How evangelicals use marijuana to sell religion

States are backsliding one by one in allowing marijuana legalization, the president is comparing the drug to alcohol, and Christian Right stalwart Pat Robertson reversed his harsh views on weed—what’s an evangelical to do in these high times? Are evangelicals undergoing a sea change in their thought about marijuana usage?

Maybe. Or maybe not. Either way, evangelical leaders are still blowing smoke about weed. In the aftermath of the recent Colorado and Washington legalization campaigns, evangelical talking heads have done their best to reiterate how God and ganja don’t mix. In “Don’t Let Your Mind Go to Pot,” Reformed Baptist author and teacher John Piper proclaims that the problem with marijuana is that it alters one’s perception of reality and “leads away from the kind of sober-mindedness and self-control that is essential in using the mind for the glory of God.” In an article for the hipster evangelical magazine Relevant, Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll deals with the drug’s new legal status in his home state of Washington. Driscoll’s core argument here is that marijuana usage is evidence of personal weakness and emasculation. The natural outgrowth of a culture where self-medication is used to escape life’s problems, marijuana is what people (particularly young men) turn to in order to escape the calls of responsibility. Finally, Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore spoke recently about the dangers of marijuana for poor people in its adverse effects on work ethic.

To get some perspective on the significance of Piper, Driscoll, and Moore’s comments, it’s worth considering how evangelicals thought creatively about drug usage during the countercultural era. Like the above, their arguments usually had little to do with drugs’ health risks. Francis Schaeffer and Billy Graham saw drug culture as an example of the nihilistic disillusionment in the hearts of people who live without belief in God. In their outreach, drugs functioned as a tool of conviction, providing a picture of depravity with which to contrast with the good news of the gospel.