All Things Are Pure: Marijuana Speech #5

Speech to the Josephine County Commissioners, 06/17/09. 

          This concludes my series on the Bible in support of A Resolution Concerning Marijuana:

In Jesus’ day, taboo meats and holy days were matters of controversy everywhere in the Empire, each local religion having its own taboos and holy days.  Romans 14 is a lovely dissertation by Paul on tolerance for the customs of others.  Some excerpts from the NKJV:

“…[O]ne believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak [in the faith] eats only vegetables.  Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat despise him who eats; for God has received him.  Who are you to judge another’s servant?  To his own master he stands or falls….

“One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike.  Let each be fully convinced in his own mind….”

“I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean….

“All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense….”

So don’t feed your vegetarian friends meat; it just isn’t right.  It also isn’t right to forbid your omnivorous friends to eat meat—or to arrest people for the herbs they use.  Who are you to judge another’s intake?

Jesus told the multitudes, “But whereunto shall I liken this generation?  It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,

“And saying, We have piped for you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned for you, and ye have not lamented.

“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.

“The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.  But wisdom is justified of her children.”  Matthew 11:16-19 KJAV

We are all equal children of God, yet some insist on being offended because others don’t dance to their tune or do and say as they think they should.  Some people are never satisfied just to let others live their lives and let the foolish suffer and the wise prosper.

The Oregon Constitution says that we are all equal in right: Article 1, section 1.  We certainly have an equal right to use God’s green herbs.  No man or group of men has the authority to declare any part of God’s creation unclean or only for the use of a privileged few.

We are supposed to have freedom of religious enjoyment and rights of conscience: Article 1, section 3.  We hereby demand the freedom that Jesus and his apostles declared God gave us, to use all of his creation: animal; vegetable; or mineral, following our conscience.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com