Chapter twenty-six of Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? is devoted to impugning Doctrine and Covenants 89–the Word of Wisdom. Not surprisingly, the Tanners claim that Joseph did not receive the Word of Wisdom by divine revelation and that, although others were excommunicated for nonobservance, he (and apparently Brigham Young) flaunted the fact that they didn’t observe it. According to the Tanners Church leaders were also guilty of violating the Word of Wisdom by not only condoning the sale of proscribed items–primarily alcohol–but by producing and selling them as well. Although the Tanners charge Joseph with hypocrisy, and imply that Brigham was a hypocrite as well, they never reveal why they believe that Joseph and Brigham would casually indulge in publicly consuming alcohol. Their actions appear very little like hypocrisy, but rather suggest that they had a different understanding of Word of Wisdom observance than we do today.

While the Tanners make several charges against the Word of Wisdom and against Latter-day Saints for accepting the Word of Wisdom as revelation, the bulk of their charges can be divided into two primary concerns:

1) The Tanners claim that the Word of Wisdom was not revealed by God but was “obviously the product of the thinking of Joseph Smith’s times.”

2) The Tanners charge that Joseph and other leaders were hypocritical in their preaching of the Word of Wisdom compared to their personal observance of the principal.

Part I: The Origin of the Word of Wisdom

Early in their attack, the Tanners attempt to demonstrate that Joseph Smith contrived the Word of Wisdom by borrowing from the philosophies of the temperance movements of his day. That there was a temperance movement in Joseph’s day is not a matter of dispute: in the early 1820’s a number of Americans began crusading for temperance, or sobriety. This movement gained momentum until an organized Temperance Society–originally called, in contempt, the “Cold Water Society”–formed in 1826. By 1830 there was a Temperance Society in Kirtland, Ohio, and three years later (about a month before Joseph received his revelation on the Word of Wisdom) the temperance movement helped shut down the fourteen-yearold Kirtland distillery. By the following year the “American Temperance Society had grown to well over a million members.”

Among the list of early members we find names such as “George Smith, several Morleys, a Wells, a Coe, and a Lyman.” As Arrington notes, these “names [are] all associated with the history of Mormonism, and it is not improbable, though not known as certain, that these temperance workers had relatives among the Saints, even if they themselves were not Mormons.” Although we can only conjecture as to what influence the temperance movement had on Joseph Smith, it seems improbable that he would have been unaware of it.

Temperance Societies, however, were primarily concerned with the prohibition of alcohol. There were “no influential organizations comparable to temperance societies” combating the use of tobacco, but “there were indications of reform on the local level, some of which could have conceivably had some influence on Joseph Smith.” Nineteenth century America saw other local reform campaigns such as the religious fervor of the health reform movements that were concerned with the effects of various substances upon the human body. This campaign was spearheaded by Sylvester Graham (of graham cracker fame), who was a former agent of the Pennsylvania Temperance Society. Advocating abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea and other “stimulants” (as will be discussed shortly), Graham “recommended his program to upstate New Yorkers in the 1830’s.” Graham’s views grew in popularity, reaching its zenith after the Word of Wisdom had been promulgated.

Lastly, we have the possible influence of contemporary medical wisdom of the day. Many early nineteenth-century physicians believed that there was only one basic disease state, and that what we now know to be different disease were merely different symptoms of this same basic disease. The underlying condition of this single disease state was believed to be an imbalance in the vital nervous energy that determined an individual’s health. When someone showed symptoms of this disease (which could be manifest as nearly any disease) it was believed that the person “needed a reduction in stimulation through dietary adjustment.” It was also reasoned that healthy people could prevent this disease by reducing their consumption of stimulants.

There is little doubt that Joseph would have been at least somewhat familiar with the prevailing health attitudes of his day. This might have included some knowledge of the temperance movement, Grahamism, and the notions of the medical community. There is even more reason to believe (as will be demonstrated shortly) that Latter-day Saints interpreted the Word of Wisdom in light of this cultural knowledge on health just as they do according to today’s medical information. It was within this cultural context that Joseph received his revelation. Brigham Young, although not present at the event he describes, explained that Joseph and the School of the Prophets used to meet in a small room over the Prophet’s kitchen. When they met together many of the brethren would light their pipes, and spit their chewing tobacco all over the room. Often the prophet would deliver instructions in a smoke-filled room. This, and the complaints of his wife (who had to clean the filthy floor), made the prophet think about the matter and inquire of the Lord concerning the brethren’s use of tobacco: the Word of Wisdom was the answer to this inquiry.

The Tanners suggest that the Word of Wisdom came from less-than-divine means by quoting David Whitmer (who, like Brigham, was not present during the above-noted episode):

Quite a little party of the brethren and sisters being assembled in the Smith’s house. Some of the men were excessive chewers of the filthy weed, and their disgusting slobbering and spitting caused Mrs. Smith…to make the ironical remark that “It would be a good thing if a revelation could be had declaring the use of tobacco a sin, and commanding its suppression.” The matter was taken up and joked about, one of the brethren suggest that the revelation should also provide for a total abstinence form tea and coffee drinking, intending this as a counter dig at the sisters. Sure enough the subject was afterward taken up in dead earnest, and the ‘Word of Wisdom’ was the result.

Although Whitmer’s description of the event came nearly fifty years after he had apostatized and at a time when he did not accept that the Word of Wisdom or many other later revelations as inspired, his impression that the Word of Wisdom was the result of pressures from Emma and the use of chewing tobacco by the brethren agrees with the account given by Brigham.

Recognizing the fact that to some degree Joseph would have known about–and/or been influenced by–the prevailing cultural views concerning health, it is appropriate to ask a few questions:

1) Does the Gospel change as new issues arise?

2) Is it unusual to adopt pre-revelatory cultural views as guidance because of a revelation or increased knowledge of a particular topic?

3) To what degree did the Word of Wisdom incorporate the prevailing views of Joseph’s culture?

. . .

Summary and Conclusion

The Tanners make two primary charges against Joseph Smith and the Word of Wisdom.

1) The Tanners claim that the Word of Wisdom was not revealed by God, but was “obviously the product of the thinking of Joseph Smith’s times.”

As demonstrated in this paper, while Joseph was most likely aware of the prevailing health movements of his day, the Word of Wisdom–though similar to some health reform suggestions–included only those things which we now know negatively impacts our health. While the medical community and health reform movements added some proscribed substances that they (and admittedly some early Saints) believed were harmful, the Word of Wisdom ignores these elements. Joseph Smith, under the direction of the Lord, got the right things right.

2) The Tanners charge that Joseph and other Mormon leaders were hypocritical in their preaching the Word of Wisdom compared to their personal observance of the principal.

While the Tanners are correct that Joseph and other early LDS leaders partook of things that are proscribed by the Word of Wisdom, the Tanners fail to grasp that the early LDS view of the Word of Wisdom is not the same as it is today. Although taught by angels and heavenly messengers, Joseph had to learn line upon line as all other prophets before him. His spiritual education was received within the limitations of his understanding, expectations, familiarity, and cultural atmosphere.

The evidence suggests that the Word of Wisdom was not merely the product of Joseph Smith’s environment, and neither he, nor Brigham Young, were hypocritical about their observance. Instead we find that God works through living prophets and directs the affairs of His Church in His own manner and according to His own timetable. This evidence suggests that the Tanners’ charges have gone up in smoke.