Lowering The Acceptance Bar
I read where recently our “Christian” (roll eyes) president made the following statement concerning marijuana to an interviewer:
“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” Obama told the interviewer.
When asked if he believes marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, Obama said it is less damaging “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”
“It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy,” he added.
“No more dangerous than”….. not coffee or high- fructose corn syrup but….. “alcohol.”
This kind of statement, “No more dangerous than _______” immediately lowers the acceptance bar of BOTH of the items in the statement, in this case, marijuana and alcohol. Just as a statement declaring, for instance, “ Heroin Is more deadly than crack” raises the acceptance bar for both items.
The way we phrase things has much to do with how we assimilate things…. because words means things.
Obama’s despicable statement is often found among some preachers in variant form in word scrambling remarks such as “A woman trimming her hair is no more wrong than a man having long hair.” As with Obama’s bar lowering of acceptance, the preachers who would make the trimming hair and long hair comparisons automatically lower the acceptance bar of BOTH subjects.
Obama’s remarks to his daughters is nothing short of criminal negligence … to plant the idea that either drugs or alcohol is merely a “bad habit” and “a waste of time” rather than deadly and destructive is incomprehensible!
Preacher’s that lower the acceptance bar of sin are committing a grievous error against God and man!
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.” Isa. 58:1 niv
— jlg —