BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- In a trial Thursday, a jury found Brevard County's self-proclaimed "marijuana minister" guilty on all counts, which include manufacturing and possession of cannabis and larceny of utility service. Steven Swallick testified in his own defense Thursday.

Swallick was arrested in 2008 after police found a large marijuana grow operation in his Palm Bay house. His only defense was that he uses pot for religious reasons.

Steven Swallick says he runs a ministry about marijuana. He says he mixed the marijuana with other ingredients to create anointing oil, a recipe he says he got out of the Bible.

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But the jury didn't have to address the religious issue, just whether he grew it, possessed it and stole electricity to do it.

"Was that your cannabis?” a judge asked.

“Yes sir," replied Swallick.

He calls himself Reverend Steven Swallick of the Hawaiian Cannabis Ministries and took the stand in clerical garb identical to that of a catholic priest. Even though he faced prison time, Swallick openly admitted to the jury that he grew more than 100 marijuana plants at his home in Palm Bay. But Swallick said he did it because he had a higher calling.

"The cannabis that was growing in your converted garage, that was your cannabis that you were cultivating?” the judge asked.

“Yes sir, for religious purposes," repled Swallick.

The 53-year-old says he was ordained through the Universal Life Church, a group which will ordain just about anybody almost instantaneously on the Internet. Swallick was prevented from discussing what he claims are religious uses of marijuana in front of the jury. The judge declared there was no evidence he practiced any recognized form of religion.

"This is nothing like the use of peyote by American Indians," a judge said.

After just 14 minutes of deliberations, the jury came back with its verdict.

"The defendant, Steven Swallick, is guilty of manufacturing cannabis," the jury foreperson read.

Swallick was taken back to jail, but his attorney says they will appeal.

"It is his religious right to participate in the sacrament of cannabis," defense attorney Gregory Schwendenman said.

But prosecutors say he was just using religion as an excuse to try to circumvent the law.

Swallick doesn't have any prior criminal convictions and that could figure into his sentence. He faces up to ten years in prison at his sentencing in December.