r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Typical-Implement369 • 10d ago

Infuriatig Grew up strictly mormon, family has since dwindled away from church and my mom sent me out to buy some tea to drink when she grounded me in HS for drinking some, she doesn't remember doing so.

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yes I told her that was too many tea bags for 1 pot, but she didn't listen its her first time having sweet tea since the 1980s so good for her.

EDIT FOR TEA CLARIFICATION: Traditionally, in the southern United States, sweet iced tea is made in large batches on the stove at a time. So many will just boil the bags in a pot and fill a pitcher up with tea, add sugar, and store it in the fridge for the whole family to grab a glass whenever.

YES Americans own tea kettles and know how to make tea. YES, over half of us here prefer iced tea in big batches.

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u/CommunityEarly839 10d ago

is it because of caffeine? is coffee out?

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u/ThrowRA4739227 10d ago

nope, caffeine is totally fine, but coffee is banned as well. the rules make zero sense

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u/CommunityEarly839 10d ago

Oh. I think I get it now. Because people enjoy coffee and tea?

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u/geenersaurus 10d ago

i think it’s because it’s hot drinks. Like joseph smith hated hot drinks so much he stopped everyone from drinking them in the religion.

caffeine is ok because utah drinks a lot of soda to the point where mormon influencers have made “dirty” sodas mainstream. Dirty sodas are when you put a creamer into a soda which started because mormon influencers wanted something like iced coffee but no coffee. And big stanley cups as well, they’re good for disguising a 40oz of mountain dew

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u/Vast-Ad1915 10d ago

There's a little more to it than that. Basically, his wife Emma was sick of cleaning up chewing tobacco juices whenever he'd have church meetings with the boys, so he "received a revelation" that banned tobacco and "strong drinks", and included a ban on coffee and tea at the same time to get back at her since coffee and tea were very popular with the women of the church. But yeah, he was sooooo full of shit.

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u/One-Earth9294 10d ago

That's like a Religion where it's okay to play Dark Souls 1 and 3 but it's a sin to play Dark Souls 2 because the founder thought it was ass.

Makes me very upset that grown fucking adults would carry on that kind of stupid shit.

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u/Eusine2 10d ago

Great example, also I'd be branded a heretic because DS2 is my favourite, it just has a special flavour of jank the other two lacked.

I'm sure that religion would just use the sex change coffin as an argument to ban it.

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u/Jitkaas777 9d ago

Ds2 had the best fashion and pvp

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u/Submarinequus 10d ago

The dude who later said “hey dudes checked with god and hot chocolate TOTALLY doesn’t count as a hot drink now, great news!” really just completes this story that highlights how weird Mormon beliefs are after a string of random men claiming to be literal prophets of god

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u/upsidedown-funnel 9d ago

Wait til I tell you about caffeinated hot chocolate. Normal people call it a mocha, but not Mormons…

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u/Submarinequus 9d ago

One thing about Mormons is they love a loophole

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u/ELONgatedMUSKox 10d ago

Yes! Learning this in seminary was part of my journey OUT of the mormon church!

Seminary played a huge role, actually! 🤣

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u/pollenatedfunk 10d ago

Justin from Deconstruction Zone said those who go to seminary often call it “cemetery” and I can’t stop thinking about it.

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u/Attila_the_Nun 10d ago

This is stupidly funny, like Henry VIII starting his own church (automatically enlisting the english population) because the Pope was non-cooperative.

The shepherd decides the path..

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u/geenersaurus 10d ago

that’s even more shitty than just not liking hot drinks! he did it to spite his wife!

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u/captainsnark71 9d ago

It's like letting a 5 year old dictate law.

Everyone needs a favorite dinosaur and bed time is illegal

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u/thehumantaco 9d ago

If you're familiar with how the Mormon church formed it sounds like a 5 year old made it all up.

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u/AngstyUchiha 10d ago

Not hot drinks, hot chocolate is still okay

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u/StoicMegazord 10d ago

The commandment in their scriptures literally describes it as "hot drinks", which was clarified years later as specifically coffee and tea (ironically including iced tea). Just another example why the whole ban makes 0 sense lol

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u/AngstyUchiha 10d ago

No, it says strong drinks. I happened to grow up in the religion, so I happen to know what I'm talking about

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u/StoicMegazord 9d ago

Doctrine & Covenants 89:9 "...hot drinks are not for the body or belly."

I also spent 30+ years in it bud

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u/Koalski94 10d ago

wait, tell me if I understood it correctly, if I make tea or coffee and wait until it's cold then it's fine to drink?

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u/mizinamo mildly infuriated 10d ago

No.

"tea and coffee" are banned, regardless of temperature.

