The Israelites Dietary Laws

Today I read Deuteronomy 14 where the Lord reviews the list of approved animals that His people can consume.  He goes into very fine detail on which animals and which physical traits define the animals that they are allowed to consume and which ones they are not allowed to eat.  It reminded me a lot of the Word of Wisdom that God gave Joseph Smith. 

I have a couple of friends at work who are not Jews but actually belong to a religion that has a health code similar to the Jews.  For example they do not eat pork.  It never fails to amuse me that so many people will follow some laws of their religion so zealously and then utterly ignore other ones.  For example all of my friends that are of the religion that they don't eat pork will consume alcohol.  Some do it in moderation, some will have a drink or two every day, but all will do it.  And yet no religion that I am aware of states it is ok to drink alcohol.  Similarly most Catholics would rather die than use birth control because it is against their religion, but they have no problem getting drunk. 

Now, I am no naive child who thinks Latter-day Saints are perfect, far from it.  I am fully aware that otherwise perfectly devote Latter-day Saints will lead secret lives or indulge in sin, but I do think it's less often that it happens.  And typically for a Latter-day Saint if they are going to slip and start drinking alcohol, the rest of the religion goes right out the window.  It doesn't always happen that way, but it is the stereotype among Latter-day Saints.  It is rare for Latter-day Saints to indulge in so serious a sin and yet still be completely active in the rest of the religion.  That is why I find it so odd that other religions will in fact do this and not really see anything wrong with it. 

It is very hard to live all of the commandments all of the time and I fully understand that some have weaknesses that others just don't have, but if we are actively trying, I think that is what counts in God's eyes.  I personally am disgusted with alcohol and how we are a nation of closet alcoholics.  I would love nothing more than to wake up tomorrow and find that not only is all the alcohol on earth gone but no one can remember how to make it.  It would be a dream come true.  People would actually have to deal with their problems.  I'm not sure how that would work out though. 

It is up to each of us to follow God's commandments or not.  We each of us have the choice but I promise that if we are going to follow Him, it will not be enough to follow just some of them, we will need to follow all of the commandments He gives us, no matter which religion we belong to!  Until tomorrow.