In the recent midterm election, voters in 37 states also had the option of deciding on 132 statewide ballot measures. Five of those ballot measures were related to marijuana. Two of them passed.
Recreational marijuana is now legal in Missouri and Maryland, bringing the total number of states where it is legal to 21. In 14 of those states, recreational marijuana was legalized via a ballot measure. Ballot measures to legalize the recreational use of marijuana failed to pass in Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Medical marijuana has been legalized in 37 states. In 18 of those states, medical marijuana was legalized via a ballot measure.
The question before us then is this: Should Christians vote for marijuana legalization? Should they vote for the legalization of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana, should they vote for just the legalization of medical marijuana, or should they vote against all marijuana ballot initiatives?
Most Christians vote. Although I am a Christian, I don’t vote, which puts me in the minority. In some conservative churches, voting is almost looked upon as being in the church’s statement of faith—as long as one votes Republican.
Conversely, most Christians don’t use marijuana—and especially for recreational purposes. I don’t use marijuana for medical or recreational purposes, which puts me in the majority. However, I don’t think marijuana should be illegal, which not only puts me in the minority, it makes me a heretic in some circles.
When I say that most Christians vote and that most Christians don’t use marijuana, I mean most Christians, whether liberal or conservative, Catholic or Protestant, evangelical or mainline, or progressive or fundamentalist.
So, if most Christians vote, and most Christians don’t use marijuana, then it seems intuitive that most Christians would not vote for marijuana legalization.
They should.
Christians should vote for marijuana legalization even if they don’t use marijuana, would never use marijuana, don’t want anyone to ever use marijuana, judge that marijuana has no medical value whatsoever, think that marijuana is unhealthy, dangerous, and deadly, and believe that marijuana use is a sin.
Some observations—
First of all, Christians who rail against marijuana legalization and keep silent about alcohol legalization are colossal hypocrites. It is alcohol that is an unhealthy, dangerous, and deadly gateway drug, as I have pointed out many times, most recently here and here. Yet, I suspect that only a small percentage of Christians who would readily vote against marijuana legalization would ever vote to re-institute Prohibition.
Second, it is not the business of government to keep people from harming themselves, as I have explained here.
Third, it is not the business of government to make illegal the possession of any substance that it deems it to be harmful, hazardous, immoral, addictive, unhealthy, destructive, unsafe, or dangerous, as I have explained here.
Fourth, it is not the business of government to criminalize private, peaceful activity that does not violate the personal or property rights of others, as I have explained here.
And fifth, it is not the business of government to tell anyone what to do with their body, as I have explained here.
No one should have to vote to legalize marijuana. Freedom should be the default position. But since it isn’t, and since Americans sometimes have the opportunity to vote for some expansion of freedom, Christians who vote should vote for freedom, even for freedom that they themselves don’t want to exercise.
