Bah, sounds like another version of Unitarianism to me.

Tom, the “daytime vegetarian” and “weekday vegetarian” terms are interesting as well – as a means to control or further limit meat intake without completely taking those options off the table.

I’ll have to ponder those as additional possibilities.

I’m a little surprised this is considered a useful word. To me it amounts to the same thing as saying “I don’t eat much meat.” Not that it applies to me. I’m a comma removed kinda guy myself.

I like the term. My wife and I don’t eat much meat and basically only eat it when we go out to eat. We have it at home for cooking when people come over, but in a normal week we consume very little. It is not for health reasons, but for the fact that neither of us really like it that much.

Hey? Being the Mormon newbie, I thought everyone attended the temple, wore garments, listend to Donny Osmond, and abided by the Word of Wisdom.

D and C 89:12 & 13

12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;

13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.

I guess that’s why the Mormon population is growing so fast here in Alaska. :-)

danithew, there’s one more major reason people don’t eat meat:

for the environment. (what with the land-use for cows, the feeding, what cows emit into the atmosphere, all that goes into the transportation, etc. they say that most of the greenhouse gasses are coming from livestock)

with that said, I am in fact a flexetarian and a mormon. my main push into this whole thing was because I saw the benefit in eating like a vegetarian (come on, most people do not eat enough veggies) but I really don’t have anything against meat. thus, I eat it sparingly! hurrah!!

This kind of describes my wife’s approach to the Word of Wisdom. Her flex “rules” allow for any amount of drinking when not on U.S. soil, but will only allow for drinking on 1-2 pre-designated days per year while on U.S. soil, usually a holiday or wedding of some significance that involves non-LDS friends. Me? I take a pre-Heber J. Grant approach to the WoW and drink in moderation regardless of the soil I’m standing on. I might make an exception to my flex/moderation rule and really get loaded were I ever to find myself in Germany during Oktoberfest, or Brazil during Mardi Gras, or China during Chinese New Year, or in Ireland just on principle… but none of those opportunities have presented themselves yet…

danithew,

I’m vegetarian. Your 8(1) captures why I started (though it’s a pretty cursory rendering of what I felt and thought). Your 8(3) is what I found after I began.

Jota G,

Paul H. Peterson’s “An Historical Analysis of the Word of Wisdom” is still probably the best resource. It was originally written as a thesis in 1972 by Paul while at BYU for a masters or doctorate in History. It has since been published in both hardback (approx $40) and paperback (approx $20) and makes a nice reference for personal Mormon library. You can order it from Benchmark Books. But I also think you can find it for free online, though at 100+ pages it would be difficult to read on screen.

Leonard Arrington’s “Great Basin Kingdom” has some interesting W.o.W. related anecdotes from the early Salt Lake period of Mormon History.

Finally, though I haven’t read it, Lester Bush wrote a Dialogue article from Autumn 1981 called “The Word of Wisdom in Early Nineteenth Century Perspective” that is probably pretty good. Also available online here:

http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/dialogue&CISOPTR=6654