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.”
There is an aspect of that, however, most people dealing with addictions and addictive behavior are looking for an escape from the pain. The drugs and alcohol do give the pleasure they are missing.
Those who are emotionally healthy do not need that outlet to cloud their thinking and numb the pain. They enjoy life and get pleasure out of it already without assistance.
What does that have to do with secular prohibition laws? Are those not the province of Caesar?
I didn’t state an opinion, I asked a question. I’m a firm believer in rebelling against evil even if they are rulers.
This is what I mean by your not following your own train of thought.
What was the question you asked? About where in the Bible is drug use condemned.
Your statement makes no sense as Romans13 does not specify good or bad rulers.
Romans 13 (1-7) Every person should obey the government in power. No government would exist if it hadn’t been established by God. The governments which exist have been put in place by God. 2 Therefore, whoever resists the government opposes what God has established. Those who resist will bring punishment on themselves. 3 People who do what is right don’t have to be afraid of the government. But people who do what is wrong should be afraid of it. Would you like to live without being afraid of the government? Do what is right, and it will praise you. 4 The government is God’s servant working for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid. The government has the right to carry out the death sentence. It is God’s servant, an avenger to execute God’s anger on anyone who does what is wrong. 5 Therefore, it is necessary for you to obey, not only because you’re afraid of God’s anger but also because of your own conscience. 6 That is also why you pay your taxes. People in the government are God’s servants while they do the work he has given them. 7 Pay everyone whatever you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay them. If you owe tolls, pay them. If you owe someone respect, respect that person. If you owe someone honor, honor that person.
I’m only a lay person, but I’m greatly concerned about this too.
I fail to see the flaw sorry. While they might be Christian Romans they are still Romans and everything Paul wrote has to be filtered through that context.
Agreed. Wine is obviously not prohibited. The Apostle Paul encouraged its use too:
1Ti 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
It’s wine in excess that’s forbidden.
The word is from “pharmakon” which means “a drug, that is, a spell-giving potion.” It appears to me that all recreational drugs fall into this category. They produce an altered state of consciousness. These “potions” leave their users “spellbound.” That’s why drinking alcohol to drunkenness is also forbidden.
Certainly seems to be the case. Indecision on obvious topics; I can see this for seculars, but then for the clergy!!??
Please bear in mind that Christ and most of the Apostles died at the hands of government. Millions of martyrs through the centuries also died at the hands of government. And they didn’t die because they obeyed the government, but because they disobeyed it. And they were right to disobey those governments.
The bottom line is if we’re faced with obeying men or obeying God, God wins. Even if it means our martyrdom.
So there are profound limitations on Romans 13. We have an affirmative duty to DISOBEY government when government opposes God’s commands.
If our government demands that we say abortion or homosexuality are not sins, for instance, we must refuse that demand, because God says the opposite. At that point the government is doing wrong and we have no obligation to obey it.
Interestingly, because of the First Amendment, if our government were to do such a thing, it would be breaking the supreme law of the land. They’d be criminals, and we have no obligation to kowtow to criminals either. Our Founders were very wise to include such rights into the supreme law of the land.
Being drunk as far as I can see is not forbidden, while being a drunkard is. There is a difference.
I don’t disagree with you in any way. In fact you have stated my very point.
Proverbs 30
6 Let beer be for those who are perishing,
wine for those who are in anguish!
7 Let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.
There are plenty of admonitions against being a drunk but this one makes you pause for a minute.
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