Mormons, is eating meat sometimes a sin?

The Word of Wisdom was originally given as guide to good health. It teaches moderation and the avoidance of excess and substances that are harmful. Much later, it became a commandment to abstain from alcohol, tobacco products and tea (green and black) and coffee. The rest remains a guideline or a lesson in practicing moderation, but is not meant to be a strict dietary plan that Mormons must literally follow. I think that many non-Mormons think that the Word of Wisdom is something that we must strictly follow like the Jews and Muslims must do in their religion.

Again, most of the WOW is a lesson on following good health practices. Some of the counsel given in the Word of Wisdom, isn't necessary or practical in this day and age when we have a variety of fresh produce available all year round. Other counsel is still sound. Back when the WOW was given. People had limited food choices in the winter and they ate a lot of meat during the winter months. This was teaching the early Mormons to limit their meat intake during months when other kinds of foods were plentiful. Now days, we don't need to eat lots of meat in the winter and no meat in the summer, because we can eat a well balanced diet all year round.

Concerning "hot drinks", again, this is something people take too literally. Back then people commonly referred to tea and coffee as "hot drinks", and it was later clarified that hot drinks means coffee and tea. If you apply logic to this, if it literally meant to avoid hot drinks, we could simply allow our "hot drinks" to cool of and enjoy them cold, and we'd have to allow hot soups and other hot beverages to cool off as well.

So, to answer "is eating meat sometimes a sin". This is what the Bible teaches:

1Cor. 3:16-18

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

I personally think that if someone eats meat in excessive amounts to the degree that they are making their bodies unhealthy, they are defiling their body and that could be considered a sin. But I don't think that eating meat in the summer is sinful. Just my opinion.

Additional: I think that you are now putting meaning into our answers that isn't there. You're hearing what you want to hear and ignoring what we are saying. And you do seem to be trying to tell us how to live our religion, by defining counsel or "not pleasing unto me" to be equal to commandment. That is how you define it, not us. We believe that one of our purposes for being here is to exercise the agency that God has given us. We believe that he is literally the father of our spirits and like any parent He gives us rules that we must follow for our own protection and to keep us pure, and he gives us guidelines that He would like us to follow because it is what is best for us, but allows us the agency to find out for ourselves the wisdom of his counsel. We don't have an attitude that we can do whatever we want, or pick and choose what commandments to follow. These same people on here telling you that we have a lackadaisical attitude toward the Word or Wisdom or other words of counsel from our leaders have answered other questions about Mormons by saying that we are so under the control of our leaders that we can't even breath without permission. We can't be of both extremes, now can we?

To answer your hypothetical question about the use of the computer. As a parent, I have many times given my children advice that they have chosen not to follow. They have had to deal with the consequences of not following my advice and have learned valuable lessons. This is the same with Heavenly Father. In His infinite wisdom, He doesn't tightly control us because we are here to experience life on an imperfect, individual level and because he wants us to experience both joy and sorrow in this world. We would have none of that if there were not a balance of commandments that we must follow and wise counsel that we should follow and would be pleasing unto God if we did follow.

Well, according to their scripture, eating meat anytime other than famine or winter (i.e. when meat was the only source of food), is a sin. However, they ignore that part.

The Mormon apologists will squirm all over the place now to try to explain how it really isn't forbidden. I think I'll have a Big Mac and watch their responses for entertainment.

Oh, no. If the mormons ever lived up to what the WOW actually says, they would join with the SDA's! We'd have a few million more vegetarians roaming around frowning at people entering MacDonalds! NOOOOO!!!!!

As a former mormon, while growing up in Utah I never once heard any mormon say, "Lets not have our usual 2" thick steak tonight, dear. It's so un-WOW."

Joseph Smith didn't condone eating meat,but who really cares what he thinks.

They drink Dr Pepper which is loaded with caffeine

Yeah, if a gay guy is sucking another guy's meat

everything is fair game for a man who talks to rocks in a hat

the intent is moderation in all things.

tea and coffee have been prohibited in any form. "hot drinks" were defined as tea and coffee. it has nothing to do with caffeine.