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What's Wrong With Weed?

What's Wrong With Weed?

Local Christians Discuss The Implications of Drug Use

Is smoking the “Devil’s Lettuce” a sin? “Maybe!”

At least that’s the answer strenuously achieved last night through discussion at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church. The modest Anglican Church in North America parish—hidden just south of I- 40 in Sylvan Park—hosted the first of a series of meetings and group discussions focused on applying “Christian theology to controversial and difficult topics,” called What Then Shall We Do?  

The turnout was modest with a mere nine people filling the sanctuary for its introductory meeting, but the hosts still managed the feat of tackling a few nuanced ideas on a subject prone to intense propaganda—that being support for marijuana. 

This was an all too rare feat in a society where any scrutiny of the issue tends to get berated by its supporters. Weed legalization has been a defacto accepted position in contemporary politics for much of both the left and right, with 24 states effectively decriminalizing the drug for recreational use while 47 allow it for medicinal use. Usage of the drug is only increasing, with 44% of adults aged 19–30 admitting to using it regularly in 2022

Conversely, there isn’t much of an anti-weed apparatus in place beyond older politicians showing unwillingness to capitulate on legalization and a few critics raising alarms about its negative side effects, while its advocates regularly declare it a miracle drug with no addictive tendencies or negative externalities. 

Coming from non-puritan Christians (actively sipping on wine during the reception no less), Thursday’s event enjoyed the opportunity to discuss the role of legitimate vices in the Christian life absent the extremes of total prohibition so commonly demanded among Southern Christians. 

Representing the slightly more pro-side of the debate, local engineer and former Lipscomb Adjunct Professor Stephen Collings was the event’s invited guest, and graciously set the tone for his remarks by reassuring the audience that he “spend[s] a lot of time on Reddit.” Graciously, Colling’s arguments were less of a Reddit addict’s cloying than a delve into the nature of virtue ethics and how they apply to issues of vice. 

“What kind of ethical system are we trying to live in?” he asked, suggesting that when one seriously examines the core traditional virtues, “Arguably, I don’t see much interaction” between them and weed. Virtue ethics systems speak quite plainly on many aspects of life, but they often leave grey areas that make it challenging to universally apply to the complexity of the world. Ultimately, he argues, a Christian, with proper self-control, not dependent on the substance, bound by life circumstances to avoid it, and wise in his life decisions may not be immoral in his decision to consume the drug. They must use their judgment. 

On the reverse side, Father Michael Arnold—vicar of Christ our Anchor Mission—carried the dialog with some of the night’s most vital insights, being both a lapsed subject of the Church of Latter Day Saints’s heavy dietary restrictions and an Anglican minister focusing on homelessness and crime. In other words, he has a deep aversion to being told he can’t enjoy his vices but regularly sees firsthand how much they can destroy criminals' lives. 

As he makes clear, Christian tradition has always made many exceptions for the right use of vices with respect to temperance. Using any substance to excess, be it alcohol, tobacco, sugar, nicotine, or drugs, is an abuse of the body due to the effects it has on willpower, be it in the form of addiction or drunkenness. “Strong drink” or the use of mind-altering substances undermines the power of a person to make good judgments. As such, the use of such a substance falls into the responsibility of the user to know when its use undermines one’s responsibilities and duties to oneself. 

However, it must be considered that caffeine, nicotine, sugar, alcohol, and weed aren’t merely natural vices but processed ones. Weed is unique among them in that, unlike the others which are usually only refined for flavor and quality, it is bred for potency. Unlike chocolate, beer, and coffee (with the possible exception of tobacco), marijuana is constantly getting strong, and usually not for good reasons besides “stronger, longer, and quicker highs.”

“Of the traditional vices, we see a history of temperate uses where artisans work creatively to correspond to the value of God and himself in the world,” said Father Michael. “But for these, our starting position is openness because of a history of virtuous Christian use. Modern marijuana started from an unnatural origin, created in a laboratory or factory to maximize positives and minimize negatives. These processes, rather than recognizing the value of God, are living in a false dream world … [made] only for the high and profit.”

As with most things in the Anglican tradition, the dialog was ultimately caught between the historic extremes of “maybe” and “maybe” (being a denomination infamous for not giving definitive answers to tough questions) with neither side committing fully to the premise that drugs can be fully condemned within the context of Christian theology. Both agreed that, in the most formal sense, it’s a sin to break the laws of your state to use the drug in violation of St. Paul’s command to obey civil authorities, but couldn’t pull the trigger on a dogmatic answer to the underlying question. 

Ultimately, both speakers came to agree that the Devil’s Lettuce, despite its name, is not ontologically sinful, as all substances are morally neutral by their existence and become sinful in their usage. Temperance requires an understanding of the intent of usage. But as Father Michael said in his closing statements, he recommends suspicion towards marijuana, consideration toward its purpose and use, the avoidance of highly processed modern strains, and consideration for its general lack of necessity.

Regardless, the conversation was refreshing in an age when being pro-marijuana consumption is taken for granted as the default position for younger generations. It was certainly a good first showing for this discussion series and sets a strong bar going forward for planned future events. Goodness only knows how a conversation like this would’ve gone in the hands of somebody else—two progressive Episcopalians, Methodists, Unitarians, Joe Rogan fans…