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Dealing (with) dope
Joel Miller on what the Bible says about drugs
06.05.2003

Near the beginning of Jonah: A VeggiTales Movie, Archibald Asparagus, playing the prophet-turned-whale snack, sings a song that is supposedly a message from the Lord. Along with clear moral teaching from Scripture, the divine ditty also includes something close to a cartoon-hour public service announcement on TV: "Don't do drugs, stay in school. …"

While undoubtedly good advice, most believers will know that the Pentateuch says nothing about kids staying in school. Probably most believers will, however, assume that the Bible does say something about doing drugs. It does, true, but because Christians sometimes think more culturally than scripturally about issues, it's not quite what many assume.

In their book Mind Siege, Tim LaHaye and David Noebel write, "efforts to legalize the recreational use of drugs … must continue to be vigorously opposed." Why? "Drugs destroy the body, impair the mind, and twist an individual's morals." While those are certainly bad things, they are irrelevant as far as what Scripture says about drugs and the law or what Christians' attitude toward legalization should be....