The Church has $1 billion in pharmaceutical company stock.

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_I have a question
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The Church has $1 billion in pharmaceutical company stock.

Post by _I have a question »

For those wondering why the Church would be against medicinal marijuana...
There is a worldly theory: According to a trove of documents obtained and published by MormonLeaks and analyzed by a Reddit user, about $1 billion of the church’s $32 billion in stock-market holdings are in pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies oppose medical marijuana for obvious reasons—if cannabis is medicine you can grow at home, the value of patented medicines drops—but there is a spiritual angle as well. For proof, look at the Catholic Church’s similar reaction.

http://observer.com/2018/06/mormon-chur ... n-in-utah/

But how does weed threaten religion, exactly? The answer is simple and cynical.

Harken back to the Mormon church’s blanket prohibitions on alcohol and caffeinated beverages (the latter of which even ISIS does not deny its adherents), and remind yourself why drug prohibition began in the first place. Identifying (or in this case, creating) “individual deviance,” discouraging it, and “encouraging conformity” is the very definition of social control. Laws like drug prohibition are instruments of social control, but their purpose and function are obvious enough.

Remind yourself what the typical pattern of behavior is in the face of a threat. It is to lash out and in: to attack and neutralize the threat, while clinging ever tighter to what’s left. Here again the Catholic Church provides an example. Its power is declining across the world. In heavily Catholic Ireland, voters just legalized abortion, a few years after legalizing gay marriage. This follows a pattern seen in other countries.

Here’s the thing with religious dogma: there’s no room for debate or reform. Religions are there because they provide the easy answers. They provide a solution to the dilemma of freedom and all the anxieties uncertainty creates.

And that’s also dogma’s central flaw. Put one crack in the facade and five more appear. Start tracing those lines, and the whole edifice will crumble.
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
_Dr Exiled
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Re: The Church has $1 billion in pharmaceutical company stoc

Post by _Dr Exiled »

I wondered if the church had a stake in big pharma and if these investments influenced the stance on marijuana. I guess it does and money plus control is more than likely driving this as you state. This is yet another reason why we need to know what the church is doing behind closed doors.
Last edited by Guest on Wed Jun 20, 2018 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen 
_I have a question
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Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:01 am

Re: The Church has $1 billion in pharmaceutical company stoc

Post by _I have a question »

Exiled wrote:I wondered if the church had a stake in big pharmaceutical and if these investments influenced the stance on marijuana. I guess it does and money plus control is more than likely driving this as you state. This is yet another reason why we need to know what the church is doing behind closed doors.


The Church only does the right things when it’s goings on are leaked and held up to the cold light of day. Church leaders cannot be relied upon to do the right thing when no one is looking. That fact has been clearly evidenced time and time and time again.
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
_moksha
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Re: The Church has $1 billion in pharmaceutical company stoc

Post by _moksha »

When the LDS Church outbid the Hunt Brother's and other conglomerates for that beaucoup expensive farmland in Kentucky, it was prime ground for growing tobacco. No reason it could not also be prime ground for growing medical marijuana if Kentucky law allowed it. The Church could sell it as Primo Medicina.
Cry Heaven and let loose the Penguins of Peace
_Dr Exiled
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Re: The Church has $1 billion in pharmaceutical company stoc

Post by _Dr Exiled »

With all the money to be made in the war mongering industry, one wonders if the church doesn't have some significant investments there. Maybe "moroni's missles" will be the next generation of missle used in drone strikes around the world?
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen 
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