of fowl of the air. The 1828 Webster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dictionary<\/em> defines beast as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153any four footed animal, which may be used for labor, food or sport; distinguished from fowls, insects, fishes and man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I interpret fowl of the air to mean specifically birds that fly; I do not interpret this to include chicken, turkey,\u00c2\u00a0ostrich, and other birds that cannot fly.<\/p>\nWhat this means then is that I interpret these two verses as saying that except in times of winter, cold, or famine, the only meat we should eat comes from birds that can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fly and from seafood.<\/p>\n
Despite having had this interpretation for several years, I never adhered to it. Being in a class of mostly non-Mormons studying, if only briefly, the Word of Wisdom made me realize how hypocritical I was being.<\/p>\n
As such, I resolved to make a change, and as of the summer solstice, the only meat I have eaten has been chicken and fish. I hope to continue this practice until the weather cools.<\/p>\n
Wish me luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I took a Mormonism class this semester. It was an interesting class taught by a non-Mormon who grew up in … Continue reading Why I am no longer eating red meat; at least for now<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I am no longer eating red meat; at least for now<\/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\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I am no longer eating red meat; at least for now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I took a Mormonism class this semester. It was an interesting class taught by a non-Mormon who grew up in …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-02T02:01:18+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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/\",\"name\":\"Why I am no longer eating red meat; at least for now\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-02T02:01:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-02T02:01:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/99e996edc89affe5206808d3f65869d1\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/\"]}]},{\"@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. I have been married 27 years, and we have 6 children. Sunday school president. Served in the Utah Provo Mission.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.hotpepper.ca\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/author\/kim-siever\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why I am no longer eating red meat; at least for now","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why I am no longer eating red meat; at least for now","og_description":"I took a Mormonism class this semester. It was an interesting class taught by a non-Mormon who grew up in …","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/","og_site_name":"Our Thoughts","article_published_time":"2011-07-02T02:01:18+00:00","author":"Kim Siever","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kim Siever","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/","name":"Why I am no longer eating red meat; at least for now","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-07-02T02:01:18+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-02T02:01:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/99e996edc89affe5206808d3f65869d1"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/01\/why-i-am-no-longer-eating-red-meat-at-least-for-now\/"]}]},{"@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. I have been married 27 years, and we have 6 children. Sunday school president. Served in the Utah Provo Mission.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.hotpepper.ca\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/author\/kim-siever\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2575,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574\/revisions\/2575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}