Christians torn about legal marijuana

This year’s Super Bowl was dubbed by some as the “pot bowl,” as the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks hail from the two states where fans will soon be able to get marijuana as easily as they can get pizza.

As surveys show a shift in support for legalized marijuana, religious opinion-makers are struggling over the idea of legislating morality by putting those who sell or use marijuana into prisons overcrowded with hard-core criminals.  

According to a 2013 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, 58 percent of white mainline Protestants and 54 percent of black Protestants favor legalizing the use of marijuana. On the other side, nearly seven in ten (69 percent) of white evangelical Protestants oppose it.