Christian pastor says marijuana makes men ‘spiritually gay’ and calls for ‘nicotine men’
A Christian pastor claimed marijuana makes men gay (Image: Getty Images)
Christian pastor Joel Webbon has sparked backlash after claiming in a video posted on X that smoking marijuana makes men “spiritually gay”, urging Christian men to embrace tobacco and nicotine as a route back to “masculinity”.
In the clip, Webbon links cannabis use to gender stereotypes and uses “gay” as a pejorative.
He says marijuana “makes you less masculine, more feminine, soft, gay, at least spiritually gay”, before arguing it leaves men unfocused and unambitious.
“Marijuana causes you not to focus, not to lock in, not to be ambitious. It makes you cloudy, fuzzy, lazy, unambitious.”
Webbon also dismisses public health messaging around smoking, describing anti-smoking efforts as a conspiracy.
“I think you know one of the biggest propaganda psyops that we’ve experienced in the last 50 to 60 years is the war against tobacco and nicotine, that tobacco and nicotine are the worst thing in the world, and they’ll kill you and give you cancer. I don’t believe that,” he says.
Webbon claims it’s pesticides or chemicals sprayed on tobacco plants that gives people cancer, rather than the actual smoking of it.
He goes on to suggest the government has a “vested interest” in discouraging tobacco because it would otherwise produce men who are “harder to control” and “harder to manipulate”.
Throughout the video, he quickly flashes up screenshots of what appear to be studies into nicotine to back up his points.
In the same video, he claims marijuana legalisation has expanded because it makes men less masculine and less ambitious.
‘Nicotine men’ and ‘weed boys’
Webbon frames his argument as a slogan about substances and masculinity, saying: “Hard times create nicotine men.” He contrasts that with “weed boys”, adding that they “ruin the world”.
He also presents nicotine use as something that “built the country” and could “restore the country”, tying tobacco and nicotine to a broader culture-war message about what men should be.
Who is Joel Webbon?
Webbon is a US-based far-right Christian pastor known for inflammatory culture-war commentary online. He is associated with Christian nationalist politics and rhetoric that frames social issues through a “masculinity” and “degeneracy” lens.
He is part of a wider ecosystem of MAGA-aligned religious influencers who use social media clips to reach audiences beyond church settings, and he has frequently been criticised for extremist statements and conspiratorial claims about social change and minority groups.
Commenters on the video criticised him for linking Christianity to addiction and questioned whether he was being paid to promote tobacco, as he praises a specific brand.
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
