It was a most interesting discussion last night. Joel, thank you for your input! Don't be shy. You write well and your thoughts a interesting. The discussion on what "dominion" means and how we should apply it to our walk with Christ brought out points that need to be considered by all of us. In the new "green" political landscape the Church is being challenged to answer for itself as to what dominion and stewardship mean and how the Church should live out its beliefs on these matters. Truth be told the Church in America has all too often stood within its communities for the "status quo." Oft times this is not good. Martin Luther King Jr. certainly took the Church and local bodies in the south to task for their errors in judgement and their sins of inaction when he wrote his letter from a Birmingham jail. In some sense Dr. King was a prophet of God. Perhaps there are others crying out to the Church on environmental issues. We ignore them at our peril not only from an environmental standpoint, but also from a leadership perspective. Should the Church lead or should we follow? What has been the Church in America's history on this point?
The tying of "manhood" to fighting, hunting, and war was interesting too. Hopefully some of you will read what Joel wrote and my comment in response. There are some critical considerations within that topic that we should noodle out. I stepped over a line (on purpose of course) when I indicated I had a problem with duck hunting as I really love watching ducks both paddle around and fly. I hope I didn't get you all riled up? Maybe I hope I did? Please don't get mad at me...don't shoot me! Try to see what I am saying from my perspective. At the same time try to listen to yourself. That is why I love to write. An author once responded to the question "What do you think about?" She said, "How do I know what I think until I have read what I have written?" The very process of writting out your thoughts helps you to develop them more clearly and accurately. I can remember a time when I had to breath the smoke of a fellow passenger while sitting next to them on a long transpacific flight. It irritated me, but it was "just the way it was." Now, how shocked we would all be at how insensitive this person was and we would demand that he or she put the "butt out" or suffer our full fury and the full weight of the law? Perceptions change! Perhaps we need to review our personal perspectives and perceptions some? Maybe those ducks deserve to be photographed as miracles in flight rather than be stuffed in a hunting bag shot full of bleeding holes? Just a thought. Loved last night!
4 comments:
Well Bruce I guess I won’t be asking you to join me on any hunting trips! You will be happy to learn that I too would rather watch or photograph ducks than shoot them. My reasons may differ from yours however – I really don’t care for the taste of duck. A friend of mine calls them “flying carp” and I totally agree!
As you know, I do shoot other animals and very much enjoy hunting on many levels. The times I have been in the woods or afield on a cool fall day have been some of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. Admittedly, being out with my camera is just as enjoyable from an experiential perspective; hunting just adds another opportunity to enjoy being outdoors.
Secondly, hunting involves the mastery of many skills to be successful. One must have a through understanding of nature in general as well as intimate knowledge of your chosen prey, their habitat, and habits. You must be conditioned enough and skilled enough to move about “in the wild” all day without hurting yourself or your hunting partners (Dick Cheney comes to mind) and quiet enough to approach game closely to get a shot. Many types of hunting (turkey, ducks, boars, and to some degree deer) also involve talking to or calling your prey in a convincing enough manner to get them to come to you. Of course you also need to master the art of shooting, which adds yet another set of skills to the mix. If you also hunt with a dog, as in common (nearly necessary) with upland birds or ducks, you must also learn the time honored skills of training, controlling, and working in cooperation with your dog. The necessity of this final skill was painfully brought home to me when a friend of mine failing to control his dog allowed it to run out onto a roadway while we were hunting for pheasants and the dog was killed by a passing truck.
Thirdly (now we get to the manly part) there is the camaraderie with your hunting partners. While there are many women who hunt, all of my personal experience has been hunting with other men. These shared experiences have provided many opportunities to talk mano-a-mano about the issues of life. While these conversations could have taken place in many other settings, there is something about being outdoors, being armed, and pursuing the timeless art of hunting that quickly builds the trust and closeness necessary for men to share with one another the thoughts and fears we so seldom express to anyone.
Finally, there is a deeply spiritual aspect to hunting. It is the act of killing that I may live. I suspect it has always been so since the beginning of time. I have never studied a culture (other than maybe our contemporary callused one) that didn’t acknowledge and honor the spiritual aspect and implication of killing animals for food. Killing of any animal for any reason is always serious business, if a man can do so casually, recreationally without thought or feeling his heart is very far from the heart of God; for God notices and cares about every sparrow that falls. While animals are not created in God’s image and they have no eternal soul, they are each one a specific and miraculous example of His creation. Unless you are a vegetarian someone kills much of the food you eat. I find meaning in being personally involved in the process. In our contemporary culture it is too easy to believe food comes from the grocery store since most of us are generations removed from framing, ranching, hunting, and gathering. I hunt in part to maintain the historical link to the timeless activity of personally providing the food for my table. I also find deep spiritual meaning in the first hand reminder that I live in a world permeated by sin where animals lose their life to maintain my physical life and where Jesus sacrificed His life that I may live spiritually.
Your buddy,
Mike
Mike, thank you for your thoughts. I hope some of the guys take the time to read and understand. I particularly liked your comment about "my camera is just as enjoyable..." That resonated with me. My office manager once went hunting. I am not sure she "mastered" anything regarding the skills of hunting, but she was successful. She managed to blow the front leg of a fawn off with her Winchester 45 cal. rifle. She testified that it hobbled away bleeding profusely. They finally found it dead from shock and blood lose. She was so appalled by the sight of "Bambi" dismembered that she was unable to eat any of its meat. At some level our technology far exceeds a sense of challenge or fairness for the hunted beast. Your comments about upland birds is more compelling as the relationship one develops with ones hunting dog can be a special thing.
I would love to hunt with you. Don't "label me" please! Ha, ha! It is the spiritual aspects of hunting, suffering, blood shedding for our lives that is at issue more than anything else. We must never objectify a duck as if it is a shooting clay. We must never glory in our skills at the expense of a living creature. It is easy to kill a duck. No human can make one though. Breaking things can be mindless. Making living works of art is breath taking. We must always be in awe of God's creatures and His handiwork. We must never "party" over the taking of our prey.
Loved your words. Write again.
ya know bruce, your comment about being able to break things but not make them really resonates with me. It kinda makes you wonder about why God allows us to break what he made. kinda like taking a preschool class and setting them loose in a glass factory.
Well said... all of it. I have some serious thinking to do about these subjects...
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