I’ve been a Christian my whole life. Son of an Elder and I was a full-time missionary for 5 years around the world focusing on disaster sites of the likes of Haiti & Japan. Like any Christian in the western world, I was bombarded by the vernacular that demonized this God-given plant my whole life. But the more I researched the political and social history of this plant, never has the lack of intellectual and religious integrity been so apparent in Christianity.
If you do even the most basic elementary-level research about this plant, you would discover that the hatred against this plant was based off of one racist American man named Harry Anslinger who pushed racist policies and literally used the weakness of the American church to drive his message against Cannabis. He created a foundational policy that would not only demonize Mexicans and African-Americans in our nation, but catapulted the war on drugs, aka the war on minorities, for generations. One must not forget that President Nixon personally admitted his war on drugs was racially driven. Anslinger was a self-preservationist who used this harmless drug to not only save himself of a job in the U.S. government, but setup a framework of racism and false incrimination for generations to come. He used top newspapers across the country to push his racist propaganda and fear driven propaganda as newspaper owners loved to put racism and fear into the headlines for sales. (Look up the “Anslinger Gore Files” – a vault of his flagship propaganda stories about Marijuana causing minority individuals to rape and murder across the country). This is horrific and demonic campaign soon fed the prison system and taxation system to the point that science no longer mattered to the American politicians.
As a Christian, since when did ungodly racist driven policies shape our theology of God? How can we as a church accept opioids, and other “legal drugs” that are man-made that have murdered millions from addiction, yet reject a God-made plant that clearly has more benefits than alcohol or opioids combined? More over, how can we as a church lack so much integrity, that we look like foolish sheep preaching from the words of men, instead of the Words of God? I can only imagine the nonsense being blasted from the pulpit when alcohol went through its short-lived prohibition. Did preachers suddenly declare alcohol as the “Devils Juice”? SMH.
It is a travesty and quite offensive to me to see my God being represented in a way that is so Godless. This Man-driven theology needs to stop, and Christians need to think deeper to reflect the Glory of God.
