| Aug. 8th, 2012 @ 04:37 am (no subject) |
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Churches are one of the main sources of support for marijuana prohibition. We Christians are DIRECTLY CULPABLE for the suffering of innumerable people who have been ground up like grist for the mill in the drug war and the political machinations thereof. Homes lost in Assets forfeiture, people killed in dynamic entry raids, sick and dying people denied medicine, a society impoverished by loss of a vital industrial crop, and countless people imprisoned for owning a WEED.... a plant so innocuous that it has never, once, in human history caused a human death by overdose.
We are hypocrites. We demand abstinence where God only commanded temperance. We teach our children to see people who consume alcohol or tobacco or cannabis as dirty, dirty sinners, when the apostles and even our own Messiah drank wine freely. And no, it wasn't "grape juice" or "new wine, had almost no alcohol in it" (the popular falsehoods taught in church)... it was strong enough that Jesus and the apostles were accused of being drunkards and winebibbers. The bible does not forbid drink, it forbids drunkenness.* (It also condemns gluttony, yet I am fain to see a Baptist give up their casserole dish or their monthly spaghetti feeds....yes, that was mean. Did it hurt your feelings? Good, that means you're still tender where I poked you.)
We demand that noone do anything to "offend the weaker brethren," and ceaselessly labor to add to the endless list of things that the Weaker Brethren should be offended by. If a weaker brethren is caused to stumble by something innocent we do, then we have failed to teach them the scriptural truth about whatever has "offended" them. We forget
Colossians 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Acts 15:9-11
We remember the legalism but deny the liberty.
The Christian aversion to the legalization of marijuana has even LESS moral or biblical justification than its totalitarian aversion to alcohol. It's safe, it's non addictive, it has innumerable medical benefits for everything from arthritis to alzheimer's.... and it has never once killed anyone.
Unlike the drug war, which has killed countless innocents and turned our justice system and our constitution into swiss cheese.
We are WRONG to support prohibition. We SIN by supporting it.
But you might as well try to wash away the rock of Gibralter by dashing pailfuls of water against it, as try to teach this to the average Christian.
*On the negative side, there are 17 warnings against abusing alcohol, 19 examples of people abusing alcohol, 3 references to selecting leaders, and one verse advocating abstinence if drinking will cause a brother to stumble.
On the positive side, there are 59 references to the commonly accepted practice of drinking wine (and strong drink) with meals, 27 references to the abundance of wine as an example of God's blessing, 20 references to the loss of wine and strong drink as an example of God's curse, 25 references to the use of wine in offerings and sacrifices, 9 references to wine being used as a gift, and 5 metaphorical references to wine as a basis for a favorable comparison. |
rhjunior
