For years, Christian evangelists told teens to try getting high on Jesus instead of drugs. Now, an American evangelist has a new question for the questioning: Have you ever tried getting high…on Jesus and weed?

The evangelist in question, Craig Gross, isn’t a stranger to offbeat apostolates. For many years, he was known as the founder of XXXchurch, a ministry that worked with people dealing with the negative fallout of pornography.

He has since left that organization to found Christian Cannabis, offering cannabis products which he said could be used to encourage Christians to use to get closer to God. Religion News Service reports:

Rather than forming a religious group based on marijuana, Gross sees himself as bringing cannabis to mainstream Christians, aiming to help them explore their spirituality by smoking before prayer or simply allowing themselves to use it recreationally without shame.

“It takes you down a path that looks spiritual, but it looks different than your mom’s church,” Gross said. “We have to just be open, I think, to presenting the gospel, presenting the Spirit in different ways.”

Gross told RNS that he first tried marijuana in an effort to battle health problems and to deal with mourning his father’s death. But he said he discovered that using marijuana changed the way he approached the spiritual side of life.

“It’s like a teacher,” Gross told Religion News Service in a recent phone call. “I’m realizing … I needed to slow down a bit. And when you slow down a bit, you start to see things a little bit more.”

[…]

“It has a place in your practice of prayer and worship. And that can help you connect to God in a deep and profound way,” says the company’s website, which has a “spiritual” tab on its homepage to go with “recreational” and “medical.”

The company also has a Facebook page, where it posts messages such as, “Our approach to cannabis is holistic; meaning: mind, body and spirit. We believe that cannabis plays an important role in all three. We believe that finding physical and mental wellness is absolutely vital on a spiritual path. What do you believe?”

Read the entire story here.

 

Photo by Yash Lucid.

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