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Recreational Drugs and a Christian Worldview
Posted : 16 Jul, 2010 07:21 PM
Recreational drugs and a Christian World-view
First off, we are told to obey the laws of the place we live in.
We are told to do this to be good examples, and so that if anyone does have anything to say against us, it would be because we live an exemplary life. The apostle Paul taught this clearly, and so if anyone disagrees I can post chapter and verse on this.
We are always bound by love more than anything, and that should be our first consideration.
Secondly, This is an emotional issue for roughly half of us.
We have prejudices, in other words judging some recreational drug we have no real knowledge of, and we probably have some one we know, and maybe even care about, who has hurt themselves or others, because they became addicted to a drug. Which leads me to my next point.
The undisputed heavy-weight champ of recreational drugs is Alcohol.
If you are the typical good ole' boy, and you don't even like alcohol being called a drug, you really need to read this post, get mad, and then hopefully grow up concerning this issue. I know PLENTY of elderly types who are taking multiple prescription drugs, and are buzzed half the time they are awake, and yet they would look down their noses at anyone smoking Cannabis. It is hypocritical, and I have no respect for that at all. Getting high is getting high, no matter if you take pills your doctor gave you, or you slam down a whole pot of coffee in the morning. If you do it because you like the effect, you are doing a recreational drug.
A recreational drug is ANY substance that is taken into the body in ANY WAY, to achieve an effect that you find enjoyable in ANY way.
Got that? For the first 20 years after the Europeans discovered sugar, it was considered a recreational drug. They put it in their tea and coffee, and it not only gave the drink a better taste, but they were aware of the effect of sugar by itself also, and they knew it gave their drink a bigger "kick".
So, back to the number one recreational drug throughout history, The mighty and powerful, king Alcohol.
Notice that the Bible makes a distinction between using alcohol in moderation, and getting drunk.
The Bible allows alcohol in moderation and forbids drunkeness.
So that is a principle we should remember.
Jesus first recorded miracle in the Gospels is turning water into wine after the wedding guests had drank all the wine.
Jesus kept the party going on!!! So, to answer Cathy's question: "God putting certain plants down here for us to use to open our consciousness & draw closer to Him? The question was: Did He, or are they just for medicinal use only?"
I think God put them here for both reasons, with the medicines, of course, being more important.
Jesus was also accused of being a glutton and a drunkard, which at least means he had a drink or two with people in public on more than one occasion.
So, that means that God does not forbid all recreational drug use.
for some of you that will be hard to accept, but what other conclusion can you draw from Jesus' own example?
That being said, we are still under the rule that we should obey the laws of the nation we live in, unless they contradict God's laws.
So, in the US for example, at the moment concerning recreational drug use, we are limited to what we can use to
"take a trip and never leave the farm". I have said a couple of times that my idea is that we should take the top ten recreational drugs used by Americans, legal and illegal, and use Alcohol as a benchmark.
I think we have historically agreed that Alcohol IS the benchmark, so that is why I picked it.
And ANY of the top ten that are not as damaging as alcohol should be legalized for adults.
And ANY of the top ten that are MORE damaging than alcohol should remain illegal.
I think this would lower the crime rate for recreational drugs because you would be giving the American people about 5 more ways to relax and get away from their problems for a while. As it is right now, we have people who won't smoke Cannabis, which is mild and a misdemeanor, because you can smell it on you, and instead they will go into a bathroom and snork something that is highly addictive and a felony!
That is not good, and it is just unwise regulation.
Myself personally, I drink beer, and I do this on Friday/Saturday/Sunday night. I limit myself to this, because I know myself and that is as long as my leash can be. I also take the recreational drug known and iced Tea. I drink this almost every morning and it helps me to get moving in the morning. I will smoke a cigar about twice a year.
I do not take any illegal drugs, any prescription drugs, but maybe once a year if I have a very bad cold I will take over the counter cold medication.
Since every body liked the wack-job website I posted last week here is another one on recreational drugs and the Bible:
http://www.cannabisculture.com/backissues/cc11/christ.html
Now, alcohol is a tough subject because SO many sins stem FROM the sin of drunkenness!!
If you go to any prison, you will find an extremely high percentage of crimes were committed WHILE the person was drunk.
I can tell you I have been around drunkenness my ENTIRE life.
When I was a little boy, we would throw rocks at the drunks sitting out in back of the liquor store. They would be sitting on crates drinking hard liquor every morning as we walked to school.
I lived two houses down from a man, who sat on his from porch in diapers and mumbled to himself all day. He had a big clear bottle next to him, with markings on the bottle like it was from a laboratory. When I got older, I found out that he was a retired military officer, who had alcoholic dimensia. He literally drank his sanity away!
I lived one block from a liquor store, and one of the roughest bars in town. I have seen the effects of drunkenness and alcohol addiction from my early childhood. If you had someone you are related to, do terrible things, and was always drunk, you will probably never drink, and NEVER think that drinking is ever okay. I can understand that. Just smelling it might bring back a flood of bad memories. I empathize with your situation.
It can be tough as a Christian to see this issue clearly, but like all things, we have to look at what Scripture says, and follow that instead of our emotions, and personal tendencies.
I don't think that most Christians see this issue clearly, because they have never really sat down and just studied this issue.
It would be nice to see the entire list of Scriptures on this subject. I think it would be eye-opening for most of us.
I just posted an article called "What does the Bible say about doing drugs?"
It has plenty of good scriptures in it, although the author is a bit more strict on the subject than I am.
Cathy also asked if some recreational drugs could be used to bring us closer to God. That is a tough question.
One one hand, when I was 17-19, I fell for the whole "hallucenogenics will make you more intelligent, creative, etc" routine.
It was a lie. I read "The green door" "the doors of perception" Carlos Casteneda, and of course, Timothy Leary.
After taking their advice.....repeatedly........I can tell you that it was just plain fun and that it is possible that really bright people get an extra kick out of it. But, what they were saying about it being anything other than fun, Is just total baloney.
And let's remember these were spiritually DEAD people, so for them, NOTHING will "bring them closer to God".
So, I totally reject that hallucenogenics will make you more spiritual in ANY way. Now, for the Christian, that is where I don't quite know what to say! Christians will use ANYTHING to get closer to God. They will listen to songs, and change the lyrics, or pretend the lyrics say something else, and wha la! it is now a "worship tune"! Christians can look at the clouds in the sky and love God more because they know who MADE the clouds in the sky. So, my guess is that CERTAIN drugs MIGHT put a true Christian in a state of mind where they are more thankful to God for all his many blessings, to be in awe of his majesty, etc.
I hope this has been helpful, and I realize I have probably said some things that some of you don't like, but I am being honest with you, and as usual, I will just click "send" and then think, "hey, maybe I should not have said........."
In Christ,
James
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