The [Young Women’s]
Journal in virtually every issue promoted the Word of Wisdom, often
by stories with detailed the woes of not adhering thereto, particularly
regarding alcohol. The Word of Wisdom, the Mormon health code, had long
vacillated somewhere between good advice and strict commandment. Some
Latter-day Saints, including church leaders, would continue to use coffee,
tobacco, and liquor after the Word had been introduced by Joseph Smith in 1833.
Bus Susa and Jacob had decided earlier in their marriage to obey it strictly,
and Susa preached its benefits to others. In one story, when a woman confesses
that she sometimes has wine, her neighbor and fellow Mormon replies coolly, “We
have a few true Latter-day Saints left who do not allow wines upon their tables,
and who never allow it to pass their lips” (“Lead Us Not into Temptation,” YWM,
July 1898, 312).
Coffee and tea, although not as
taboo in the pages of the Journal or in broader LDS culture, still was
counseled against in the magazine.
In an article by Susa’s daughter
Leah, partaking of coffee or tea was condemned as not only breaking “the Word
of Wisdom but the laws of health,” and girls were advised that if they “thoughtlessly
formed that habit because mother or father doe, stop it immediately” (“Hot
Drinks for Breakfast,” YWJ, May 1898, 235).
The two exceptions to this strict
prohibition were for missionaries and for health purposes. Some Saints took
coffee for headaches, and missionaries sometimes drank what was offered to them
if to refuse would be impolite. Even Susa may have drunk tea at a reception at
Windsor Palace hosted by Queen Victoria. She wrote in her lengthy report on the
International Council of Women, “We all hastened into the great hall, where delicious
tea . . . was served to every one . . . yes, every one! We do not drink tea . .
. but we knew ‘our manners’ too well to refuse such a lovely invitation from
such a lovely lady” (“International Council of Women,” YWJ, Oct. 1899,
449-50). (Romney Burke, Susa Young Gates: Daughter of Mormonism [Salt
Lake City: Signature Books, 2022], 217-18)
Further Reading
Mike Ash, Up
In Smoke: A Response to the Tanners’ Criticism of the Word of Wisdom