There are many things in life I feel inadequate to address. I am making this post in attempt to both help me think through my thoughts as well as seek out any feedback from the blogosphere. So here goes.
Spent yesterday afternoon having an honest conversation with a high school guy who shall remain nameless. His struggle is this…he’s heard all his life that drugs will ruin your life. You’ll be the 40 year old guy, drooling in a chair, living with your mom, playing video games in between shifts at the local burger joint if you do drugs. However, this kid’s brilliant. His friends are brilliant. Like off the charts IQ. He’s been doing a fair amount of drugs and he’s doing great in school. No slippage in grades. No bad family situation. Just a kid who thinks he’s in control.
Now before you think I agree with his antics, I should preface that I don’t. However, I am finding that the typical rationale given to today’s students may not be adequate in dealing with the drug issue. As Christians, as the Church, I feel the need to have a better, more in-depth explanation of the “why’s”. Do you not do drugs because they are illegal? What if our country changed it’s stance on marijuana? Okay for Christians then?
What I keep coming back to is this… The Scriptures say a lot about drunkenness, but not drugs in particular. However, it seems like one could take drunkenness to mean an “altered state of mind”. If that is the working definition then anything that is used to bring about that state is against the Bible. People have wine with dinner (myself included) without having the intention of achieving an altered state of mind. One can have a glass of wine or a beer without being drunk. I don’t think this holds true for other “mind altering substances.” People smoke a joint to get the high. They don’t smoke in the casual, after dinner, wine-sort-of-way…or do they?
I write all of this to say that today’s culture is asking questions about this subject matter and we as the church need to have a deeper more thought out response than we currently do. If our response is equal to the piece of circular rubber in the bottom of the urinal (sorry girl’s, no such fun for you) that reads, “JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS” then we are missing something. We’ve got to have a better response than that. We need a response that deals honestly, intellectually and theologically to the issues at hand.
Any thoughts you have would be most appreciated. Please write your responses while in a non-altered state of mind though. Thanks for your cooperation.
I feel like several decent responses could be built from the following:
ReplyDelete1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Although 1 Corinthians is talking about sexual immorality in this case it clearly reveals that the body of a Christian is a place of dwelling for the Holy Spirit and should be used to glorify God. A similar idea is presented in 1 Corinthians 10:31.
Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13-14; Romans 13:1-2
These at least holds true while various drugs are illegal.
Exodus 20:12
Exodus 20:12 works 1) if the child is still a dependant and 2) the parent's don't allow drug use.
Colossians 1:21-23 teaches us to live above reproach or free from accusation. This could be used in a context of furthering God's kingdom. Smoking pot won't keep someone out of heaven but it could certainly limit a person's effectiveness in doing God's work. Imagine younger children finding out their Sunday school teacher smokes pot, or that someone they respect in the faith smokes pot, or even that someone as successful as this individual smokes pot. It could lead to younger children imitating this behavior or force the drug user to lie about their activities.
Smoking pot may also cause other Christian brothers and sisters to try it and perhaps have more serious side effects than this person is having. 1 Corinthians 8:9-13 commands us to go to great lengths in order to keep others from stumbling. Even those who enjoy drinking in moderation shouldn't do this in the presence of a former alcoholic or someone who is offended by it.
1 Corinthians 6:12 and 2 Peter 2:19 advise Christians not to become addicted or let their bodies be mastered by anything. I don't know for sure but I think marijuana is addicting and it can certainly have mind altering effects on people who use it.
At the end of the day, God doesn't permit someone with a high IQ and amazing grades to disregard local government law, rules set forth by parents, schools and the church, and subject themselves to 1) causing others to stumble, 2) harming their body which is a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and 3) allowing themselves to become controlled by and addicted to marijuana.
In areas involving shades of gray (although while the drug is illegal there is far less gray area to find comfort in) I'd be more eager to find explicit biblical teachings either permitting or encouraging drug use than I would be to find biblical teachings that explicitly forbid the practice. Best case scenario the drug user faces is the off chance that logical reasoning and common inference don't apply to the above mentioned biblical teachings. Doesn't seem like much of a best case scenario. Faced with two choices, one which comes with a 100% assurance that it's not offensive to God (unless I've overlooked a biblical teaching where drug use pleases God) and another where the assurance is at best 25%, isn't the choice obvious?
