Marijuana debate lights up among religious leaders

Don’t expect to see pot smoke wafting through Protestant and Catholic pews anytime soon, but as public opinion shifts on legalized marijuana, religious leaders are wrestling over competing interests, including high prison rates and legislating morality.

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-10 white evangelical Protestants oppose it.

Catholics appear to be the most divided Christian group, with 48 percent favoring legalization and 50 percent opposing it.

Last year, Pope Francis took a hard line in Brazil, denouncing the drug trade and those who sow “the seeds of suffering and death.” But as a headline said, “The People Have Smoken.”

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/07/4805604/marijuana-debate-lights-up-among.html