Letter Of Support To The Court Favoring The Immediate Release Of Roger Christie

I am J. Nayer Hardin, founder of and a conductor on the Computer Underground Railroad, a cyber division of the original Underground Railroad.  We use computers and other technology to help people be free.  The application of hemp, marijuana,  cannabis (by whatever name) to our many problems is one of the technologies we support.  The freedom to pray as our soul directs is another tool we can use to save ourselves from the environmental holocaust we have created.

I am writing this letter of support for Reverend Roger Christie who is in jail for praying with hemp and support the reverend’s immediate release.  I understand the process of releasing him and allowing him to have a trial, but in this time, when humanity must focus on saving ourselves from what we have created, it is imperative to unconditionally free Rev. Christie now!  Paraphrasing the old typing training phrase ‘now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of our world.’

My bias is I still believe in the court system’s ability to make constructive change, as was demonstrated in the civil rights movement and is in process for LGBT rights.  An uncorrupted court is committed to doing the right thing, what is in the best interest of the citizens above all else, by instituting the Will Of The People.  Countless surveys have revealed that We The People want to be free to consume hemp, a what the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute calls "a peaceful solution" to many of our modern problems.

There is no question that Roger Christie is a holy man in jail for empowering the process of prayer.  For those who have never tried it, hemped prayer is a process of ‘relax your animal so your spirit can soar.’  I was raised Catholic, been doing A Course In Miracles since 1986, was a member of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s church, and am a metaphysical book reader including currently engaged in a cover to cover reading of the King James Version of the bible, having recently completed the Book(s) of Mormon (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price).  I do my best to hemp and pray every day.  It keeps me on my mission without whining all the time.  

The United States was founded in part on hemp, which has been used to pay taxes in the past.  Given that both Washington and Jefferson were hemp farmers, it is logical to assume that their interests were part of the founding process.  No way that they would want a man of prayer in jail for interacting with nature. Neither do I.

Rev. Roger Christie is an ordained minister.  His site’s biographical information reveals  http://www.thc-ministry.org/?page_id=362

“On June 19, 2000, Roger received a license to perform marriages in the State of Hawai`i, becoming the nation’s first licensed Cannabis Sacrament Minister (Hawai`i Department of Health License # 00-313). Roger founded The Hawai`i Cannabis (THC) Ministry in Hilo, Hawai`i to share the blessing of the Ministry with the world. Roger opens the Ministry to all sincere religious users and cultivators of Cannabis and has built a world-wide congregation of Cannabis sacrament practitioners from more than 60 countries.”

Rev. Christie did nothing other than his ordained duties...which is why this injustice is operating in the first place. It is a minister’s responsibility to provide the sacramental tools to the prayer group gathered.  Yet, and we’re talking America in the 21^st Century, the Information Age, while in the process of fulfilling his God given responsibility Roger Christi was arrested three years ago without as much as a trial, let alone national media coverage.

The Marijuana Legalization Organization reports

“The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says the government cannot make laws "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion. Many people use marijuana as a religious sacrament, and forcing them not to use marijuana clearly prohibits the free exercise of their religion. In order to comply with the First Amendment, our laws should allow for the religious use of marijuana.

• Rastafarians use marijuana in religious rituals to enhance their consciousness of the relationship between God, Creation, and the individual soul.
• Getting Off Drugs: The Legalization Option, by Walter Wink explains why the views of the Society of Friends (Quakers) favor legalization.
• Christians for Cannabis: Judeo-Christian scripture and tradition support the legalization of marijuana.
• The Shinto tradition incorporates Hemp in Religion
• Stephen Gaskin explores the religious use of marijuana in his book, Cannabis Spirituality.”

Back in 1996 9th Circuit Court of AppealsRuled Religion May Be Defense to Marijuana Possession

"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on February 2 that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Rastafarian defendants should be allowed to show that they use marijuana for bona fide religious reasons in their defense against charges of possession of marijuana (U.S. v. Bauer, No. 94-30073, 96 C.D.O.S. 756, 1996WL42240 (9th Cir. 1996); http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-Ct/Circuit/9th/opinions/9430073.htm; Reynolds Holding, "Rastafarian Pot Could Be Legal," San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1996, p. A14; "Marijuana For Religious Reasons," Washington Post, February 5, 1996, p. A10; Associated Press, "Court: Rastafarians Can Hold Marijuana," Chicago Tribune, February 4, 1996, p. 9)."

I don’t know if that ruling was overturned, but at least the court got that one right.  We have a right to pray in the style that suits our souls best.  It is most important for all of us, especially holy souls, to do the right thing, what the Lord says do. 

There are many references to the herb in the bible, and Rick Simpson’s caner oil sure reads like the “oil of gladness” in Psalm 45:7.  Without the court's intervention in this insanity called the war on drugs, we are doomed to deal with the excess radiation coming off of the nuclear disaster in Japan.  Hemp's "oil of gladness" has sent many cancers into remission.   

In summary Reverend Roger Christie has no business being in jail for living as a minister and fulfilling his divinely ordained function, like Moses, Jesus and countless other great souls have been free to do before him.  I am sorry to realize that we have devolved from the land of the free and the home of the brave to a nation where some forms of prayer that hurt nobody are illegal and can get one thrown in jail for years without a trial.  I pray the court will erase the folly of making prayer and prayer tools illegal.

Though it is a shame that he is in jail, it would be both the right thing to do and a blessing to free Reverend Roger Christie - and all other non-violent hemp political prisoners - now.  Fukushima’s triple nuclear melt down is in process, genetically modified foods have been approved, we have at least 3 oil “spills” going on today, the toxins from the BP oil spill are still in the ocean, and the news is full of talk of war.  We need all the prayer warriors free that we can get just to have a chance at surviving as a species.  Paraphrasing George Carlin, ‘the planet will be just fine…man on the other hand’  Freeing our prayer leaders affords us the opportunity to use the power to heal found in “Where two or more are gathered in my name.”

For the above reasons plus his profound work in expanding the use of the cannabis prayer tool, I recommend that Roger Christie and all other non-violent political prisoners be released as unconditionally free from religious persecution, just like the Constitution says.

J. Nayer Hardin

Computer Underground Railroad Enterprises