A 2012 article in the Daily Universe said that caffeinated soft drinks are not sold on BYU’s Provo campus because of the dubious claim that there is “no demand” on campus. It makes non-Mormons scratch their head in disbelief. On the other hand, if you go to the nearby gas stations just off campus, it will be filled with BYU students who seem to demand the stuff there.
I was recently at the Brigham Young’s house (in Salt Lake City), and was surprised to see Coke sold there! What do you make of these seemingly incongruent policies? Should BYU be restricting the free-agency of students? What if they need caffeine to stay up late studying?
Wheat & Tares 
No Coke for Brigham. Brigham would be a Pepper (as in Dr. Pepper).
Brigham was flexible with the Word of Wisdom, I imagine he wouldn’t mind a bit. But a difference could be the audience: BYU food is for mostly LDS students, whereas Lion House is part of the Temple Square hospitality system catering to nonmember visitors and members alike–you can even get coffee in the Joseph Smith Building (I know, my great-aunts ordered it at my wedding lunch there).
Acw
Interesting. I imagine that being able to get coffee in the Joseph Smith building would dismay many members who would view it as enabling sinning in the same way bakeries shouldn’t bake cakes for gay weddings.
But a ban on caffeinated soft drinks are not part of the WoW and I’m sure many BYU students would happily purchase such products on campus. Frankly, though I am not a coffee drinker, I don’t understand why we maintain the ban on tea and coffee. They are harmless substances, in fact, studies show they can be beneficial. I know my UT grandmother who died in the 50’s was told by her physician to drink coffee as a treatment for migraines.
Well.
Vending machines are public. I think that what people buy for public consumption might differ.
I also think that people who are immune to caffeine or who do not have a dependency on it will treat it differently than those who have a well developed relationship with it.
I’m not convinced that it’s necessary to have caffeine in order to study-I’m a graduate who never considered using it. I think it’s become very much the status quo to take performance enhancing drugs whilst studying, in order to have a competitive edge.My son, a medical undergraduate certainly uses them and is constantly researching them. I think he’s a victim of an altered reality that expects more from human beings than can be delivered without damage to the rest of their lives.
Incidentally, my daughter is, alongside myself, a severe migraine sufferer and was recently advised by her neurologist to eliminate any possible source of caffeine in her diet. I’ve used it myself for migraine and felt no benefit.Incidentally, I’d have no problem with anyone using caffeine, just the circumstances that make it necessary.
I had not heard that about JS Building. Interesting!
@lois
Precisely. The LDS church even clarified officially that there’s no ban on caffeine (including soft drinks). The WoW says “hot drinks” and that’s been interpreted as tea and coffee after the fact.
Caffeine is a naturally occurring alkaloid present in all kinds of foods that Mormons are likely to be consuming. It, as you say, has plenty of well-documented health benefits. Nothing harmful at all about a cup of coffee or tea. How a cup of coffee became a “sin” is beyond me.
For that matter there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with drinking alcohol in moderation. And, like caffeine, it’s a naturally-occurring substance present in foods that Mormons are likely to be consuming.
In short, it’s almost impossible to avoid consuming caffeine and alcohol, and there’s nothing wrong with these substances in moderation. I mean, even water can poison you if you drink too much of it (water poisoning aka hyper hydration).
The LDS church has specifically said that sodas with caffeine are *not* prohibited.
http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/sltrib/news/54797595-78/church-drinks-caffeine-lds.html.csp
Perhaps stimulants as study aids are not in keeping with the university’s goals. If students feel the need to stay awake most of the night to cram, go next door to get a coke, but the university would feel that is not the best habit of study to be cultivating. Being a private school, they can offer or restrict whatever food or beverage they feel like.
#7 anon,
Alcohol content of normal foods is much lower than even low-alcohol beer. You would get full and stop eating before you showed any signs of inebriation. This is clearly the big negative of alcohol consumption that the WoW is prohibiting. Although caffeine is also naturally occurring, it is in only a few foods and can be avoided. It is also not specifically prohibited in the WoW and is religiously safe for consumption.
@oso
The whole thing sounds pretty arbitrary.
The WoW only prohibits “hot drinks”. The LDS church elaborates later that coffee and tea are prohibited. Even later it says drinks containing caffeine are OK. According to the WoW, drinking hot water with honey and lemon for a cold is not OK (hot drink) but is OK in practice. OTOH, a glass of iced tea should be OK (cold drink), but isn’t because tea is prohibited. Then the LDS church specifically says hot chocolate (hot drink with caffeine) is OK.
Clearly, 19th century Mormons brewed alcoholic beverages, sold them, drank them, and paid tithes with them. Of course, the Lord himself drank wine, and most Christian churches use wine in holy rituals. There’s no prohibition in the Bible against alcohol per se, but there are some warnings about overuse. There are, in fact, positive recommendations of its use for medicinal purposes.
I wonder if Mormons can even agree on the rules, much less follow them.
anon, I wish you’d come up with a better moniker.
If you’d like to know more about the history of the WoW, see my post from 2012 where the WoW in the first decade was defined clearly as coffee and tea. It hasn’t changed all that much.
I do believe that the prohibition of alcohol in the temple recommend interviews had much to do with Pres Grant’s disappointment that Utah overturned Prohibition.
