The Bible on Drugs

St. James implored Christians to fix their attention on the “perfect Law of Liberty.” Meanwhile, the United States, a Christian nation, leads the world not in liberty, but in number of prisoners. Not only that, the political party which launched the program of mass incarceration is the major party which most loudly proclaims allegiance to Christ. We have a contradiction.

I am referring, of course, to the War on Drugs began under Nixon, and massively relaunched under Reagan. Since Reagan took office, the total population behind bars has gone up by more than a factor of four. This leaves us with the following question: was St. James’ Law of Liberty some abstract spiritual concept having nothing to do with real world liberty? Or did the Christians who supported the Reagans’ tough crusade against getting high make a mistake, as Pat Robertson recently suggested? If St. James was referring to the Law of Moses, the latter question boils down to this: is smoking marijuana a form of witchcraft?

If so, Christians might have permission to wage a war on drugs, or even a mandate if Christians are supposed to invoke the might of the state to enforce the Law. Whether they are supposed to depends on how you interpret Jesus’ calls for peace, mercy, forgiveness, etc. Elsewhere I make the case that Christians should focus on their own behaviors, that religious freedom is part of the New Covenant – forgiveness from God in return for putting up with sinful neighbors.

But let us put aside the lesson of the Narrow Gate for the moment and be theocrats at least for a time. As Christian theocrats, should we wage the War on Drugs? The answer depends on whether recreational drug use constitutes witchcraft. If it is, then yes, selling recreational drugs should be illegal along with selling ham, bacon, religious icons (idols), or selling anything at all on Saturdays.

On the other hand, if smoking marijuana is not witchcraft, waging a war on this herb is itself a sin, a violation of the Old Testament Law:

For those who think that this particular commandment is obsolete and not applicable to Christians, may I suggest you contemplate these New Testament scriptures:

Notice how Jesus referred to letters of the Law. By Jesus’ time the Pharisees had accumulated a huge body of oral traditions on top of the written Law, traditions which later were written into the Talmud. By way of analogy, consider the difference between the written Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution as currently interpreted by the courts. The difference is enormous. Likewise is the difference between accumulated Jewish traditions and the written Law of Moses, the Law of Liberty. Keep this in mind when looking at New Testament passages deprecating “legalism.” This legalism, by the way, is a violation of the written Law, that is, Deuteronomy 4:2 cited above.

So, is smoking marijuana a form of witchcraft? Or is outlawing marijuana “adding to the Law?”

Marijuana can indeed be used for witchcraft. Over the course of my political activism I have met a fair number of self-proclaimed witches, far more than the average American will encounter. We met because we had a shared interest in ending the Drug War. And yes, they used an assortment of illegal drugs as part of their neo-pagan religion.

But long before I became a serious political activist, I went to a preppy university and witnessed a great many instances of recreational drug use of a most un-magical nature – unless enjoying TV sitcoms to excess or laughing repeatedly at stupid jokes constitutes some sort of demonic invocation.

The history of the War on Drugs makes me doubt it was meant to be a War on Witchcraft. Witchcraft in general is legal. We have that First Amendment thingy. New Age bookstores dot the land. New Age gurus openly sell spells (cf. the Law of Attraction) to the masses by the megabuck. Nancy Reagan herself consulted astrologers even as she promoted mass-incarceration.

I thus suggest that the War on Drugs is not a Christian war, or at least shouldn’t be. It is a violation of the Law of Liberty, and because of this war the United States is no Sweet Land of Liberty. It is a land of persecution, mass imprisonment, homosexual rape, police turned into storm troopers, and gunfire terrifying our poorer neighborhoods. Behold the statistics. See what Nancy Reagan hath wrought:

Number of persons under correctional supervision [source]:

Year	Probation	Jail	Prison	Parole	Total
1980	1,118,097	182,288	319,598	220,438	1,840,400
1985	1,968,712	254,986	487,593	300,203	3,011,500
1990	2,670,234	403,019	743,382	531,407	4,348,000
1995	3,077,861	499,300	1,078,542	679,421	5,335,100
2000	3,826,209	613,534	1,316,333	723,898	6,437,400
2005	4,166,757	740,770	1,448,344	780,616	7,045,100

The Bible on Getting High

Perhaps I cheated. Holding up Nancy Reagan as a negative example is not in itself proof. Perhaps our War on Drugs is a stealth attempt at a War on Witchcraft, wrapped in a veneer of secular reasoning in order to bypass the First Amendment. For better evidence let us consult scripture more deeply, and look at what the Bible has to say about using mind altering chemicals for fun.

