UPDATED: IMPD Chief Rick Hite and Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry held a press conference this morning to warn those who intend to use the excuse of attending the first service of the First Church of Cannabis as a cause for lighting up and smoking marijuana that they need to be prepared to face arrest. "Anyone who is present in that sort of setting is subject to be prosecuted for visiting a common nuisance," Curry said.
Bill Levin, the church's founder, leader and self-identified Jew, has long advocated the legalization of marijuana, which he claims is beneficial to the human body. Levin has attempted to make a mockery of religion following the passage of Indiana's RFRA law, which in practical terms, is no different than the federal law passed by Congress two decades ago and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Levin is pretending the founding of his church making the worship of cannabis a central tenet was made possible by the law's passage, a total fabrication openly perpetuated by the mainstream media. Levin, who refers to his members as Cannaterians, says his church seeks "love, understanding and health." He plans his first church service on July 1, the day Indiana's RFRA law takes effect.
"The RFRA act does not create any sort of immunity from prosecution because it’s under the alleged guise of religious practice," Curry said. Chief Hite went further in his condemnation of Levin's church, comparing it to the infamous Indiana cult leader, Jim Jones. "As Jim Jones once did within our state; he led a group of people into a place of no return. We don’t want that to happen again in our state," Hite said. "We want to send a message: This is not the way to challenge a law. You certainly can’t expect the police to stand by and not do something about it." Ironically, Levin's Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation donated an old synagogue near the city's downtown that cult leader Jim Jones once used for his People's Temple church services before relocating it to California. Jones was actually an agent of the CIA contracted to perform a Nazi-like human mind control experiment that ended with the execution of more than 900 innocent men, women and children, including dozens from the state of Indiana.
Something the media has paid little notice to is the fact that many employers in Indiana, including some of its largest employers, have a zero tolerance drug use policy that extends to the use of marijuana, even if used in states like Colorado where it's legal. Levin set up a GoFundMe site to fund his church, which identifies hundreds of contributors by name. Members of Levin's church could be unwittingly opening themselves up to a random drug test that could result in the termination of their employment, something Levin is probably not a whole lot concerned about as he basks in the incredible fifteen minutes of fame he's earning at the expense of people who hold sincere religious beliefs.
UPDATE: Levin reacted angrily to Chief Hite's comments comparing his church to Jim Jones' People's Temple cult. He wrote the following on Facebook:
I would think that if a person in position of power who is supposed to serve and protect... injecting insults and slander to our church and myself would be frowned upon by many... I would hope that the Mayor of Indianapolis, would ask for his resignation. This kind of brutal ignorance and bigotry needs to be nipped in the bud asap. If he made those comments about any other religion, there would be riots in the streets. I am ashamed of him representing our fair city.
15 comments:
You wanted your religious freedom law. Now here it is in full bloom, no longer an intellectual exercise, but actually in practice. And its remarkably similar to the facts of the underlying federal case, where Indians wanted to smoke peyote in their religious ceremonies without interference from law enforcement enforcing federal drug laws. As long as Levin intends to hold regular weekly church services and behave as a real, practicing church, the government will have to honor their church members’ religious freedom, and if they fail to do so, may suffer the imposition of financial damages. I urge Marion County to proceed carefully in the arrest of these church goers. They are probably within their rights to light up at their services, and any semblance of pressure or discouragement from authorities may be interpreted as infringement of their religious freedom by a Marion County judge interpreting the plain language of the legislation and using the federal case for interpretative guidance. As a taxpayer, if our police rush willy nilly into that church and incur Court damages, I will be incensed enough to call for their firing. Our tax dollars are for potholes, not for prosecuting the lawful practice of religion. This is your religious freedom law in practice, Indiana, aren’t you proud. Now wait till radical Muslims want Sharia law and Wiccans want animal sacrifices, because those will be protected too. This is what was wrought from that very ugly hatred of gays that spawned the rfra, and I hope Pence chokes on it when he loses re-election.
