Exposition
The Rastas do not worship in a particular religious building. This is because they believe their true temple is their body and believers don’t need an approved “church space” to worship in but hold weekly meetings at a fellow Rasta’s home or in a community center. These religious gatherings are called Reasoning sessions and they include discussions from the Holy Piby (The Blackman’s Bible or The Holy Text of Rastafari), chanting, praying, and singing. The music is known as Nyabinghi, the reason why the meetings may also be called Nyabinghi meetings.
To go into a deeper spiritual state, marijuana may also be smoked. Rastas give religious significance to marijuana as they consider it to be a sacred herb that helps them transcend the corrupting influences of this physical world and also provides insight into the immanence of Jah, a necessary tool if one is to correctly distinguish truth from deliberate falsehood. They believe that the following biblical texts justify it. He causes the grass of the cattle, and herb for the services of man. – Psalm 104:14; … thou shalt eat the herb of the field. – Genesis 3.18; Better is a dinner of herb where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. – Proverbs 15:17; … eat every herb of the land. – Exodus 10:12.
It is mostly used during the communal meetings called the reasoning sessions. Rastas commonly refer to marijuana as “wisdom weed” or “holy herb”, and pray before using it. They consider it as a meditative tool that opens up the mind and lets one feel connected to Jah. However, other drugs like cocaine, heroin, alcohol, tobacco, and even caffeine are against the religion and are believed to be a poison that destroys the body. It is common for Rastafarians to eat a strict vegetarian diet. This clean diet is officially called I-tal, which roughly translates to “natural.” Most Rastafarians want to consume foods and drinks that are “of the earth,” so they try to get as many fruits and veggies into their daily diet as possible. Even if a Rastafari decides to eat meat, he/she is strictly forbidden from eating pork.
In response to the above teachings of the Rastafarians, we need to understand that there is only one way that we can get connected to the Father (the Almighty God) and that is through his son Jesus Christ (John 14:6) and not through the smoking of marijuana. They also believe that the Holy Bible is just a book that one can read to get wisdom, nothing more nothing less. We also believe in the divine inspiration and authority of the Holy Bible, that it is infallible in its declaration, final in authority, all-sufficient in its provisions, and comprehensive in its sufficiency (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). To this end, we are not to allow anyone to beguile us in meat or in drink or about a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ (Colossians 2:16-17).