We are not consistent in our regard of the WoW. Have a member say that he occasionally drinks coffee/tea and some go apoplectic. Have a member say that he eats bacon at every breakfast, ham at every lunch, and ribs at every dinner, and they would probably say “ooo, that sounds yummy”.
@markag
Possibly update WoW & TR worthiness requirements to include hours of exercise per week, blood pressure, HDL/LDL, lipids, and BMI.
…. and blood sugar…
Joseph Smith had it right the first time. It’s the temperature, not the caffeine.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/15/health/coffee-tea-hot-drinks-cancer-risk/
I’m surprised no one has yet pointed out that BYU is significantly stricter than the general membership in multiple areas, not just caffeine.
e.g. Facial hair is not prohibited in any church handbook, but it is at BYU. Mormon students at other universities (UVU, USU, etc.) aren’t required to self-segregate their housing by gender, or abide a midnight curfew, but BYU students are.
I suspect is something related to being ‘more catholic than the pope,’ or ‘building a hedge around the law.’
Not particularly strict about handicapped parking, though. Every time I see a Mormon whip a Hummer into a handicapped spot and toddle into Costco, I want to call out, “Oh you poor dear! Can I go and get you a wheelchair? Perhaps a forklift?” And, yeah, they are always Mormon…. because… garment lines… and the Nu Skin bumper sticker.
Coca Cola for early morning seminary.
Brigham would do whatever the [expletive deleted] he felt like.
Would Brigham Young be rolling over in his grave over his house’s Coke policy, or his university’s policy?
My answer: I tend to think as long as he was in charge of the Utah soft drink distribution network he would be fine with it.
Well, he’s be losing money at BYU for not allowing his Utah soft drink network on campus.
Yep. I had quite a TBM son that went to BYU and while he was there he seemed to pickup the caffeine habit. I didn’t know about it until he posted on facebook of a pictureof a a huge stack of about 100 cans of Coke – oh – and a few jolt cola (it was a few years ago).
First of all, the claim that there’s “no demand” is a bald-faced lie, and Carrie Jenkins is not honest in her dealings. It’s a ludicrous assertion, full stop.
Secondly, you asked:
“Should BYU be restricting the free-agency of students?” Choosing not to sell caffeine doesn’t restrict anyone’s free agency. It implies that something is verboten that is not. BYU constantly does this. It’s not verboten for a man to have facial hair, but it is at BYU. BYU’s landscaping department must have a full time trimming all those hedges about the law.
“What if they need caffeine to stay up late studying?” Need? That’s a stretch. But you can buy a huge caffeinated soda just steps off campus. There is even a business that will deliver caffeinated beverages to students in their dorm rooms. I would suggest keeping a mini fridge stocked with whatever caffeinated beverages you like. You won’t get in trouble for drinking them. They just don’t sell them on campus for some incredibly stupid reason that isn’t the reason they are giving.
Hyrum smith is the person who defined “hot drinks” as tea and coffee when he was called as prophet #2 in nauvoo. It became A cultural commandment in Utah around the turn of the century for temple worship, and of course BYU compounded and codified it as a point of doctrinal salvation…
Would Brigham care about caffeine? Doubtful, unless he was the one who had the WOW revelation…and then, Orson Pratt naturally would have started arguing with him that it was temperature rather than caffeine content ;). Of course, in this scenario Brigham would have asked Lyman Johnson to support his WOW doctrine and LJ would have rolled his eyes and told Brigham that Brigham didn’t have any authority over Lyman, and Lyman would enjoy a mountian dew in Texas.
umm Joe – in Texas that would be a Dr Pepper! Just sayin’
Happy hubby- your probably right…Actually my memory was cloudy… Lyman Wight was in Texas. With Dr Pepper. Lyman Johnson was in Iowa. With a Pepsi.
For every assertion on “hot drinks”, there is a rebuttal.
It’s the caffeine. What about decaf coffee/herbal tea? Also cocoa contains caffeine.
It’s the temperature. What about delicious hot soup?
It provides no nutrition. That’s good news for people trying to diet.
It’s the tannic acid. (Our missionaries taught this). It’s listed as a processing agent for several foods, but not coffee/tea.
Most members would say coffee/tea are prohibited “because the Prophets say so”.
Too late for anyone to actually read this but I have to do something to calm my nerves before going in front of the Judge this afternoon…
I suggest we try and be as historically accurate as possible. Faith in Every Footstep. Coca Cola was formulated about the time of the last few years of Brigham’s life by Brother Pemberton, a War-For-Southern-Independence veteran with chronic pain from a Yankee bayonet to the chest (or was it a Southern woman with a pitchfork about to be molested) and several unconquerable drug addictions. I think it would only be fitting to attempt to stay true to the original ingredients when serving it at Brigham’s historic home and also at his historic university. (Except that would be the University of Utah and they already…..never mind).
Original Ingredients of Coca Cola:
1. Coca refers to cocaine which was taken out of soft drinks after the Narcotics act of 1914.
2.Cola refers to the African kola nut which has caffeine and other substances with hallucinogenic properties, (similar to cannabinols or original absinthe).
3. Rumors about a cheap French wine as a solvent for the cocaine.
4. Molasses to sweeten it.
5.Atlanta ditch water for coloring and the unique taste.
. (Sewage system is still in shambles and relies on frequent thunderstorms).
It’s the real thing.