What a shame that Hite and Curry are wasting their resources on this issue, when public corruption is running rampant throughout city and state government. I mean, what does it take to get indicted anymore for public corruption. Tony Bennett got a free ride; Ballard has gotten free multiple rides....do we not have a US Attorney or County Prosecutor that understands just how bad it is? Where is the FBI and their public corruption unit.
When the chief of police compares Bill Levin to Jim Jones, I have to ask what Hite has been smoking or whose Kool-Aid he has been drinking. Smarmy move.
Hite and Curry have been so damned ineffective and so beside the point when it comes to Marion County "public safety" that I am sure any day now we will see both of these men on Fox 59 news bragging about their new excessively high paying jobs at IUPUI and how they had so, so many offers streaming in from HR departments across the nation and what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity their massive talents and abilities afford them.
To Anonymous 1:24 PM: AMEN!
Kudos to WRTV's Matt McKinney for including Hite's comments in his story. I noticed all the other news reports deliberately omitted his comments comparing Levin's church to Jim Jones' People's Temple.
Speaking of brutal ignorance and bigotry; outlaw cigarettes while approving the use of marijuana.
"The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity"
Under this nonsense, how do you make anything illegal?
The problem with the peyote argument is they were granted special exemption to use the drug in their ceremonies but to possess or use it, they had to prove they are 100% pure blood of the tribe and they have to have a license to possess the drug. They are dealing with thousands of years of their beliefs, not hippies trying to get high in a church.
Anon 1:24, you apparently don't know how RFRA works. First, these have to be legitimate religious beliefs and the law has to substantially burden those beliefs. Levin has a long history of mocking people who have a religious belief and he suddenly decides to found a religion after RFRA that includes his favorite pastime, smoking pot? That's not even remotely credible. But even if he makes that hurdle all the government has to show is a compelling interest in the laws against use and possession of marijuana.
This is not exactly the first time a RFRA defense to pot laws has been attempted. It's been tried numerous times and every time the person asserting the defense has lost, including a person who was head of the Church of Marijuana. That Church, unlike Levin's, was founded some 20 years before the national RFRA and the court still didn't buy it was a legitimate church.
This is all about Bill Levin using his 15 minutes of fame to do two things he enjoys most: smoking pot and mocking religion. Unfortunately he has fools who are willing to follow his lead.
I believe that Bill Levin is just another Jim Jones.
I believe that Bill Levin is just a publicity hound.
Mr Ogden, I think your views are particularly narrow when the bar is being set for others. And legitimate religious beliefs seems to me a term subject to interpretation. Even a casual review of the subject brings up a wealth of dissenting articles. “The use of marijuana in religion dates back to the second millennium B.C. and continues still today. In the past, ancient Chinese belief systems, the Scythian people group of Central Asia, ancient Germanic paganism, and Hinduism, all used marijuana for religious reasons. The Jamaican-born Rastafari movement is the most well-known modern religion that uses marijuana for spiritual purposes.” I am quite conservative and do not smoke marijuana but even in my social set of oldsters I know many, many people who smoke marijuana daily and fit cleanly in the category of normal, conservative Hoosiers in their fifties and sixties. It isn’t a stretch for me to see this church thrive if done correctly. And the relaxation of marijuana across the country is a growing, successful movement. You are far too quick to dismiss this church and this man and the rights of the people who belong to this church. The problem as I see it is one of hypocrisy. The conservative establishment is fine with rfra so long as it defends their rights in their fight against gay interests. But they don’t want it used to defend the rights of religions outside the Christian mainstream. Hypocrisy. It goes hand in hand with bigotry so well. I think this is a perfect example of the use of the rfra defense and I look forward to seeing it interpreted. But it may not turn out to support the narrow, fundamentalist Christian view of legitimate religious beliefs on appeal to more liberal federal Courts.
In my opinion Bill Levin is a nut case. Also, today's Gannette leftist newspaper reported that he has lawyers, with an emphasis on keeping them paid. Who is paying for those lawyers to encourage him to commit crime?
(click this link)Paul Harvey predicted the evil of Bill Levin long before I was born!
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