Pubdate: Sun, 09 Feb 2014
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Author: Steve Rabey, Religion Correspondent

FAITH AT HEART OF WORK BY BROTHERS WHO DEVELOPED MEDICAL MARIJUANA OIL

Jesse Stanley grew up hearing about Jesus every day at home, on
Sundays at Vanguard Church, and Mondays through Fridays at Colorado
Springs Christian School.

After Jesse and his brothers became major players in Colorado's
rapidly growing marijuana industry, some Christians accused them of
doing "Satan's work." But Jesse says the family's marijuana ministry
is a God thing.

"This is not the story of the prodigal son," he said in an interview
with the On Faith website. "People who knew me, particularly those who
knew me well, should've known that I was doing this for the right reasons."

The Stanley brothers have become famous for developing Charlotte's
Web, a medical marijuana oil being used to help more than 100 families
who have relocated to the Springs to treat their epileptic children.
What most people didn't know is that faith is at the heart of their
work, and that most of the parents who have moved here for their
medicine are Christians, too.

Stanley family values

Times were tough for Jesse and his 10 siblings after their father
abandoned the family in 1997. His mother, who taught math and science
at CSCS for more than a decade, worked three additional jobs to help
make ends meet.

In 2009, after the federal government said it would not prosecute
people in Colorado who consumed medical marijuana in compliance with
state laws, Jesse's cousin, Ron Fortner, was diagnosed with cancer and
given only a few weeks to live. When older brother Josh proposed
treating Ron with pot, mom was surprised.

"I didn't know that marijuana had any medicinal benefits," says Kristi
Stanley Fontenot, who remarried in 2008. "I grew up in the hippie
generation and always associated it with love and peace and all of
that."

The marijuana helped Ron, but Kristi remained skeptical about the
medical marijuana industry, so she decided to do further research by
volunteering at Josh's Denver dispensary.

"I met some of the most amazing people," she says. "Cancer patients,
people with MS, elderly people dealing with pain issues, patients
wanting to control migraines. Most of the people I met had legitimate
medical issues and were so grateful they could now get marijuana
legally. Seeing what I saw, I couldn't help but change my opinion."

Realm of Caring, the family's charity, originally was created to
research marijuana's impact on cancer. But that would change after mom
got a phone call from her son Joel.

Charlotte's miracle

"We have a mother here who wants to give marijuana to her 5-year-old
daughter, who has epilepsy. What should we do?"

Charlotte's Web helped Charlotte Figi, who suffered from a severe form
of epilepsy that caused hundreds of seizures a week. Charlotte now
averages one seizure a week, and her quality of life has improved vastly.

"It's divine intervention," Jesse says.

Soon, families were moving to the Springs to care for their children.
Paula Lyles, a former children's nursery director at Bay Presbyterian
Church, a 3,000-member evangelical congregation in Bay Village, Ohio,
arrived Oct. 3 to treat her daughter Jordan.

"I am one of the most straitlaced people you've ever met," Lyles says.
"I dislike the smell of marijuana smoke. But people need to see that
God made this plant, just like any other plant, to be used for His
glory. It is only humans that turn the good things God created into
something bad."

Dara Lightle arrived from Virginia the day after Lyles got here.
Coming from a background of drug and alcohol abuse, Lightle was
skeptical about medical marijuana.

"Because of my past drug use, I saw things through that lens," she
says. "But when I was praying about what to do, I knew God was saying,
'Go.' And when God says, 'Go,' you obey. There was no turning back."

Charlotte's Web has helped her daughter Madeleine, but when Lightle
introduced herself and Madeleine to the pastor at one local church,
the pastor told "mean stories" about medical marijuana and "stoners"
during his next two weekly sermons, eliciting laughter from the
congregation.

Lightle found a warmer welcome at Woodmen Valley Chapel, a dual-campus
congregation with weekly attendance of 5,700. A spokesman succinctly
summarized the megachurch's position:

"Woodmen Valley Chapel welcomes all people with disabilities, and
Woodmen Valley Chapel does not endorse any type of medical treatment,"
said Paul Rude, pastor of the church's Impact Ministries, which
includes ministries for special-needs families and community outreach.

Colorado's Christian medical marijuana moms are enthusiastic
evangelists for the benefits of medical marijuana, which is legal in
20 states. And they pray that laws will change in their home states
soon. But most of the moms oppose opening the door to legalization for
nonmedical uses.

"I do not believe marijuana should be legal recreationally," Lightle
says. "And part of me does not even understand why alcohol and
cigarettes are legally available. But if I have to sit there and
compare which of the three should be legal, I would pick marijuana."

A pastor probes pot

After two decades at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Pastor Rob
Brendle moved north to launch Denver United Church in 2008. The church
is in a South Broadway neighborhood with numerous marijuana
dispensaries but few churches.

Jesse Stanley and his wife are among the 800 to 900 people who attend
Sunday services at Denver United. Here are some of Brendle's thoughts
about Christians and marijuana.

"I am not too troubled by marijuana, and it is not an issue that I am
interested in combating. I value the democratic process and respect
the laws permitting marijuana use in Colorado as the legally expressed
will of the people.

"I love Jesse. He is a tenderhearted, intelligent, godly and ethical
man. I respect his ardent belief in the value of medical marijuana and
love his passion to help people.

"I know a number of people who feel they have found health benefits in
medical marijuana, and I don't have any moral qualm with that. I am a
pastor, not a medical professional, so I defer to the judgment of
patients and their doctors in those matters.

"At the same time, I am hearing increasing numbers of people in
Denver's Christian community say that God made marijuana so it must be
good for recreational use. I'm not convinced by that rationale. God
made cyanide, too.

"As Jesus' followers, we recognize that we must be good stewards of
our bodies because they are God's home through the indwelling of his
Spirit. I am continuing to seek God's wisdom in this complex matter
because it's here to stay."

Side-Note: Pot or not?

A century ago, Christians were at the forefront of the campaign for
the prohibition of alcohol. Today, denominations and traditions have
staked out differing positions on the theology and morality of
marijuana use.

* Pot prohibitionists oppose all consumption of marijuana and dismiss
medical claims as bogus. Russell Moore, president of the Southern
Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission,
articulated this position in a recent "Questions and Ethics" podcast:

"This is not something that is being given to people with terminal
cancer. It is something that is being given very indiscriminately with
a substance that has a long cultural history in this country of
essentially inducing a kind of immediate drunkenness, which is of
course prohibited in scripture for a believer: 'Be not drunk.'"

* Medical exceptionalists are suspicious of most medical claims but
grant exceptions in some cases, such as parents treating epileptic
children with Charlotte's Web marijuana oil. Jim Daly, president of
Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, appears to be in this camp.

"Medical marijuana is not always good medicine, especially since it's
often abused. In fact, it's unsettled science with strong opinions on
both sides. I respect and appreciate the ongoing dialogue. But what is
absolutely certain is that there are no benefits to recreational
marijuana use that are worth its cost to society."

* Pro-medical. This group supports medical marijuana but often opposes
full legalization for recreational use. Most parents treating their
children with Charlotte's Web are in this camp.

* Legalizers favor full legalization for adults. Conservative
Christian broadcaster and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson
supports legalization. "I really believe we should treat marijuana the
way we treat beverage alcohol," he told The New York Times in 2012.
"This war on drugs just hasn't succeeded."
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