All that being said...anyone got a light?
Why are drugs such a big deal in the church? Jamie, you mention "mind altering substances" and "altered state of mind". I will regularly go on long runs to get an altered state of mind - I enjoy the endorphins of testing the physical limits of my body, or running through a forest, or cross-country skiing on un-travelled paths. It's a rush. It relaxes me. It can become easy to become addicted to endorphins - to the euphoric feeling they give - and that can become a problem. If I say that enjoying the endorphins is not a problem, but addiction to them is, then what about a guy who enjoys pot but is not addicted to it?
ReplyDeleteGranted, with endorphins, it's a rush, but I still have all my right judgement - which I've heard cannot be said about pot (can't speak from experience, unfortunately). So maybe that's the problem - that judgement is impaired.
Well, my judgement is impaired when I'm dog-tired. In fact, I've heard stats that talking on the phone or sleeping while tired are more dangerous than driving while above the legal alchohol limit. I can attest to that as I once had a job where I spent a lot of time driving while I was much too tired. Had numerous cars honk at me for veering into their lane. I am very fortunate that I didn't get into any accidents. So, why isn't the church more vocal about the dangers of being too tired?
If the issue is that it damages your body and your body is a temple of God, then what about the fact that I absolutely love cheese? or that I will usually workout to the point that I injury myself?
There are many things that are 'accepted' in the church that are damaging to our bodies - why do drugs seem to be singled out?
Or is this more media-driven than biblically-driven? Are we being fed these messages in the media that drugs are bad and then the church tries to respond by finding scripture to support that?
For the sake of ending this long comment, my last contention ...
When we give people this message that drugs are bad, are they hearing that they are loved, or are they hearing that they have to check things off a list? Obviously that depends on the filter that the recipient has, but if we don't believe or can't communicate that you are loved, then it doesn't matter what the message is.
You are right in that we tend to give simple answers to not so simple questions which is why people are turned off by us. We like to look at the world as mostly black and white and categorize everything into those two areas. We say that sex is bad, drugs and alcohol as well along w/ people that have AIDS b/c they deserve it. Other examples are Christian music is good while secular is bad b/c it doesn’t praise God and those that are homeless deserve to be there since they don’t want to find work. We cast judgment b/c we, while never admitting it, think that we are much better b/c we don’t do those things. Is it not by the grace of God that we were not brought up in nice upbringing rather than in the slums of drug infested streets or that our parents were not drug addicts b/c if they were then we would be born with HIV +? Therefore, when people ask us about drugs and all that, we must be genuine and give an honest answer rather than brushing it aside w/ careless simplicity.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your specific question, pot as far as I am aware and I’m by no means a chemist is not addictive since it doesn’t contain the same addictive substances as in alcohol or other drugs. I have to say that I’ve never attempted to use any illegal substance just in case the NSA’s running its software on this blog. Prolong use of it does have side effects such as loss of memory or ADD. From a Biblical standpoint, I would use the same rule as it applies to alcohol. Do you do it to lose consciousness or just for relaxation? As far as getting high, what does that actually mean? Have we not drank wine where we felt relaxed to the point where we need to stay put for a few more minutes? Is this considered to losing consciousness? The reason we should not be drunk is so that we do not end up doing stupid or dangerous things like walking in front of a car or throwing a knife at someone. It is also not to make fools of ourselves where it leads to bad witness. That being said, have we not gathered among close friends and done things that gave us a rush be it through alcohol or whatever yet we remained fully conscious and enjoyed it?
The real question that we must ask is what is the purpose for their use of pot, alcohol or whatever they turn to? Is it just for the sheer thrill of doing the mysterious as most of us have done those things as teenagers, notice I say most b/c I actually do know a few who have squeaky clean history, or is it something they do as a way of escape? If the latter, then it becomes a deeper issue than just doing drugs which is a longing for something that will satisfy the emptiness inside.