Mormons and Medicine? My Response
by -I recently came across this claim about Mormons on the internet, written by Rafael OK, Eric Yosomono, and J. Wisniewski:
Joseph Smith, founder of the ‘Church of Latter-Day Saints.’
“Church of Latter-Day Saints founder Joseph Smith… believed that pharmaceuticals and doctors were bad news for a healthy body. Instead, Smith advocated natural remedies for all that ailed you. And he took that mentality to Utah, where his religion and anti-medicine attitude flourished.”
“Fast forward to the late 20th century, and the heart of the vitamin industry still operates from Mormon country. Which was all fine and dandy until the group… realized that 20 people had already died from a ‘natural’ sleep remedy and 16 kids were dead from iron supplement poisoning. So regulators got busy trying to control them. But the heart of [Senator Orrin] Hatch’s constituency was in bed with the vitamins — his son is a supplement lobbyist in Washington, his grandson and son-in-law are chiropractors who shill a product called Slim and Sassy Metabolic Blend, and industry bigwigs have contributed millions to Hatch’s campaigns. There was no way Hatch was going to let the FDA dig their claws into his precious vitamins.”
“So in 1994, Hatch ramrodded the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act through Congress. Under this Wild West of a law, supplement manufacturers can put whatever the [&!@#] they want on the market and the FDA can’t do anything about it until after people get hurt.”
As I’m passionate about both Mormonism and medical science, here’s my cheeky response:
“Just because an idea fits nicely with your own preconceived prejudices does not in fact make it true. Joseph Smith never expressed any distrust of pharmaceuticals and doctors. In fact, the medicine of his time kept him from being a cripple and may well have saved his life. Mormons are definitely not anti-medicine. Do you know how many Mormon doctors and medical scientists there are? Tons. I should know. I am one.”
“While Smith did support adopting a healthy lifestyle and a healthy diet (no alcohol, no tobacco, avoid too much meat, etc), he never claimed that natural remedies were cure alls and didn’t advocate their use. Furthermore, Smith never made it to Utah (killed by a mob of people fueled by prejudice not unlike your own, but on steroids), and so he couldn’t have, as you suggested, personally taken his unorthodox medical beliefs to Utah even if he had had them.”
“It is additionally ironic that you criticize Smith’s now mainstream view of human health given that his common-sense suggestions are so demonstrably beneficial. Mormons live, on average, ten years longer than other Americans. So, while you may think your stereotyping is ‘funny,’ turns out that Mormons will, quite literally, have the last laugh.”
“The cool thing about [your website] is that it presents facts in an entertaining (albeit at times unnecessarily crude) way. You do present some interesting facts in your article. Senator Hatch is an idiot for letting neutraceuticals go unregulated, and I think you’re right that he has a major conflict of interest given his family’s involvement in the industry. But this just isn’t a mormon issue, as you suggest. It’s an idiot politician issue. I’m surprised you didn’t emphasizes that angle even more, given that you’re clearly more familiar with idiocy than you are with mormonism.”