A church of cannabis tests the limits of religious law in Indiana

Earlier this year, Indiana’s Republican-held legislature approved a Religious Freedom Restoration Act aimed at preventing government from infringing on religious practices. Critics said the measure was anti-gay and aimed at allowing discrimination against gay men and lesbians in the name of religion. Facing the threat of boycotts and fierce objections from business leaders, state officials swiftly added a provision explicitly blocking the measure from trumping local ordinances that bar discrimination over sexual orientation.

Mr. Levin, who has been a carpenter, a promotions and marketing strategist, and a Libertarian candidate for political office, had few kind words for the lawmakers who wrote the state’s law in the first place. He called them “clowns” who “polluted and embarrassed” his state. But if Indiana was going to have such a law, he said, why not test its limits and press for his long-held goal, permission to use cannabis?
State leaders, including the office of Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican who supported the religious exceptions law, did not respond to requests for comment on the church. And some legal experts said Mr. Levin may have trouble proving that the use of marijuana is truly tied to religious expression. But Mr. Levin seemed untroubled.

“This is an honest-to-God religion,” he said. “Other religions have sins and guilt. We’re going to have a really big love-in.”