The revelation known today as the Word of Wisdom was given to Joseph Smith in February 1833. It gave a warning that said the following concerning the use of tobacco.
And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill (D&C 89:8)
Notice that the Lord spoke of tobacco. He didn't speak of smoking. Thus the reference to tobacco includes smoking, snuff, and chewing tobacco. This revelation was originally a suggestion from the Lord but not a commandment. It was later made a commandment, and today the church requires complete abstinence from tobacco as a requirement for a Temple recommend.
When I was a kid, my parents used Black Leaf 40 as an insecticide. The main ingredient (40%) is nicotine, and it was an effective product. I recently googled "black leaf 40", and it is still available. One of my missionary companions was raised on a dairy farm in Star Valley, Wyoming. He said that when a cow became sick, his father would stuff a plug of chewing tobacco down the cow, and the cow would recover. His father apparently took Section 89 of The Doctrine and Covenants literally. Scientific research is showing overwhelming evidence that the intake of tobacco into our bodies is harmful to our health. Not only is tobacco harmful to those who use it, smoke from tobacco that is inhaled by those not smoking is harmful, too.This does not imply that other uses of tobacco are unacceptable to the Lord, as the Lord implied in his reference to cows.
Well we all know that smoking is not a habit but an addiction!! So once we started to take a puff means we will be thinking to take second, so to get rid from this we will be in need to have a supporting hand for sure!!
ReplyDeleteI just posted an article about a county in Minnesota enforcing a smoke-free ban on smoking in public places. That article concerns an interesting question of how much influence should government have in controlling the behavior of citizens. It is becoming well known that secondhand-hand is dangerous to our health, and government imposition of smoke-free environments is one way of obtaining improvements in health. However, there are other ways of obtaining the improvements that reduce the influence of government in our lives.
ReplyDelete