Does God Care About Cannabis?

I saw this story in the news a few days ago on God and the war on cannabis. I was happy to hear it.

It is refreshing to hear spiritual leaders speaking out against vilifying marijuana as immoral. As a nice little side note, this story also threads a thin line of connectivity between Pat Robertson (who semi-recently came out with a similar message about marijuana) and an African American Reverend, two groups that have not been historically aligned.

Rev. John Jackson, TUCC – Gary

Rev.  John Jackson of Gary, Indiana’s Trinity United Church of Christ stated, “I have had several people share with me privately, ‘Reverend, I smoke weed and I know I shouldn’t.’ I say, ‘Let me stop you right there. I don’t believe the God we serve is that small or petty to be concerned about you smoking weed. I don’t think God cares about that.’ I let them know that our God is too big to be concerned about somebody smoking a joint.”

I am certainly not going to use my webspace here to preach religion or pretend to know with any certainty what is going on behind the veil of reality, but I do believe that the good reverend is on the right track. A being that we acclaim with the power of spontaneous creation and an ability to wrench an entire cosmos into existence is really going to keep a cannabis ledger on some poor schmuck like me? I doubt it.

At least in my imaginings, God is not a dickhead Applebee’s manager keeping tabs on each of us. At best, God is a loving entity who encourages kindness, peace and togetherness (sound like being stoned anyone?). At worst, God is an indifferent prime mover and we are as irrelevant as dandruff to him/it. Or perhaps the Atheists have it right.  In any case, weed doesn’t seem to register as much of a concern.

Oddly enough this reminded me of a book I read wherein a group of scientists and philosophers had a meeting with the Dalai Lama. One of the guests asked his Holiness about what Buddhism thought about masturbation. The Lama laughed and said there was nothing immoral about it; the only negative aspect was that it was a distraction from striving to attain enlightenment.

I’ll admit there are times when I have been really high and gone into a little Catholic shame spiral about what I should be doing with my time instead. But it has never been about morality, just a hyper-tuned need to be productive.

As a teenager my mom tried to hit me with “what would Jesus think of you smoking pot?”  To mother’s chagrin, I still believe what I believed then. WWJD? Probably either not give a shit or light it for you.

Ok, I’m hopping off my soap box now, but it is pretty cool to even be seeing this type of stuff make national news. Viva la revolucion! Share your thoughts, friends.