The First Church of Cannabis was approved after Indiana’s religious freedom law

[neversickanymore]

The First Church of Cannabis was approved after Indiana’s religious freedom law was passed
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
March 30 2015

The First Church of Cannabis Inc. has been approved by Indiana’s secretary of state after the state’s religious freedom legislation was signed into law last week.

The church’s founder Bill Levin said he filed paperwork in direct response to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence last Thursday. Secretary of State Connie Lawson approved the church as a religious corporation with the stated intent “to start a church based on love and understanding with compassion for all.”

Cannibis is listed as the church’s sacrament in its doctrine, Levin said, and he will set up a church hierarchy. The church will plan to grow hemp, he said, though it will not buy or sell marijuana.

“If someone is smoking in our church, God bless them,” Levin said. “This is a church to show a proper way of life, a loving way to live life. We are called ‘cannataerians.'”

Marijuana is currently illegal in Indiana for both medical and recreational use, so the church could test the application of the new law. RFRA prevents Indiana’s government from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion if it can demonstrate that it is the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling governmental interest.

continued here http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...er-indianas-religious-freedom-law-was-passed/

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This kinda opens the door for the church of blow and the cult of meth??

 

[neversickanymore]

Indiana's Church of Cannabis Growing Like a Weed
By Steven Nelson April 2, 2015

Indiana's Church of Cannabis Growing Like a Weed

The state's new religious freedom law means marijuana rules have gone to pot, church founder says.

Indiana's religious freedom law, signed by GOP Gov. Mike Pence, right, has effectively legalized marijuana for members of the First Church of Cannabis, says church founder Bill Levin, left.

The state's new religious freedom law means marijuana rules have gone to pot, church founder says.

A new religion glorifying cannabis is officially incorporated in Indiana, and adherents plan to take full advantage of the state’s controversial religious freedom law.

That law – the Religious Freedom Restoration Act – generally bans state officials from burdening a person’s exercise of religion, “even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability."

Opponents say the law blesses discrimination by business owners against people they dislike, with most news coverage focused on the possible effects on sexual minorities.

Bill Levin, founder of the First Church of Cannabis, believes his religion will help restore the state's reputation after an intense bout of bad press.

“I created the fastest-growing religion in America last week,” Levin tells U.S. News. “I’ve got to cork the leak up that [Indiana Gov. Mike] Pence caused with love."

Levin says he and other church members "all smoke religiously" and says supportive attorneys are advising him. He's working to find a facility with a large sanctuary.

“We have people who will be pilgriming in from California, from Maine, from Florida,” he says. “I planned this to be a small church of three to five hundred, but the numbers have staggeringly grown.”

On Thursday morning, the church had more than 21,000 likes on Facebook.

It’s unclear how state officials would react to church worship services, which Levin says will feature a “canna choir” and a band. Indiana does not allow medical or recreational use of marijuana.

Marijuana charges generally are pursued in state courts. But the new religious freedom law says the state cannot “substantially burden a person's exercise of religion” except when the state uses the “least restrictive means of furthering [a] compelling governmental interest.”

It’s unclear if officials or courts would deem marijuana prohibition a compelling government interest, or if they would uncritically accept the church members' professions of faith.

“Of course I’m going to test this law. I’m not going to test it, I’m going to beat it,” Levin says. “We’re building a church with the cornerstone of love, the way religions are supposed to be built.”

Valerie Kroeger, a spokeswoman for the Indiana secretary of state's office, which granted the church's incorporation, says that process conferred no recognition that the group is a religious association.

continued http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/04/02/indianas-church-of-cannabis-growing-like-a-weed