Pastor Jamal Bryant wants to use cannabis business to bring Black men to his church

By JOYCE LUPIANI

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    ATLANTA, Georgia (WANF) — The pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta is going viral again for an interesting idea on how to get Black men who smoke “weed” interested in his church.

During an interview with “The Cool Soror Podcast w/Rashan Ali,” Pastor Jamal Bryant proposed that his church help Black males to work “legally” in the cannabis industry.

Bryant told Ali that Black churches need to get into the 21st century and he believes launching a cannabis business will help drive membership in his church and entrepreneurship in the Black community.

“I’m mindful that I’m not after Christians, I’m after people who don’t go to church,” Bryant added. “Churches are just recycling people from other churches. I’m looking for people who smell like weed.”

In 2019, Gov. Kemp signed a bill authorizing the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission to oversee the regulated licensing of limited, in-state cultivation, production, manufacturing, and sale of low-THC oil as well as dispensing to registered patients on the state’s Low-THC Oil Registry.

Pastor Bryant talked more about his idea during an Instagram Live on Thursday night. During that live, he said that he plans to open a clinic on the church campus within 180 days. He also touted the medical benefits of cannabis, reciting a long list of ailments and diseases that cannabis can possibly help.

Bryant also clarified why he said that he wanted Black men who smell like weed.

“I said I want people who smell like smoke because I believe these are the people God is looking for and too many of us have become so puffed up in our self-appointed sanctification that we fail to do outreach. In no uncertain terms is cannabis, hemp a ploy or distraction from winning souls to Christ.”

He also said, “The call is not to bring people to smoke at church, the call is to bring people to church so they can catch on fire. It is my intention that if we can show young people the advantages and impact of urban farming, it will make a distinct difference.

The pastor claimed that his church has brought 2,371 souls to Christ and more than 3,000 people have joined his church in the last year.

Bryant also talked about how he took a group of young men on drugs in Baltimore and taught them how to be global traders so that they could have a meaningful life and not go back to drugs.

“I believe the responsibility of the church is transformation. That the young men who used to poison our communities, now help heal them and I believe that hemp is one of the ways we can do it.”

Bryant said he knows that his idea was not conventional but that he serves “an unconventional God” and that if this idea doesn’t work, he will try something else.

Bryant is the ex-husband of The Real Housewives of Potomac star Gizelle Bryant. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and Duke University. He received his doctorate of ministry degree from the Graduate Theological Foundation.

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