By Tom Angell

 

A popular Christian evangelist is urging fellow followers of Jesus to vote against cannabis at the ballot box this November.

Franklin Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, asked his 4.2 million Facebook fans and 642,000 Twitter followers this week to help “make a difference” by voting “against these laws that are harmful to youth, to our nation and to our future.”

At least five states will vote on initiatives to legalize marijuana this November, and at least three more will consider medical cannabis measures.

“If Christians had voted, maybe marijuana wouldn’t even be an issue,” he tweeted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graham, the son of famed televangelist Billy Graham, is currently in the midst of the Decision America Tour 2016, through which he is holding prayer rallies at all 50 state capitols. The goal is to “challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box.”

The next stop is on Tuesday in Maine, where voters will consider a measure to legalize marijuana on the November ballot. Next week, Graham heads to Massachusetts, which will also decide whether to end cannabis prohibition on Election Day.

Polls generally show that Christians are less likely to favor legalizing marijuana than is the general population. For example, a survey from Barna released this month found that 56 percent of Americans support legalizing cannabis but that only 34 percent of practicing Christians and 16 percent of Evangelicals back ending prohibition.

And a 2013 Public Religion Research Institute poll found that 45 percent of Americans supported legalizing marijuana but only 40 percent of Catholics, 29 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 40 percent of minority Christians favored legalization. But the survey also showed more white mainline Protestants backing legalization than the general population, with 49 percent on board.

Christians are by no means unanimously in favor of continued prohibition, and legalization advocates have worked to organize sympathetic people of faith in support of drug policy reform efforts.

One group, Clergy For A New Drug Policy, is bringing together religious leaders in Maine to support that state’s legalization ballot measure.

“Our faith traditions at their best do not seek to shape personal behavior by imposing prohibitions,” reads a letter that six Christian clergy are sending to others in the state urging endorsement of the cannabis initiative. “One does not have to use–or even approve of–marijuana to see that our current laws do not serve us well and, in fact,may actually undermine our efforts to promote responsible decision-making by our youth.”

In 2012, conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson made headlines by endorsing marijuana law reform.

“I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol,” he said. “I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded.”