Posted on 02/05/2014 3:37:20 AM PST by xzins
Sunday’s Super Bowl was dubbed by some as the “pot bowl,” as the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks hail from the two states where fans can soon get marijuana as easily as they can get pizza. As public opinion has shifted in support of legalized marijuana, religious leaders are wrestling over competing interests, including high prison rates and legislating morality.
According to a 2013 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, 58 percent of white mainline Protestants and 54 percent of black Protestants favor legalizing the use of marijuana. On the other side, nearly seven-in-10 (69 percent) white evangelical Protestants oppose it.
Catholics appear to be the most divided Christian group, with 48 percent favoring legalization and 50 percent opposing it. Opinions on how states should handle those who possess or sell marijuana varies among Christian leaders.
Caught in the middle of the debate are pastors, theologians and other religious leaders, torn over how to uphold traditional understandings of sin and morality amid a rapidly changing tide of public opinion.
Mark DeMoss, a spokesman for several prominent evangelicals including Franklin Graham and Hobby Lobby founder Steve Green, admits he takes a view that might not be held by most Christian leaders.
“When 50 percent of our prison beds are occupied by nonviolent offenders, we have prison overcrowding problems and violent offenders serving shortened sentences, I have a problem with incarceration for possession of marijuana,” he said.
“None of that’s to say I favor free and rampant marijuana use. I don’t think it’s the most serious blight on America.”
Alcohol abuse, he said, is a much more serious issue. President Obama suggested something similar to The New Yorker recently when he said that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol.
But don’t expect pastors to start preaching in line with DeMoss, who said he has not seen much comment from religious leaders on the issue.
“If a pastor said some of what I said, there would be some who would feel the pastor was compromising on a moral issue,” he said. “No one wants to risk looking like they’re in favor of marijuana. I’m not in favor, but I think we should address how high of a priority it should be.”
Both Colorado and Washington state approved the recreational use of marijuana by adults in the 2012 elections. Even Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who found early support among some evangelicals during the 2012 presidential race, has come out supporting the decriminalization of marijuana.
Laws on marijuana have disproportionately impacted minorities, said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
“There are community programs that can better engage young people than incarceration,” he said. “Many black and brown lives are destroyed because of incarceration.”
A majority of Americans now favor legalizing the use of marijuana, according to the most recent polling from the Pew Research Center. In 2013, 52 percent said that the use of marijuana should be made legal while 45 percent said it should not. Among millennials (adults born after 1980), 65 percent favor legalizing marijuana use, up from just 36 percent in 2008.
Most Christians are still reluctant to favor legalization, Rodriguez said, since the effects of marijuana aren’t much different from getting drunk, which is a biblical no-no.
“It has the ability of diluting reason, behavior, putting your guard down,” he said. “We are temples of God’s Holy Spirit, and it has the ability of hindering a clear thought process.”
Some who favor legalized marijuana liken the Christians who oppose it to be like the early 20th-century evangelicals and fundamentalists who supported a federal prohibition on alcohol.
Part of a move in the Republican Party toward a loosening on marijuana legislation could be coming from people who also would sympathize with the Tea Party, said Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
“I definitely think there’s been a coalition of ‘leave us alone’ libertarians and Woodstock nation progressives on this issue of marijuana,” Moore said. “I do think there has been an effort to stigmatize those with concerns as Carrie Nations holding on to prohibition.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has joined a growing group of states that have loosened restrictions on marijuana, planning to allow limited use of the drug by those with serious illnesses. Some leaders, including Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly, have suggested there are medical benefits but do not condone recreational use of marijuana.
Nine states and the District of Columbia have introduced legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use by adults, according to the Daily Beast. Twenty states have passed legislation to allow medical marijuana since 1996, while 16 states have begun to allow the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
But Moore said the analogy between alcohol and marijuana laws don’t hold up.
