Can Christians use Marijuana for recreation?

June 21, 2001 2:24 PM

Can Christians use Marijuana for recreation?
In 1Cor 6:12 Paul writes:
"Everything is permissible for me--but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me--but I will not be mastered by anything." So, does that mean that Christians can use marijuana recreationally, as long as they are not mastered by it? This paper looks at the issue from many angles and should provide good fodder for both sides of the pot debate. Personally, I think God would not have put cannabis on the earth if we were not to smoke it.
[found on 4twenty.net]
posted by DragonBoy (18 comments total)

There are a lot of things God put on earth that we probably shoudn't smoke. Poison ivy, tobacco, babies, etc.

But I don't think he put things here specifically. Given how short human existence has been: I think he got the ball rolling, payed attention for aeons, and is currently either blinking or on a coffee break.
posted by skyline at 2:37 PM on June 21, 2001

It is recorded that He turned water into wine but if He ever turned cabbage into ganga nobody thought it was worth writing down. But saints can pull off miracles too. Are there any Jamaican saints yet?
posted by jfuller at 2:45 PM on June 21, 2001

Heh.
I'm all for legalization and all, but that's reaching.

Would Chong then become a saint?
posted by dong_resin at 3:15 PM on June 21, 2001

Love Thy God, Love your neigbor as yourself - As long as any action isn't contradictory to those two rules, you can't say Christ was against it.
posted by revbrian at 3:27 PM on June 21, 2001

damnit skyline, i almost hosed my monitor in orange soda.

DON'T SMOKE THE BABIES! DON'T SMOKE THE BABIES!
posted by jcterminal at 5:30 PM on June 21, 2001

Of course not. Why would it conceiveably be a sin if you aren't (1) hurting someone else, (2) under its control, or (3) using it as an escape from your religious duties?
posted by daveadams at 8:02 PM on June 21, 2001

God made plutonium == God digs nukes

At first glance I thought that read: God digs nugs.
posted by brittney at 8:37 PM on June 21, 2001

Yet more incontrovertible evidence. Spark up, y'all.
posted by solistrato at 9:17 PM on June 21, 2001

Fortunately, Jesus didn't mind a drink.
posted by lagado at 10:59 PM on June 21, 2001

water to wine? jesus was a hit at them parties...

david cross: "hey, we've got some shrubs out here, could you ah... nevermind. nevermind."
posted by jcterminal at 11:34 PM on June 21, 2001

Skyline said: "There are a lot of things God put on earth that we probably shoudn't smoke. Poison ivy, tobacco, babies, etc."

Well I'll give you the poison ivy and babies part, but tobacco..? Part of the problem with today's tobacco isn't solely that it's tobacco. It's processed tobacco with a gunk of additives.

Long before the White Man came over on the Mayflower and started lying and cheating and killing native americans for over 200 years, the native americans were smokin' tobacco. They were doing fine. Thing was though they didn't smoke it ALL the time. Usually it was saved for special occasions. Nowadays we pack-or-more-a-day smokers are just askin' for trouble.

I mean if you drive your car in an area that's not got a lot of dust and mud, you can go perhaps weeks without washing it. However if you drive it a lot under caustic weather conditions in messy terrain, you're gonna have a much messier car. Same difference here. If you smoke, or drink, or toke, or whatever, in moderation, it ain't gonna kill you. Do anything too much and it will.

Recently someone did a series of tests using tobacco that was nicotene free, and smokers still enjoyed the cigarettes. Granted that's more processing of the tobacco, but my point is the tobacco itself is not evil. It's what people choose to do with it that makes it good or bad for ya.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:06 AM on June 22, 2001

'Naturalness' versus the 'Chemical' highs of drugs like Heroin or L.S.D.

Oh, THC isn't a chemical now? The only thing really wrong with manufactured drugs is the the quality, if Bristol-Meyers Squibb made acid you'd bet your ass it would be great.

From what I read about from the "anti" section it just looks like guilt over breaking the law. I guess no one told these fine religious folks that legal does not equal moral. Also, most of those if not all of the other concerns apply to alcohol.
posted by skallas at 6:54 AM on June 22, 2001

paul's quote about "everything... yada yada" comes from somebody who at one time killed and persecuted lots of jews, remember?

Technically correct. Paul persecuted and jailed some of the Jews who had converted to Christianity, because he was a zealous Jew himself. Then Paul converted, and had arguments with Jews, but no longer had any power to persecute them. Just the opposite; Paul was persecuted by some of the Jewish leaders.
posted by straight at 7:41 AM on June 22, 2001

'Naturalness' versus the 'Chemical' highs of drugs like Heroin or L.S.D.

is there a difference between 'chemical' and 'Chemical'?
posted by tolkhan at 9:13 AM on June 22, 2001

Recently someone did a series of tests using tobacco that was nicotene free, and smokers still enjoyed the cigarettes.

University of Michigan, I believe. One wonders how much of their enjoyment comes from the Pavlovian conditioning reinforced with every real puff.
posted by skyline at 11:06 AM on June 22, 2001