At the
church where I serve we are in the midst of a sermon series entitled “Vote for
Jesus”. During this series, our hope and our prayer is to accomplish three
specific goals. First, our hope and our prayer is to demonstrate that Jesus is
not a republican and Jesus is not a democrat. Instead, Jesus is God and as God
Jesus is the one that we are to place our hope in, not a political party.
Second, our hope and our prayer is to equip and empower us to think critically
and Biblically when it comes to the issues that our culture is faced with that often
find themselves expressed in the political process. And third, our hope and
prayer is to provide a framework from the message and teachings of Jesus when
it comes to how we as followers of Jesus are to engage in the government and in
the political process in way that reveals and reflects Jesus to those around
us.
This week, I would like for us to address the issue of marijuana.
Specifically, I would like for us to ask and answer the question “What policies
would Jesus promote when it comes to the issue of the legalization of marijuana?
Would Jesus promote the legalization of marijuana, or would Jesus promote the
prohibition of marijuana?”
Over the past ten years, there has been a rapid move in
our culture to legalize marijuana. Four states have legalized marijuana for
recreational use, and twenty five states have passed laws legalizing medical
marijuana. At one end of the conversation when it comes
to the issue of the legalization of marijuana are politicians and others who
advocate for the legalization of marijuana. The arguments for the legalization
of marijuana are summarized quite well by the New York Times Editorial Board,
who, in 2014 wrote an editorial advocating for the legalization of marijuana.
The board provided six reasons why they believe that marijuana should be
legalized.
First,
proponents of legalization believe that the prohibition of marijuana has had enormous
social costs, including the needless incarceration of otherwise non violent
offenders, which costs 3.6 billion dollars per year. Second, proponents of
legalization believe that the benefits of the criminalization of marijuana are
minuscule to nonexistent. Third, proponents of legalization believe that the
prohibition of marijuana is racist, and is “firmly rooted in prejudices against
Mexican immigrants and African Americans, who were associated with marijuana
use at the time.” The editorial board argued that the word “marijuana” was
popularized as a way to associate the plant with Mexicans. In addition,
according to the ACLU, while whites and blacks use marijuana at roughly the
same rates, blacks are 3.7 times more likely than whites to be arrested for
possession.
Fourth,
proponents of legalization believe that marijuana has legitimate medical
effects, including the treatment of epilepsy, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease and
muscle spasms related to multiple sclerosis, along with pain from AIDS, nausea
from chemotherapy, and a host of other conditions. Fifth, proponents of
legalization believe that the legalization of marijuana won’t lead to increased
use as legal substances can be controlled in ways illegal ones cannot. And
sixth, proponents of legalization argue that marijuana is less harmful than
alcohol or tobacco. Proponents for legalization argue that Marijuana is less
addictive than tobacco or alcohol, and compares favorably to those drugs on
nearly every health metric. The Times proclaimed that “Casual use by adults
poses little or no risk for healthy people. Its effects are mostly euphoric and
mild, whereas alcohol turns some drinkers into barroom brawlers, domestic
abusers or maniacs behind the wheel.”
On the
other end of the conversation when it comes to the issue of the legalization of
marijuana are politicians and others who are opposed to the legalization of
marijuana. Those who are opposed to the legalization of marijuana provide five
reasons for their opposition. First,
those who are opposed to the legalization of marijuana maintain that marijuana
is extremely addictive for some people. They cite those who work with
individuals who suffer from addiction, who argue that when people are addicted
to cannabis, cocaine and alcohol, the drug they have the most difficult time giving
up is the cannabis.
Second, those who are opposed to the legalization of
marijuana point out that the experimentation of legalization of marijuana has
failed miserably when tried in other countries. For example, after legalizing
marijuana nationwide, Amsterdam became the first city in the Netherlands to ban
students from smoking marijuana at school. In addition, contrary to the claims
that legalizing marijuana would reduce crime, in Amsterdam it’s been found that
crime is now centering around the coffeehouses where marijuana is sold.
Third,
those who argue against the legalization of marijuana point out that marijuana
is terrible for a person’s mental health. For evidence, proponents for
prohibition point to a recent Northwestern University study that found that
marijuana users have abnormal brain structure and poor memory and that chronic
marijuana abuse may lead to brain changes resembling schizophrenia. The study
also reported that the younger the person starts using marijuana, the worse the
effects become. Fourth, those who are
opposed to legalization of marijuana argue that Marijuana is terrible for your
physical health, including increased rates of lung cancer and sterility.
And
fifth, opponents to the legalization of marijuana argue that marijuana decimates
many people's lives: Opponents point to a study of 129 college students that found
that among those who smoked the drug at least twenty-seven of the thirty days
before being surveyed, critical skills related to attention, memory and
learning were seriously diminished. A study of postal workers found that
employees who tested positive for marijuana had 55% more accidents, 85% more
injuries and a 75% increase in being absent from work. In Australia, a study
found that cannabis intoxication was responsible for 4.3% of driver fatalities.
Now,
with all that background in mind, let’s take a look at what the message and
teachings of Jesus have to say when it comes to the issue legalization of
marijuana. Specifically, what do the letters that make up the Bible reveal
about marijuana? There are those who advocate for the legalization of marijuana
that point to Genesis 1:29 and Genesis 9:3 as evidence that supports their
view. So let’s take a minute and look at these verses. In Genesis 1:29, God
states the following:
Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed
that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit
yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
In
addition in Genesis 9:3, we see God state:
Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you,
as I gave the green plant.
Proponents
for the legalization of marijuana often point to these verses and basically say
“What about when the Bible states that God has created herbs and plants for
eating and healing. Just as God gave every moving thing that is alive for food,
God gave every plant as food.” When
people use these verses as evidence that God promotes the legalization of
marijuana, here is my response. “So you take these verses to mean that you can
eat every green plant? Okay, if you believe that God is telling you that you
can eat every green plant, do you eat poison ivy? Do you eat oleanders? How
about hemlock? Or Jimson weed? You don’t? Why not? Well, because they are
poisonous, they are bad for me?”
You
see, not every leaf or green plant is for eating, smoking, or healing. Another
argument from the Bible that is used by proponents of the legalization of marijuana
involves Exodus 30:22-23. Here is what God commanded the Jewish people when it
came to making the holy anointing oil that was to be used in the worship of the
Lord:
Moreover, the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Take also for yourself the
finest of spices: of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, two hundred and
fifty, and of fragrant cane two hundred and fifty,
Proponents
of the legalization of marijuana point to the phrase fragrant cane as being a
mistranslation of the Hebrew word kaneh-bosen, or cannabis. They base this
belief on the work of a single anthropologist named Sula Benet in the 1930’s.
However, there are a couple of things to note here. First, there is only one
anthropologist that has made this claim. And while this claim is mentioned in
scholarly literature, the vast majority of scholarship does not support his
claim.
Second,
while this ingredient was mentioned in the making of the anointing oil, this
ingredient is not mentioned in Exodus 30:34 for the making of the holy incense that
would be used in the tabernacle or the Temple. In other words, even if this
ingredient was indeed cannabis, which I am extremely hesitant to support, this
mixture was an oil to be placed on one’s skin, not something to be ingested or
smoked.
Besides
these verses, there is no mention in the letters that make up the Bible of
marijuana. There is no command in the letters that make up the Bible that
address marijuana specifically. However, there are three principles that we can
draw upon from the letter that make up the Bible that help us to shed light on
what Jesus would hold to when it comes to the issue of the legalization of
marijuana.
Tomorrow,
we will begin to discover these principles…
No comments:
Post a Comment