“Alcohol already had a ubiquitous presence in American society long before prohibition, in ways marijuana has not,” he said, suggesting he could find support for some medical marijuana. “If there were studies demonstrating marijuana is the best treatment for a particular disease and the prescription was tightly regulated the way we do morphine and other mind-altering drugs, yes. That’s not what we have happening in America right now.”
The way to combat substance abuse is to deal with the root issues that are causing the pain in the person’s life that they are trying to numb or escape.
Actually, they taxed it. Whiskey Rebellion put down by George Washington by force.
So, they did exert controls on it.
Also, the danger of riding a horse while drunk is probably not as likely to injure others as is driving a vehicle while drunk.
Texting while not driving is perfectly safe. Banning pot smoking when someone is not driving because they might drive would be akin to banning all texting because someone might text while driving.
I worked on a drug/alcohol ward at Veteran’s Hospital and had a career in the military chaplaincy, my last 6 years in a counseling role.
I think the issue with alcohol abuse is addiction and the inability to kick that addiction.
There is a significant body of literature that points to an addiction to marijuana. More important is the mental issues associated with marijuana use in my opinion.
Nonetheless, in BOTH there is inebriation that ruins normal reflexes during the inebriated period of time. Making laws to prohibit driving under the influence makes perfect sense to me.
I don’t see any argument on my part against texting while not driving.
Substances, however, can legitimately be controlled.
No one under 21 can purchase, purchased only in licensed locations, no operating vehicles while under the influence, etc. Those are all good laws and apply to marijuana as much as to alcohol.
First of all, there’s this passage:
Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
And this one:
Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Rev 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
I point this out because of the word “sorcerers” in each text. That’s the Greek “pharmakeus” meaning “a druggist (“pharmacist”) or poisoner, that is, (by extension) a magician: - sorcerer.” In context, it’s obvious that drug dealing for the purpose of getting high is being condemned to the lake of fire.
In other places in the Bible it’s clear that using any substance to the point that it clouds our faculties is a bad thing.
Pro 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
That’s why they tended to mix their wine with water. They’d get the medicinal effects of the wine, including the disinfection of potentially tainted water, but it would take a lot to cloud their faculties.
"Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established".
You need to stop padding your ignorance. Sorry.
Agreed. You make my point. The Whiskey Rebellion was over taxation levels. It was not over whether it should be prohibited.
Also, the danger of riding a horse while drunk is probably not as likely to injure others as is driving a vehicle while drunk.
Well, yes, but what does that have to do with prohibiting drugs or alcohol? We have laws against DUI for alcohol but alcohol itself is not prohibited.
Suppose you enlighten all of us and explain how the Bible justifies secular prohibition laws, and why the Founders never saw fit to institute it.
A snake handling "evangelist" matches this definition more so than a recreation drug user or drug dealer.
Ken, how much dope do you some?
You can’t even follow your own train of thought.
To those Faith Leaders who Wrestle Over Growing Support for Marijuana:
MARK 9:50
Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves...
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
Samuel Adams disagreed with you.
I agree. Those who use drugs for legitimate medicinal purposes are fine. Those who use them to manipulate people are in danger of God’s judgment.
Those who use them for recreation are probably being manipulated.
There does seem to me to be a recognition that wine in proper amounts is ok...and that some influence of the wine on the physiology was recognized as OK, unless it went to drunkenness. For example, Jesus made wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.
1 Peter 4:3 KJV For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
I have never somed dope in my whole life. Honest.
Most of the people I know who get high, get high because they enjoy getting high. It’s not to quell pain, it’s to get pleasure.
We are a nation born out of rebellion to god then right? I think you are missing the context of "Romans".
Your statement makes no sense unless you think George III qualified as a "good ruler". I don't think many historians would agree with that assessment.
I believe you.
When the Bible condemns witchcraft and sorcery it uses the Greek term pharmakeus. It is where were get our term pharmacy.
Mind altering drugs have always been associated with witchcraft and associated practices and beliefs, and still is.
Your argument here is flawed.The epistle to the Romans is addressed to "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints:" (Ro. 1:7). So the letter was written to the Christians in Rome at that time, not to the Roman citizenry in general.
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