A Pastoral Concern about Legalized Marijuana

This November 6, there is an issue on the ballot for legalizing recreational use of marijuana.  Full disclosure: I will be voting against it.  I am aware of the various arguments to legalize it, but I remain unconvinced.  Tax revenues should hardly be the trump card in this--unless money is the greatest good.  It is not.  I do not believe that the recreational use of a drug which serves the sole purpose of getting people intoxicated from the first hit is beneficial to society as a whole.  In fact, I think it will prove to be destructive, as it has been shown to be in Colorado.  But I guess if everyone is stoned, no one will care too badly.  (Okay, that was snarky.)  Nonetheless, I believe that Prop 1 is going to pass by a wide margin.  In fact, some are banking on it, already announcing plans to get people all the weed they can handle.  See here, and here, and here.

So, where does the Church stand on this?  How will our message change?

It won't.  God's word does not change, so why should our counsel change?  

Now, it is true that the Bible nowhere uses the word "marijuana."  There are a whole assortment of drugs which go unnamed in the Scriptures.  This is not a proof of God acceptance of marijuana, any more than God is okee-dokee with randomly mowing people down with an AK-47 since AK-47's are not specifically condemned by name in the Bible either.

So, what does the Bible say?  I refer you to the following passages.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?  Who has strife? Who has complaining?  Who has wounds without cause?  Who has redness of eyes?  Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine.Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat....Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.  In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.  Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.  You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.  "They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it.  When shall I awake?  I must have another drink.” (Proverbs 23:20,29-35)

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. (Romans 13:13)

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. (1 Peter 4:3)

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.  I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

I suppose I could hunt down more verses, but if four do not suffice, I doubt even forty would be enough.  

The point in these verses is that God forbids and condemns drunkenness, inebriation, intoxication, or any other similar term.  Anyone who contends that drunkenness is an alcohol issue and not a marijuana issue is working too hard to avoid what Scripture plainly teaches.  Regardless of what substance gets you drunk, high, intoxicated, inebriated, et al., God forbids and condemns such drunkenness.  (NOTE: Some drugs are used for medicinal purposes.  They are not taken for the sole purpose of getting high, although that sometimes is the result.  Still, even these can sometimes become addictive and can destroy people, too.  And if your goal in taking Nyquil is just to get drunk off of it, God condemns your use of Nyquil.)

If Proposition 1 is voted upon favorably by voters and recreational use of marijuana becomes legal in Michigan (which I think will happen), that does not mean God suddenly gives the thumbs up to getting high.  Just because something is legal does not mean it is good or moral.  Abortion is also legal.  Abortion is evil since it is the murder of a child in its mother's womb.  Even though smoking marijuana will likely become legal, it does not mean Christians have to join in or change our testimony.  The verses above still stand, even if the voters reject them.

More and more, the unbelieving world is acting like unbelievers, and the Church more and more looks different than the world it is in.  That's okay.  Jesus said it would be that way.  Jesus has not called us to blend in or to play along with the world.  Our task is to be faithful to the word of God, even when the world votes against it.

When people end up discovering that their high, their buzz, their daze, or their addiction does not give them the peace or relief they have longed for, the Church will still be here to point them to the peace which surpasses all understanding--namely, that Jesus Christ loves sinners and redeems them.  Guilt, shame, doubts, and fears are not taken away by drunkenness.  Only Jesus' promises can do that.  His word endures forever, no matter what the world votes on.