I'm a bit of an odd duck here in Utah, even though I'm LDS, because I'm not what my family refers to as a 'Utah' (or more specifically 'Provo') Mormon. Provo Mormons are, among other things, the ones who take culture as doctrine--'we do it this way because we've always done it this way, so therefore it must have been divine revelation'. (Note that not all PMs live in Provo, and not all Mormons in Provo are PMs, but the connection is there.) PMs are the minority in most places, but they're vocal, so they're who a lot of people picture when they hear something about Mormons. They're usually pretty conservative (although not all conservative Mormons are PMs, either). And they hold some views that make the rest of us cringe.
One of the weirdest things about PMs (in my opinion) is the no-caffeine thing, which is most noticeable at and around BYU; it came about (in a very convoluted way) because we have something called the Word of Wisdom, which is basically a set of guidelines that says 'Follow these rules and you'll be healthier!', which is a great idea and all, but IT'S NOT A SET OF RULES!!! You can still be a perfectly good Mormon and have a beer every now and again. Furthermore, one of the guidelines is 'eat meat sparingly', which most PMs I've met ignore completely, instead focusing on the Big Three of alcohol, tobacco, and 'hot drinks'.
We've interpreted 'hot drinks' to mean tea and coffee, which means that you can still drink things like hot chocolate and be just fine. The reasoning behind this, as far as I know, is that tea and coffee have tannins in them; seeing as tannins are used to tan leather, they're not necessarily the best things to put in your body. Which is, y'know, the whole point--this is a list saying 'eat things that are good for you, and don't eat things that are bad for you'. Pretty simple stuff.
The problem comes about because both tea and coffee contain caffeine. As far as I can tell, this has nothing to do with the reasons why we're not supposed to drink them, but PMs took this realization one step farther--if tea and coffee have caffeine, and we shouldn't drink tea and coffee, then caffeine should likewise be banned. (Correlation=causation, anyone?) And they hold to this like actual doctrine, the worst of them going as far as shaming and even threatening other Mormons who they see drinking caffeine. This is despite a statement from the General Presidency, the leaders of the entire Church, releasing a statement that caffeine is perfectly fine to drink in moderation, but you should probably stop if you're getting addicted to it, just like literally anything else you eat/drink. (Also, y'know, Love Thy Neighbor and all? Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged? A lot of PMs are hypocrites.)
Seeing as I'm currently drinking a Mountain Dew, my feelings on the subject are pretty clear. Most of my extended family on my mom's side--all raised by my grandparents, a very wonderful LDS couple--love Dr. Pepper. The exception is one aunt who accused her daughter of drinking caffeine in the same tone that she used to accuse her of being pregnant out of wedlock, despite the fact that neither accusation was true, and in fact one of them was physically impossible. (Said daughter moved into Grandpa's house with her sister when they realized they were liberals and their mom was super-conservative. The rest of us are very proud of them.)
It's an extremely silly thing to be so polarized about, but it's there, and it's only the tip of the iceberg. I'm pro-choice, and pro-gay-rights (and trans* rights, and why not plural marriage as long as everyone's a consenting adult, and why do we make such a big deal of sex, gender, and sexual attraction anyway?), and pro-background checks for gun purchases, and pro-feminism, and a bunch of other things which would probably horrify my conservative aunt if she knew about them. And I've had caffeine at BYU, and I'm attending the U even though BYU has a better language program because I would probably want to kill people after attending BYU for two weeks. (The Modesty crap alone would make me punch someone by day three, I think.)
And I'm still LDS, because I believe that the Book of Mormon is true, and that we have a living Prophet (who is still human, and can still make mistakes, because being Prophet doesn't automatically make you perfect). And I can be LDS and disagree with Provo Mormons, and I can even be LDS and disagree with some of our official policies, because the Church is run by humans and humans are flawed. We got our act together on giving Blacks the priesthood, and I believe we'll get our act together again on gender issues. It might take a while, but I have faith we'll work it out in the end.
In the meantime, I'll continue to be an odd duck in Utah. Someone has to be.
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