Holy Smoke

Alright I expect the churches to start using marijuana instead of Frankenscence to celebrate with. Yep toking up is next to Godliness.

According to this article from the Guardian at least.

Jesus 'healed using cannabis'

Jesus w as almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings.

The anointing oil used by Jesus and his disciples contained an ingredient called kaneh-bosem which has since been identified as cannabis extract, according to an article by Chris Bennett in the drugs magazine, High Times, entitled Was Jesus a Stoner? The incense used by Jesus in ceremonies also contained a cannabis extract, suggests Mr Bennett, who quotes scholars to back his claims.

"There can be little doubt about a role for cannabis in Judaic religion," Carl Ruck, professor of classical mythology at Boston University said.

Referring to the existence of cannabis in anointing oils used in ceremonies, he added: "Obviously the easy availability and long-established tradition of cannabis in early Judaism _ would inevitably have included it in the [Christian] mixtures."

Mr Bennett suggests those anointed with the oils used by Jesus were "literally drenched in this potent mixture _ Although most modern people choose to smoke or eat pot, when its active ingredients are transferred into an oil-based carrier, it can also be absorbed through the skin".

Quoting the New Testament, Mr Bennett argues that Jesus anointed his disciples with the oil and encouraged them to do the same with other followers. This could have been responsible for healing eye and skin diseases referred to in the Gospels.

"If cannabis was one of the main ingredients of the ancient anointing oil _ and receiving this oil is what made Jesus the Christ and his followers Christians, then persecuting those who use cannabis could be considered anti-Christ," Mr Bennett concludes.

But wait everyone knows that Jesus was just a figment of the imagination of a bunch of stoners who ate too many magic mushrooms. See John Allegro's The Mushroom and the Cross.

Allegro also points out that Islam was founded on the use of Kannibis, before it purged the druggies and became dogmatic. Allegro was not a crackpot but a respected, if maverick, member of the original Dead Sea Scrolls Team.

John Allegro has authored one of the most interesting books in the world on the
origins and sources of religion. It is called "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross"
and was published in 1970. Allegro was one of a team of researchers hired by the
State of Israel and the British government to decipher the "Dead Sea Scrolls"
when they were discovered in the 1950's. Allegro was hired because he was a
biblical scholar and was familiar with ALMOST EVERY SINGLE MAJOR
LANGUAGE including SUMERIAN, EGYPTIAN, HEBREW, CUNIEFORM.

His ultimate conclusion (and he was kicked off the team for his opinions) was that
Jesus was a Mushroom consumed by the Essenes and covered up to keep the
Roman authorities in the dark about the fertility cult of the Essenes.

Allegro claims that the ancient people considered the rain similar to God's
sperm in that it would fertilize the soil (of Mother Earth) and allow the crops to
grow. If the rain was a source of "Heavenly Sperm" then there must be a giant
Penis in the sky producing this "Heavenly Sperm", assumed the ancients. Well,
after the rain, the mushroom would grow, allowing them to "Talk to God" and the
mushroom looked like a miniature Penis growing up from the ground. This, allegro
adds, was to them the "Son of God come down in the flesh to show the way to
himself

And lets not forget this ...........The most controversial chapter of The Apples of Apollo is Chapter Five, "Jesus, the Drug Man", in essence the pivotal point of the entire work. In this chapter the reader will be confronted with a Christ linked to the use of entheogens, a Christ who is the dispenser of "enlightenment" through the mushroom, a Christ, in short, who commits an assault upon the essence of the Christianity that comes after him. This later Christianity seeks to approach God through Faith, a blind acceptance of indemonstrable truths, instead of through the direct experience of God.

Of course this is heresy. Told you I was a heresiologist.