N.C. lawmakers lift ban on Sunday hunting

Monday, July 6, 2015

Social Issues




“Sunday is for rest — rest not just for man but also animals,” Christian Action League head Mark Creech said of compromise legislation to allow firearm hunting on Sunday but not during the morning worship hour.


By Bob Allen

Baptists in North Carolina opposed to ending the state’s ban on Sunday hunting got some accommodation in a compromise measure passed by the legislature that prohibits hunting with a firearm between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Sundays, hours when most rural congregations gather for Bible study and worship.

Mark Creech

Mark Creech, head of the Christian Action League — an interdenominational public policy organization representing conservative Christian groups including the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina — called the final version of the bill sent to the governor June 30 a “partial victory for us.”


“The Christian Action League appreciates the sensitivity and respect shown by lawmakers in adding this provision,” said Creech, who broke with fellow conservatives in the National Rifle Association to oppose lifting North Carolina’s century-and-a-half ban on Sunday hunting. “Moreover, without such a provision, I am concerned other Sunday laws already on the books that show deference to the churches could be jeopardized.”

Creech, a former Southern Baptist pastor, said many people today view any effort to defend a special observance of the Lord’s Day as old-fashioned, puritanical and impractical in today’s complex economy.

“But the fact is, if we have no concern for setting aside one day a week for special worship and focus on the things of God, we’re not likely to honor the Lord the other six days of the week,” Creech wrote in a commentary. “If we are concerned about using all the days properly, we should also be concerned about using the Lord’s Day right.”
Despite arguments to the contrary, Creech submitted that “if we are to reconnect with our spiritual moorings, if our nation is to once again be restored to its former glory, if we are truly to maintain our heritage, it will involve a return to honoring and keeping the Lord’s Day.”

Creech said Sunday rest is intended “not just for man” but for animals as well.

“Man and nature run on a seven-day clock,” he said. “One day is essential for rewinding. Sunday is for worship — a time to be still and listen for the voice God — a time to break away from our focus on the temporal and give ourselves to those things eternal — a time to concentrate on character building — a time to make certain we are adequately concerned for God’s business and not just our own.”

“This legislation by no means outlaws the Lord’s Day or destroys it, but it does add an additional distraction by law that simply allows it to go by default,” Creech said. “Human experience has shown us the importance of the Lord’s Day. We do not live by bread alone, neither are we the sum total of our amusements and indulgences. We live by a right relationship to God and in obedience to his commands.”

The Baptist Faith and Message describes the Lord’s Day as “a Christian institution for regular observance.”

“It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private,” the official confessional statement of the Southern Baptist Convention says in Article 8. “Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”
While most attention to revisions to the Baptist Faith in Message in 2000 focused on narrowing parameters regarding the role of women in the church and home, the reworded article on the Lord’s Day softened language used in 1925 and 1963 versions saying Sunday should be characterized “by refraining from worldly amusements, and resting from secular employments, work of necessity and mercy only being excepted.”

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Sunday hunting proposal divides churches, gun lobby in North Carolina

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To hunt or not to hunt, on Sunday, that is the question

Posted: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 11:46 pm

By LARRY CASE


“Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison.” Genesis 27:3/King James Bible

I have thought for a long time that Sunday hunting may be like bluegrass music or grits with breakfast, you either love it or you hate it. Personally I like bluegrass and grits, but I’m on the fence about Sunday hunting.


Now before any of you get all whooped up into a frenzy about whether I support hunting or not, just listen a minute. Remember that I most likely won’t see sixty again (don’t know how I made it this far), so I come from a time when we didn’t have Sunday hunting (here in West Virginia). We just didn’t do it; it wasn’t part of our tradition. We now have Sunday hunting in 14 counties in the Mountain State, and to be honest I don’t think it has caused a blimp on the radar.

Virginia opened up Sunday hunting on private land this year and the Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries people that I talk to have told me that it is the same there; it really hasn’t caused any problems. Pennsylvania, I understand, just went through a federal court case on this issue and the judge ruled against the group trying to allow Sunday hunting, so now the issue will have be decided by the state legislature.

One thing is for sure, as usual in our great nation, some states handle this differently than others. If my count is right, ten states now restrict Sunday hunting in one form or another. Six states ban Sunday hunting, four more allow some Sunday hunting but with restrictions. Some of these allow hunting on private land, Sunday hunting in certain counties, or for certain species.

Pennsylvania is considered one of the states with a ban on Sunday hunting, but allows the hunting of foxes and crows. Whew! Here is where I give you the usual disclaimer to check your states regulations before hunting anywhere on Sunday.

