Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League pens an open letter to the NRA, taking umbrage at their promotion of Sunday hunting, particularly NRA’s assertion that opponents are a “small but vocal group,” and “tacitly endorse the view of animal ‘rights’ extremists”. I guess the truth hurts. Take a look at your Sunday hunting ban allies and tell me who they are? This isn’t just about Christian imposing their views on non-Christians. It’s also about Christians imposing their views on other Christians who have a different philosophy on the sabbath.
The Christian Action League is promoting a puritanical view of the Sabbath. I don’t mean that as hyperbole, they literally are. There’s also Continental Sabbatarianism that allows for recreation on the sabbath. So I want to be clear that the Christian Action League is speaking for one view of Christianity, and their view isn’t the only one out there.
These days hunting is more about recreation than labor, since very few hunt because they must. Those that do should be free to settle issues of their own conscience in their own way. We allow a lot of recreational activities on Sundays. Why do we still single this one out? In most states on the sabbath, you can buy and drink alcohol, go to the mall, boat and fish on our waterways, relax on the beach, or go for a hike in the woods. If Christian Action League wants to promote Puritan Sabbatarianism, it is free to do so, but I would argue some consistency is due.
Ironically … probably half (guessing at the %) of the Christian churches who actively promote the Sabbath as a day of rest probably celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday. In my many years of being active in the Christian faith the only church I’ve found that actively promotes the Sabbath in a Jewish manner as a day of no, or very limited, activity are the Seventh Day Adventists. And even then most of their flock (that I’ve known) ignore that edict to a great degree.
I attend a fairly conservative Reformed (Presbyterian) church. I also believe that Sabbath keeping is a matter of spiritual freedom to the believer, just as Paul says. If going hunting on Sunday is a cause of concern to some believers, then let them not hunt on Sunday. Without going into a huge theological discourse on what parts of the law were fulfilled by Christ, Romans 14 does a good job of breaking it down.
Sheesh.
And also … if people honor the Sabbath by not hunting (or anything else) solely because they will pay fines or go to jail if they do, then they aren’t honoring God. Ironically … if you want to honor God by taking the Sabbath as a day of rest, then make it legal to do anything on the Sabbath and then honor God by resting anyway.
I don’t get the discussion about one Christianity imposing rules on other Christianities. Doesn’t the first amendment matter anymore?
Well, when you’re asking government to get involved…. then it becomes an issue.
Not only that, but a Christian group asking the government to enforce their vision of what’s appropriate reminds me of the Pharisees who were told by Jesus to “render unto Caesar”.
As a life long Baptist, I’d ask them if they go out to eat after church. A day of rest for me but not for thee????
And…I find myself more in tune with God the creator when I’m out in the woods than I ever have in a church. So by banning hunting on a Sunday you may be limiting MY religious experience. (Yeah, I know…a walk in the woods is just as peaceful. Shhhhhh :-)
Early service is the only way a Presbyterian can get to lunch ahead of the Baptists around here. ;)
Honor the creator by resting on whatever day is YOUR Sabbath. I know people of many faiths that have different days as Sabbath. Friday for Muslims, Saturday for Jews and 7th Day Aventists, and Sunday for a majority of Chriatians.
Why should the majority discriminate against the minority religious people by preventing them from pursuing activities on a day that is not their sabbath? Isn’t this religious discrimination against Jews and Muslims?
I will honor my Lord and Savior on his Sabbath Day as I see fit, not as some busy-body tells me I must.
I’m am atheist, and I read the Bible.
I don’t recall anything about the Sabbath being something that had to be kept by the State even against people who are neither Christian nor Jew.
(Plus what rd said – which Sabbath, exactly? And when did that become the Government’s business?
And double what Stephen says. God isn’t happy you “honored the Sabbath” only because you’d go to jail otherwise. God’s happy when you choose to honor the Sabbath.
If you wanted to hunt but didn’t because of that, you sinned against the Sabbath commandment as surely as if you lusted in your mind and were guilty of adultery (see Matt. 5:28).
I’m frankly dubious of the Christianity of a “Christian” group that can’t manage as decent a bit of Theology as I can off the top of my head.
I mean, I don’t even believe and I know they’re barking up the wrong tree.)
I’m a Sabbath observant Christian. Sunday is not the Sabbath. Nowhere did he who created the Sabbath change its observance. I also work a real job 5 days a week. If I couldn’t hunt on Sundays, I couldn’t hunt. If I were a Pennsylvanian, I’d be part of a lawsuit against this obvious establishment of religion.
Going hunting is a way I commune with the Lord equally as much if not more so than being in church. For me it’s an ideal time to read the Bible and pray, being in a peaceful setting and observing God’s creation. Quite frankly I find it hard to see credibility in anyone claiming to be a Christian minister who doesn’t fully appreciate and understand that themselves.
Ah, jeez! The Christian Action League has been a pain for years here in North Carolina. They fought liquor by the drink for years as sinful but never objected that much to brown bagging.
For those that have lived in areas with bars that served cocktails for years, brown bagging was bringing your own bottle of booze to a restaurant and paying for a glass of ice or a mixer. You mixed your own drink at the table.
Here is a link to a PSA they put out about liquor by the drink in 1978. We voted that year to allow each county/community to vote on whether to have it or not.
https://archive.org/details/liquor_by_the_drink_psa