So just what does the Bible have to say about recreational drugs? For most drugs, not all that much.

Mandrake, a hallucinogen, gets a couple of mentions, but as an aphrodisiac. No sin is implied. Jacob’s wives use it to bear more children [Genesis 30:14-16]. The Song of Songs gives mandrake a brief mention [7:13] as part of a romantic getaway. (Perhaps there is a translation error, as suggested in this Wikipedia article.)

The anointing oil worn by the priests when serving in the Tabernacle may have included what is now a more popular recreational drug:

Just what was that “sweet-smelling cane” in Exodus 30:23? The King James Version calls it “sweet calamus.” The Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge (window in my copy of E Sword) claims this is a “reed growing in Egypt, Syria, and India, about two feet in height, bearing from the root a knotted stalk, quite round, containing in its cavity a soft white pith. It is said to scent the air while growing; and when cut down, dried, and powdered, makes an ingredient in the richest perfumes.” This same box transliterates the underlying Hebrew words as “kenaih bosem.” Strong’s Concordance has “qa^na^h” for the King James “calamus” and “bes´em” for “sweet-smelling.” If the Hebrew word order is noun-adjective (vs. the English adjective-noun) then you have a phrase which sounds suspiciously like cannabis, the Latin word for marijuana. Whether this was in fact cannabis is controversial even in stoner circles. (See this discussion.)

Even if this was cannabis, however, the passage above does not make a clear case for legal marijuana, were we to run this country as a theocracy. On the contrary, the [possibly] THC containing oil was restricted to priests. Laity who used it were to be “cut off” -- whatever that meant.

The Levitical priesthood, however, was clearly superseded according to the New Testament. The book of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus has taken over the role of high priest:

Exodus 30:30 states that Aaron and his sons were to be anointed, so the priestly oil was not limited to just the high priest. Does anyone else qualify as priest today? Here is what Peter wrote:

Denominations vary on how they interpret this passage. Was Peter addressing all Christians or just the leadership? If the former, these words seem to imply that all Christians are in some sense priests. John had similar words in his opening chapter of Revelations:

And note finally how the veil of the Temple was torn in two when Jesus died [Matthew 27:51]. Mysteries that were limited to a narrow priesthood have been opened up to many.

So perhaps the restrictions on the anointing oil have been lifted. For times of reverent prayer, this oil may be permissible to all Christians.

But what of non-Christians? What of secular uses of cannabis? What of watching Battlestar Galactica while getting stoned?

What of cinnamon toast?

The priestly ointment also contained cinnamon, myrrh, cassia and olive oil. Just because the combination was restricted to religious ceremony, does that mean the individual ingredients were restricted?

My analysis is admittedly ambiguous. I do hope I have inspired some humility on the part of drug warriors here – especially those who call for treating the body as a temple [1 Corinthians 3:16]. The anointing oil in question was sprinkled about the original Temple. Clearly “sweet cane,” whatever it was, did not defile the Temple.

When faced with ambiguity, I suggest that Christians should default to forgiveness of others regardless of how they discipline themselves. Jesus had many good things to say about the merciful. Putting people in cages for decades for getting high or selling the means to do so is not merciful. (Sending those who clearly cannot handle their high to forced rehab may be another matter. And since drug abuse is far more detectable than responsible use, you don’t need a police state to carry out such a policy.)

For purely recreational uses of mind-altering drugs, the Bible has little to say, save for one drug: alcohol. On that subject the Bible says a great deal! Perhaps we should look at what the Bible says about alcohol as a model for dealing with recreational drugs in general. I intended to conclude this chapter with coverage of the subject of alcohol, but I am already past 2000 words, and I could easily add another 2000 just quoting the Bible on alcoholic beverages.