Commenting on Seldon Clawson and the attempt to introduce individual cups for the sacrament instead of the common cup in the Eighteenth Ward (September 1910), which would later be implanted among all Latter-day Saints later, Justin Bray noted that:
Individual cups were a welcome change
for many but not all Latter-day Saints. Despite the evidence for its safety,
some resisted the ideas of switching to more hygienic cups. Clawson spoke of
how a “strong conservative group opposed the change” to individual sacrament
cups in his Sunday School class. He later wrote, “Those opposing the change
agreed that Joseph Smith the Prophet approved and used the goblet. The duly
appointed servants of the Lord blessed and consecrated the sacrament. For any of
the Saints to question it showed their weakness in the faith.” There was a “Jesus
is my protection” mentality among Church members at the time. One woman in the
class remarked, “I am not afraid to drink or to have my children drink from the
same cup as my brothers and sisters. My fear is that my children and I may not
live worthy to partake of the sacrament.” For this woman, the risk of disease
was the price to pay to participate in the sacrament. If her family fell ill on
the Lord’s errand, so be it. The debate over sacrament cups in the Eighteenth
Ward thus reflected broader tensions emerging between liberal and fundamentalist
Christians in America at the time. Latter-day Saints, like their Protestant
counterparts, blended reason, rationality, and faith in uneven ways.
But Clawson was not alone in his
pleas. He convinced some of his Sunday School class of the danger of terms. “The
progressive members,” he wrote, “argued that in the beginning wine was used [in
the sacrament]. Wine contained alcohol which was therapeutic to germs. Therefore,
people using water are exposed to contagious diseases. If the individual sets
could be used, we will avoid contagion that precedes disease.” The debate was
brought before the Eighteenth Ward bishop and the Salt Lake Stake President
before finally reaching the highest councils of the Church. President Joseph F.
Smith sympathized with Clawson but questioned whether Latter-day Saints would
accept a change to the traditional method whether Latter-day Saints would
accept a change to the traditional method of administering the Lord’s Supper.
He assumed Church members would “prefer to use the old system.” Clawson
ultimately received approval to test individual sacrament cups in the
Eighteenth Ward, which began to take place on June 11, 1911. Despite their
positive reception and a strong endorsement from the First Presidency,
individual cups spread slowly to other Latter-day Saint congregations over the
next several years due to cost and germ theory denialism. it was not until the
influenza pandemic of 1918 that they spread more rapidly throughout the Church.
Although seemingly small and insignificant,
the shift to individual sacrament cups represents some of the generational tensions
of a church in transition. It was not easy for some aging Latter-day Saints to
abandon time-honored traditions. Indeed, some members felt like casualties in
the Church’s quest for assimilation. This is a constant theme throughout Church
history that continues today. The uniqueness of the Church is continually questioned
as the next generation balances its peculiarity with public acceptance. Some Latter-day
Saints found changes in something as simple as sacrament cups as a step toward
being “just another church,” rather than God’s chosen people who are set apart from
the world. Looking at the shift in sacramental cups highlights these enduring
anxieties. (Justin Bray, "The Sabbath, the Sacrament, and the Latter-day
Saints," in Sacred Time: The Sabbath as a Perpetual Covenant, ed.
Gaye Strathearn [Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book, 2022], 220-21)
In a note
to the above, we read the following:
One of the most common defenses of
shared sacrament cups was a literal interpretation of the sacramental
blessings. Many believed that the prayer on the water “killed” any germs.
Members of the Groveland Ward in eastern Idaho, for example, used a common cup
throughout the 1918 influenza pandemic and beyond. In 1921, they had their own
debate over the sacrament cup issue. Daniel Foss Olsen, a member of the ward,
later wrote about the deliberation between ward members: “Some people were very
reluctant to make the change [to individuals cup],” Olsen related. “When others
pointed out that this was being done as a sanitary measure to keep people from
drinking other people’s germs, those favoring the old way responded that the
sacramental prayer would kill the germs away.” Janice Elaine Olsen Williams, “Daniel
Foss Olsen: Always a Reacher,” 2006, 79-80, FamilySearc.org. Lola Newbold of
Cambridge, Idaho, later wrote, “Mother said the water was blessed so we wouldn’t
get any germs.” Linda Hamilton Clark and Larry G. Hamilton, “Lola Pearl Newbold
Hamilton: The Early Years, 1911-1932,” 2009, 6. FamilySearch.org. Max Francis
Jensen of the Independence Ward in eastern Idaho similarly remembered, “Mother
would always say it had been blessed if we got a little squeamish about it.” “Lie
History of Max Francis Jensen,” 1982, 29-30, FamilySearch.org. (Ibid., 238 n.
64)
