With deer/turkey season right around the corner in our area, I thought now would be an appropriate time to look at this question.
The answer is no. Thanks for reading.
The context of the question appears to be hunting, so I’ll approach it from that angle. Hopefully everyone reading this condemns unnecessary cruelty to animals! A person willing to inflict pain on any living thing for no good reason is probably not capable of showing godly love. Hunting (the way most people do it) is not the same thing as animal cruelty.
- After the flood humanity was given total control over animals and permission to eat meat. Maybe this was done as a consequence of massive, planet-wide changes. The post-flood environment was nothing like pre-flood, and lifespans were radically shortened. Perhaps eating meat was a way to compensate (through diet) for all of these changes (cf. Gen 9.3). God made it very clear that eating meat (which necessarily means harvesting) was no longer prohibited.
- There’s an ethical way to take game and an unethical way. The overwhelming majority of us are very cognizant of this.
- Deer meat is a great source of protein and an affordable way to feed a family for several months or more. The same can be said about most of the other forms of game normally harvested in North America. Most hunters I know harvest game for the purpose of providing affordable meat for their families. It’s also a phenomenal time to bond with family and friends!
- Hunting is a critical part of conservation, contrary to its usually-negative portrayal in most movies and shows.1
- If you have a Christian family member who has strong negative feelings about hunting, maybe don’t strap a deer to your hood and drive to their house (cf. Rom 14.15-17).
- Moore, A. (02.24.2021). The role of hunting in wildlife conservation, explained. NC State University College of Natural Resources. https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2021/02/hunting-wildlife-conservation-explained/ ↩︎
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