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Temperance movement
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====The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints==== The [[Word of Wisdom (Latter Day Saints)|Word of Wisdom]] is a health code followed by the members of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] and other Latter Day Saint denominations which advises how to maintain good health: what one should do and what one should abstain from. One of the most prominent items in the Word of Wisdom is the complete abstinence from alcohol.<ref name="ludlow">{{cite book|author1=Joseph Lynn Lyon|author-link1=Word of Wisdom|editor1-last=Ludlow|editor1-first=Daniel H.|title=Encyclopedia of Mormonism|date=1992|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0028796055|pages=1584β1585|edition=Vol. 4|url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/EoM/id/4352|access-date=11 May 2018}}</ref> When the Word of Wisdom was written, the Latter Day Saints were residing in Kirtland, Ohio and the Kirtland Temperance Society was organized on October 6, 1830, with 239 members.<ref name="history">{{cite journal|last1=Shupe|first1=Paul|title=Indulging in Temperance: Prohibition and Political Activism in the RLDS Church|journal=Journal of Mormon History|date=1983|volume=10|pages=21β33|url=https://mormonhistoryassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Journal-of-Mormon-History-Vol.-10-1983.pdf|access-date=2018-06-13|archive-date=2018-06-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613184206/https://mormonhistoryassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Journal-of-Mormon-History-Vol.-10-1983.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to some scholars, the Word of Wisdom was influenced by the temperance movement. In June 1830, the ''[[Millennial Harbinger]]'' quoted from a book "The Simplicity of Health", which strongly condemned the use of alcohol and tobacco, and the untempered consumption of meat, similar to the provisions in the Word of Wisdom revealed three years later. This gave publicity to the movement and Temperance Societies began to form.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Alexander |first1=Thomas G. |title=The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement |journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought |date=Autumn 1981 |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=85β86 |doi=10.2307/45224999 |jstor=45224999 |s2cid=33071385 |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/issues/V14N03.pdf |access-date=13 June 2018}}</ref><ref name="eco">{{cite journal|last1=Arrington|first1=Leonard J.|title=An Economic Interpretation of the "Word of Wisdom"|journal=BYU Studies|pages=37β49|date=Winter 1959|volume=1|issue=1|url=https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/economic-interpretation-word-wisdom|access-date=11 May 2018}}</ref> On February 1, 1833, a few weeks before the Word of Wisdom was published, all distilleries in the Kirtland area were shut down.<ref name="history" /> During the early history of the Word of Wisdom, temperance and other items in the health code were seen more as wise recommendations than as commandments.<ref name="decade">{{cite journal |last1=Hoskisson |first1=Paul Y. |title=The Word of Wisdom in its First Decade |journal=Journal of Mormon History |date=Winter 2012 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=131β200 |doi=10.2307/23292682 |jstor=23292682|s2cid=254482814 }}</ref>{{rp|132}} Although he advocated temperance, [[Joseph Smith]] did not preach complete abstinence from alcohol. According to Paul H. Peterson and Ronald W. Walker, Smith did not enforce abstinence from alcohol because he believed that it threatened individual choice and agency and that a requirement for the Latter Day Saints to comply would cause division in the church.<ref name="brigham">{{cite journal |last1=Walker |first1=Ronald W. |last2=Peterson |first2=Paul H. |title=Brigham Young's Word of Wisdom Legacy |journal=BYU Studies Quarterly |date=2003 |volume=42 |issue=3β4 |pages=29β64 |url=https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/brigham-youngs-word-wisdom-legacy}}</ref>{{rp|33}} In Harry M. Beardsley's book ''Joseph Smith and his Mormon Empire'', Beardsley argues that some Mormon historians attempted to portray Smith as a teetotaler, but according to the testimonies of his contemporaries, he often drank alcohol in his own home or the homes of his friends in Kirtland. In Nauvoo, Illinois, Smith was far less discreet with his drinking habits.<ref name="eco" /><ref name="beardsley">{{cite book |last1=Beardsley |first1=Harry M. |title=Joseph Smith and his Mormon Empire |date=1931 |publisher=The Riverside Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=160β161}}</ref> However, at the end of the 19th century, second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [[Brigham Young]] said that the Saints could no longer justify disobeying the Word of Wisdom because of the way that it originally was presented.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Word of Wisdom|url=https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/MStar/id/29019/rec/1 |access-date=20 June 2018 |work=The Latter Day Saints' Millennial Star |issue=47 |date=September 21, 1885}}</ref> In 1921, [[Heber J. Grant]], then president of the LDS church, officially called on the Latter-day Saints to strictly adhere to the Word of Wisdom, including complete abstinence from alcohol.<ref name="woodworth" /> [[File:1843 Christmas TremontTemple Boston.png|thumb|[[Cold Water Army (temperance organization)|Cold Water Army]] poster (1843)]]
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