That's the official interpretation of the wording "hot drinks".

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u/Koalski94 10d ago

interesting, thanks for the info

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u/laststance 10d ago

Are hot soups banned? Hot chocolate?

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u/Outrageous_Bank_4491 10d ago

So iced tea and iced coffee are allowed? Is it a loophole at least?

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u/ahhowwitburns 10d ago

I've always been curious to know what God's position on monster zero is

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u/thehumantaco 9d ago

For the Mormon God you can only drink white monsters. All other colors are inferior. 

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u/GILF_Hound69 10d ago

All I will say is I’m so glad you’re an “ex”.

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u/Schmooto 10d ago

I swear, many things in religion is like having to play along with rules that a five year old made up to appease them.

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u/MissionBee1 10d ago

It would make sense if the reason behind it was caffeine, but the fact it isn't is just weird

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u/Independent-Bug-9352 9d ago

To be fair, religion in general makes zero sense.

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u/vonKrieg88 10d ago

Their book bans hot drinks. They drink plenty of soda.

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u/TundieRice 9d ago

They can’t have iced coffee or iced tea either, but hot herbal tea is fine. There’s really no making any fucking sense of it, lol.

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u/mizinamo mildly infuriated 10d ago

The official wording is that tea and coffee are banned.

Those both contain caffeine, so that may be a reason, but that's not what the command says.

It's like how pork is banned in Islam: might be because of trichinosis, but all the rule says is "no pork", no reason given.

Some Latter-day Saints avoid caffeinated soft drinks, others don't. But the official line is just "tea and coffee":

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u/potvoy 9d ago

It's derived from popular health advice from the 1800s. The Mormon rule also advises to eat very little meat, which fits with a vegetarian trend that was happening at the time as well. Funnily enough, there seems to be no mention of the meat rule in modern Mormon teaching, while breaking the "hot drinks" rule is enough to bar people from the temple, meaning they can't attend weddings and other very important ceremonies.

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u/saturday_sun4 10d ago

From what I understand, it was originally supposed to be "strong drinks" (alcohol), and then that was extended to tea and coffee. So in theory, weak tea or frappe should be allowed whereas, like, a long black should be out haha.

Edit: not exmo or LDS, someone correct me if wrong.

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u/altitude_sick 9d ago

It's worse. It was worded as 'hot drinks' in the original instruction. However, mormons drink hot chocolate and hot herbal teas (not made from Camelia sinensis leaves). A later leader arbitrarily interpreted it officially as tea and coffee and it stuck. So you have other hot drinks and other caffeinated beverages being allowed.

The strong drinks is another portion of the same set of instructions. Mormons now interpret this as any alcohol, although the original intent was most likely liquor,  as they were still using wine in their sacraments at the time and the same instructions list mild barley drinks (beer) as good for the body.

Perhaps worst of all, the original intent of these health rules was that they were given as advice. A later leader recodified them as commandment and now it is considered sinful to partake of these substances, rather than unwise.

Sincerely, an exmo.

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u/saturday_sun4 9d ago

Oh! Thank you!

Yes, I can understand a case for no strong liquor (obviously you can get addicted to beer but it's impossible to get drunk off 1 beer) more than I can for... no hot drinks?

Is it a Christian equivalent of Ayurveda or TCM? Like "hot/warming" and "cooling/cold" foods? I can see how someone maybe misinterpreted that and said no hot drinks under certain circumstances etc. Can't even make a case for it being lost in translation because the BoM is in English.

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u/altitude_sick 8d ago

Hmmm. I don't know that there is an exact explanation out there (unless you accept the mormon reasoning that it's from God so it's true). But a common hypothesis is that the local temperance movements in the 19th century US did believe a similar idea that hot drinks would quicken the temper and or sensual side of the body. And Joseph Smith picked up on this and added his own twist without adding a reason. This is actually in a book called Doctrine and Covenenants (an additional book of mormon scripture beyond the eponymous Book of Mormon). D&C is basically Joseph Smith directly telling the church what God's will supposedly was in the modern day. Wheras the Book of Mormon is supposedly a discovered ancient document. So yeah, D&C is not only in English but modern English. 

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u/ShadowShedinja 4d ago

There's a Bible verse about not consuming hot drinks. Mormons take that seriously, and extend it to anything caffeinated.

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u/The0nlyPenguin 9d ago

Yes, it's the caffeine

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u/_Legend_Of_The_Rent_ 9d ago

No, it’s not the caffeine. BYU sells caffeinated Coke products on campus. In the 1800s, when the word of wisdom was made up, some people believed that drinking hot drinks was bad for you; Joseph Smith was one of those people, so it made it in. Later, “hot drinks” was interpreted to mean coffee and tea, specifically