I am sure you have heard all the arguments for and against Sunday hunting. Proponents for Sunday hunting say the existing laws prohibiting it are left over from the old blue law days and were put into place to encourage church attendance and keep the Sabbath.

Myself, I don’t really have a problem with that, but I have had more than one hunter tell me that they often attend church and then go hunting, or they hunt early that morning (spring gobbler season) and then go to services.

Some folks against Sunday hunting have said that allowing this will cause more accidents and be a detriment to game populations, this however has not shown to be the case.

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Note:

Sunday is not the Sabbath, in case there was anyone led to believe that by the above article.

Read the Bible and you will see for yourself.

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Our View: Va. measure on Sunday hunting dies

Va. senator calls pastime a 'constitutional freedom'
Feb. 22, 2012

You can't hunt on Sunday in Virginia. It's one of the few states that bans it. The state code itself prohibits the practice, calling it a "rest day for all species of wild bird and wild animal life."

A bill approved by the Virginia Senate that would have repealed the Sunday hunting ban died in a House of Delegates subcommittee last week.

It was an issue that divided Virginians on scientific and moral grounds. But the bill should have passed, and the ban should have been lifted.

It wouldn't have cost state coffers a dime and would have encouraged more people to enjoy a proud pastime. It would have provided more commerce and helped thin overpopulated herds.

The state's ban on Sunday hunting is a throwback to a time when Sunday, like it or not, held more significance than it does today. That's not a criticism of the biblical idea of a holy day of rest or a criticism of people who use Sundays for worship, reflection and fellowship.

But society has changed. Sunday shopping and Sunday employment are commonplace today. It's hard to imagine otherwise.

Varying work schedules mean it's harder to work in hunting activities. The ever-increasing activities of children and families make it harder to find time to teach the tradition of hunting. More time is needed.

"We've designated hunting and fishing as a constitutional freedom in Virginia," said state Sen. Chap Petersen of northern Virginia. "How can you restrict hunting one day of the week?"

State wildlife biologists with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries say there is no biological reason to ban Sunday hunting. And increasing numbers of deer on the Eastern Shore of Virginia show more days to thin the population are necessary.

Sunday hunting could also reverse a trend of fewer hunters in the commonwealth, where hunting license sales have dropped 200,000 in the just over two decades. Studies have shown adding hunting on Sunday would pump almost $300 million into the state economy.

"It is time for the Commonwealth of Virginia to make a decision that the government should not be telling us, as property owners, what we can do on our property, and (when) we can do it," said state Sen. Ralph Northam, a native of Accomack County who today lives in Norfolk and represents the Virginia Shore.

Still, the issue remains sensitive. Parishioners of rural churches worry about the sounds of distant gunfire during worship services. People who enjoy outdoor pursuits ranging from hiking to horseback riding say hunting would interfere with other activities.

A bill that would end the ban on Sunday hunting seemingly is introduced during every General Assembly session. It would be advantageous for advocates to find ways to reach out to those who support the hunting ban and address their concerns so that the idea gets more traction next year.

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DNR: Four Hunters Shot During Opening

Posted Sunday November 21, 2010 1 day, 22 hours ago

courtesy of FOX 11

MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - The opening day of the gun-deer season was pretty hard on the hunters.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is investigating 4 shootings involving hunters.

Near ideal conditions meant big numbers of hunters in the field Saturday. In Wood County, one hunter trying to shoot a deer hit another hunter instead. That accident happened near Arpin. The victim is reported to be in serious condition.

A 40-year-old Edgar man was shot in the chest near the town of Wien in Marathon County about 2 hours later.

A hunter in Door County was hit in the thigh and, in Marquette County, a deer hunter was grazed by a bullet.

Wildlife managers and conservation warden say they heard fewer shots but more single shots rather than repeated shots, including that visual conditions were excellent and many hunters were probably taking a deer with a single shot. This is a change from 2009, when dense fog covered much of the state opening morning, and there was still a lot of corn left out in fields.

A small amount of snow still covered the ground in far northwestern and north central Wisconsin, which further improved hunting and tracking conditions in that area.

Wardens also say numerous reports indicate bucks are still pursuing does, reinforcing the rut, or white-tailed deer mating season, was still in progress. Many of the bucks being registered had swollen necks, another indication that the rut was still taking place.

With fewer antlerless permits available in about half of the state, and no antlerless permits available at all in areas of northeastern Wisconsin, many registration stations were reporting many bucks being brought in.

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