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Jun. 24th, 2013 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liptonrmIt's been a year, more or less, since I started my little experiment with not following Mormon dietary laws. It's been an interesting time.
I've discovered a few things, such as coffee and beer are delicious, as is wine. I haven't had the chance to try a lot of cocktails though margaritas can be tasty and a bloody mary needs to have enough booze to compensate for the fact that I don't really like tomato juice.
The most interesting observations have had very little to do with the food or drink. You don't really realize how focused Mormons are on holding to the niggling details until you're not following them anymore. And how frankly ridiculous it is that so many Mormons put so much emphasis on rules like the Word of Wisdom when what we do or do not eat says very little, if anything, about the things we actually believe.
Dietary restrictions are easy signposts for religion; more people know the basics of keeping kosher than know anything about Jewish faith or belief. And just as most people know that Mormons don't drink coffee, most Mormons think that the only true standard of one's own Mormonism is what you do or do not eat. Plus, it makes us different and we love the things that make us different (just as we hate the things that make us different; sometime we're the Sméagol of religions). In fact, one of the central tragedies of Modern Mormonism is that cultural drive to be different from other people while at the same time embracing roles and ideas that we think will make us just like everyone else. We want to be different from "the world" but we won't accept difference amongst our own ranks.
The thing about Mormonism, and why its still so attractive to me, is that it's not about the niggling details. Mormonism takes a cosmic perspective: not only is this life not the end but this world isn't the end. There is no end, and the life we have now is only one small part of a greater whole. I've always felt that there's a strong similarity with Buddhism, that just as Buddhists see every life as another step on the journey to enlightenment, Mormons see life as a step on a path of progression, of learning and growing and becoming better. Instead of being clannish and disapproving we should be the most accepting, the most loving, the most willing the accept change.
But there you go. A year of drinking coffee doesn't mean I'm going to Hell. I had a beer and I wasn't smitten on the spot. And now please excuse me, I hear Tim Hortons calling my name.
I've discovered a few things, such as coffee and beer are delicious, as is wine. I haven't had the chance to try a lot of cocktails though margaritas can be tasty and a bloody mary needs to have enough booze to compensate for the fact that I don't really like tomato juice.
The most interesting observations have had very little to do with the food or drink. You don't really realize how focused Mormons are on holding to the niggling details until you're not following them anymore. And how frankly ridiculous it is that so many Mormons put so much emphasis on rules like the Word of Wisdom when what we do or do not eat says very little, if anything, about the things we actually believe.
Dietary restrictions are easy signposts for religion; more people know the basics of keeping kosher than know anything about Jewish faith or belief. And just as most people know that Mormons don't drink coffee, most Mormons think that the only true standard of one's own Mormonism is what you do or do not eat. Plus, it makes us different and we love the things that make us different (just as we hate the things that make us different; sometime we're the Sméagol of religions). In fact, one of the central tragedies of Modern Mormonism is that cultural drive to be different from other people while at the same time embracing roles and ideas that we think will make us just like everyone else. We want to be different from "the world" but we won't accept difference amongst our own ranks.
The thing about Mormonism, and why its still so attractive to me, is that it's not about the niggling details. Mormonism takes a cosmic perspective: not only is this life not the end but this world isn't the end. There is no end, and the life we have now is only one small part of a greater whole. I've always felt that there's a strong similarity with Buddhism, that just as Buddhists see every life as another step on the journey to enlightenment, Mormons see life as a step on a path of progression, of learning and growing and becoming better. Instead of being clannish and disapproving we should be the most accepting, the most loving, the most willing the accept change.
But there you go. A year of drinking coffee doesn't mean I'm going to Hell. I had a beer and I wasn't smitten on the spot. And now please excuse me, I hear Tim Hortons calling my name.