cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Methodism
function share_this(num) {
 tit=encodeURIComponent('Marijuana Methodism');
 url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/27/thread27136.shtml');
 site = new Array(5);
 site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500');
 return false;
}






Marijuana Methodism
Posted by CN Staff on October 19, 2012 at 05:56:52 PT
By Mark Tooley
Source: American Spectator
Colorado is voting in November on whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use. It's already permissible for ostensible medical reasons. Naturally many traditional religious leaders are opposing Amendment 64. But the Huffington Post quotes a United Methodist minister who supports a pot friendly Colorado. "How we punish people and what we punish them for are central moral questions," explained Rev. Bill Kirton, who is identified by HuffPo as being with Denver's United Methodist church, though the article doesn't explain which one. "If a punishment policy fails to meet its objectives and causes harms to humans, I believe we have a moral obligation to support change."
Building on his argument that legalizing marijuana is a moral cause meriting clergy support, Rev. Kirton declared: "Our laws punishing marijuana use have caused more harm than good to our society and that is why I am supporting replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of strict regulation with sensible safeguards." And Rev. Kirton sermonized: "As we seek to teach compassion and love, it seems inconsistent to support, in cases of private personal adult marijuana possession, the use of police, guns, and courts." After all, he said, "The faith community, parents, peers, and educators are the appropriate institutions in society to address this kind of personal behavior." Actually, although unmentioned in HuffPo, Rev. Kirton does not evidently pastor a church and is apparently retired from active ordained ministry. According to the group's website, he currently works for the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center, whose mission is to promote the "employee-ownership model as an important business option." The group advocates "'shared capitalism' as a viable alternative to conventional notions of free enterprise." And it espouses "democracy as an alternative to corporate rule." Previously Rev. Kirton worked for the Interfaith Alliance, which is a Religious Left group founded in the 1990s to combat the Religious Right. Rev. Kirton is among a group of about two dozen clergy publicly endorsing Colorado marijuana legalization. Almost all the signers are Unitarians or liberal Mainline Protestants. Nearly one third are United Methodist pastors. It's probably safe to assume that none of them preside over any of Colorado's larger congregations. There are also several Jewish rabbis, but no Catholic or Orthodox clergy. "I do not support smoking pot. I do not like the stuff," Rev. Kirton told the Associated Press, which identified him as a retired minister. "But the harm it does is much less than sending more and more people to prison. And I think it's time to legalize marijuana." The AP reported Kirton "chuckled that many of his former parishioners had probably tried marijuana." But he lamented that most clergy find it difficult publicly to address marijuana legalization. "A lot of pastors are, because of the toxic nature of current politics, they're hesitant to speak out on issues," Kirton told AP. "I think there's some hesitancy to speak out, but I think most of my peers would agree with me." In its official policy statements, the United Methodist Church urges "abstinence from the use of any illegal drugs," which are cited as factors in "crime, disease, death, and family dysfunction." Another church statement describes "marijuana as a "precursor to the use of other drugs" and urges abstinence from it unless legally prescribed for a medical condition. Although it supports "strong, humane law-enforcement efforts against the illegal sale of all drugs," apparently there's no specific denominational official stance for or against actual legalization. The absence of a stance is a little surprising, as Methodists were the original Prohibitionists. Undoubtedly most United Methodists would be a little stunned by one of their clergy publicly pushing for marijuana legalization. Both the AP and HuffPo stories cited mostly evangelical clergy who are opposing Amendment 64 in Colorado. About 10 pastors spoke at an anti-legalization press conference this week. "Is this really what we want for children? I don't think it is," said one Denver pastor, according to AP, which described the ministers citing Colorado's 12 years as a medical marijuana state with dire consequences. "We help folks with a medical marijuana card and have seen it being abused," complained one pastor in the AP story. "We've seen it end up in the hands of children." Some of the quotes from anti-legalization clergy emphasize God's disapproval of mind-altering drugs. The liberal clergy supporting Amendment 64 seem not to dispute the inadvisability of mind-altering drugs but think regulation of them like alcohol might more effectively control their use. The traditional clergy are on stronger ground when citing the already experienced abuse of medical marijuana laws. Stronger theological insights into what the civil state could and should ban versus regulate would be helpful. Much of the pro-legalization side assumes a pseudo-libertarian perspective that wants law enforcement out of "personal" life. Clergy who believe in creating a more just and godly society need to argue for maintaining a healthy common culture of mutual responsibility that guards against vice without exceeding the state's proper vocation. Meanwhile, fiery old Methodist prohibitionists, from their dry heavenly mansions, may now be fretting over Rev. Kirton and his Colorado United Methodist clergy colleagues who've endorsed Amendment 64. Source: American Spectator Magazine (US)Author: Mark TooleyPublished: October 19, 2012Copyright: 2012 The American SpectatorWebsite: http://www.spectator.org/Contact: correspondence spectator.orgURL: http://drugsense.org/url/37wGQjnqCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help 
     
     
     
     




Comment #6 posted by museman on October 29, 2012 at 16:45:53 PT
Runruff #1 - One description of a possibility
And it all takes place in a mythical place called "Jefferson."
Ecotopia
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by FoM on October 29, 2012 at 14:30:43 PT
Hope
Very scary. I have been watching the Weather Channel on and off all day. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by Hope on October 29, 2012 at 14:24:36 PT
East Coast Braces as Sandy Strengthens
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204840504578086290411855054.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Hope on October 29, 2012 at 14:19:26 PT
This storm.... Sandy...
is very scary. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Swazi-X on October 19, 2012 at 14:56:46 PT:
Cannabis Is Gift From God
Cannabis is the Tree of Life from the Bible.Science supports this - there is no more miraculous plant on earth when it comes to easing symptoms and outright curing disease. How can any religious leader denounce a child of God for using one of the natural "herbs bearing seed" the Creator has given us - as is clearly told in every version of the Bible?How can anyone who believes the Bible is the word of God not believe what God has directly said to us in such clear and unambiguous language?To support a position that denies the very word of God is to support Satan. You can't just believe the convenient parts of the word of God if it truly is the word of God, right?Blasphemers!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by runruff on October 19, 2012 at 08:30:45 PT
100 years of hemp?
I wish I had a snap shot of the future after 100 years of legal hemp all over the planet. Maybe this is the premise for a move? I can imagine what the future would be like but I am guessing most people have not given it that much thought?If we could show people the world with green fuel, redistribution of power and wealth, wonderful nutritious food made from hemp seed, spirulina, chlorella, royal jelly.There are so many good and healthful things out there we should be using and hemp is the number one.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment