Conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist churches in Florida are rejoicing and thanking God that Amendment 3 on the Florida ballot to legalize the recreational use of marijuana was rejected by Florida voters. Although a majority of people in Florida did vote in favor of the amendment, it needed to receive a 60% supermajority to be approved.
The ballot summary of Amendment 3 read:
Allows adults 21 years or older to possess, purchase, or use marijuana products and marijuana accessories for non-medical personal consumption by smoking, ingestion, or otherwise; allows Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers, and other state licensed entities, to acquire, cultivate, process, manufacture, sell, and distribute such products and accessories. Applies to Florida law; does not change, or immunize violations of, federal law. Establishes possession limits for personal use. Allows consistent legislation. Defines terms. Provides effective date.
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Florida voters approved legalizing medical marijuana in 2016 after rejecting it the first time it was on the ballot.
More than 140 measures appeared on state ballots alongside races for president and top state offices. In addition to Florida, recreational marijuana was on the ballot in North and South Dakota for the third time but failed to pass. In Nebraska, voters approved the legalization of the medical use of marijuana.
This means that the recreational use of marijuana remains legal in 24 states and the District of Columbia and the medical use of marijuana is now legal in 39 states, the District of Columbia, and the other U.S. territories of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Regardless of what state they are in, conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist churches can be counted on to oppose marijuana ballot initiatives, and especially initiatives to legalize the recreational use of marijuana like those that failed in Florida and North and South Dakota. Likewise, most members of these churches can be counted on to oppose marijuana ballot initiatives, and again, especially initiatives to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Most church members, but not all, although I suspect that most of those who voted in favor of such ballot initiatives would not make their vote known publicly, at least around their fellow congregants.
So, why do conservative Christians oppose ballot initiatives to legalize, for medical or recreational use, marijuana?
Regarding medical marijuana, religious people would generally say that they oppose its legalization because its medical benefits have been exaggerated and because most of the people that would use it for “medical reasons” just want to legally get high. I am not sure of their first point but I think they are correct on the second.
Regarding recreational marijuana, religious people would generally say that they oppose its legalization because it is harmful, addictive, potentially destructive, and/or immoral. As a theological and cultural conservative, on this they will get no argument from me.
None of this has anything to do with the real issue.
The real issue has nothing to do with the benefits of medical marijuana or the motive of medical marijuana users. The real issue has nothing to do with the physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual effects of marijuana. The real issue has nothing to do with anyone growing, buying, selling, or using marijuana at all.
The real issue is the proper role of government.
Is it or is it not the proper role of government to prohibit, regulate, restrict, or otherwise control what a man desires to buy, sell, grow, process, transport, manufacture, advertise, use, or possess or what a man desires to eat, drink, smoke, inject, absorb, snort, sniff, inhale, swallow, or otherwise ingest into his mouth, nose, veins, or lungs?
It is a yes or no question.
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Unfortunately, most conservative Christians will answer in the affirmative. Why? Because they have failed. They have failed to convince those outside of their churches to not use marijuana. So, because they have failed, they are seeking to use the power of the government to force people not to use marijuana by threatening them with fines and imprisonment or to make it very difficult for people to legally use marijuana. This is why conservative Christians oppose ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana.
Since there are no principles in the Bible that would mandate or suggest to Christians that they use the force of government to prevent people from doing something just because they don’t like it, conservative Christians should listen to the wisdom of the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises:
A free man must be able to endure it when his fellow men act and live otherwise than he considers proper. He must free himself from the habit, just as soon as something does not please him, of calling for the police. He who wants to reform his countrymen must take recourse to persuasion. This alone is the democratic way of bringing about changes. If a man fails in his endeavors to convince other people of the soundness of his ideas, he should blame his own disabilities. He should not ask for a law, that is, for compulsion and coercion by the police.
Regardless of how they personally feel about marijuana, conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians should be the first to support marijuana ballot initiatives and the last to use the power of the government to force people to behave in a certain way.
