A Tree Stand Close to Heaven

Typically, I don't buy my books in gas stations. But waiting to pay for my pit stop in rural Pennsylvania recently, one book on the register rack leapt out at me-"With God on a Deer Hunt," by Steve Chapman. In my suburb, we have a "deer problem." Letters in the local papers complain about these "rodents" eating our shrubs and blocking our streets. Loosening residential hunting laws is often proposed as the best solution for curbing the rogue deer's numbers. Others argue that killing enough deer to make a difference would mean turning my burb into a war zone.

"With God on a Deer Hunt" looked like it might have some answers. As a rule, I try not to kill animals. I brake for chipmunks, and I slow down if I spot a deer even near the road. If I find a spider in my house, I release it outside. Hell, why not? Opening the door and setting a spider on a bush is just not as inconvenient as it may sound. Could there be Biblical justification for killing the deer?

I've since learned that this isn't a crazy notion. According to "Should We Hunt?" on the Christian Bowhunters' website, God clearly permits hunting in Genesis 27:3 and Leviticus 17:13. We may hunt animals, the bowhunters argue further, because animals are not "rational, moral, eternal bound beings." Those who disagree are "fully given over to the oriental religions and have sealed their fate to hell by the denial of sinful man, a holy, justice seeking God, a condescending Savior, a resurrected Christ and life with Jesus forever."

When heads are cooler, the Christian Bowhunters concede that, unlike as in ancient days, we no longer need to hunt in order to survive. Survival, however, is defined in many ways: in suburbia, the mandate to develop more malls is akin to survival.

Steve Chapman's book, it turned out, is not about controlling the deer population. Nor, unlike many of my neighbors, does Chapman dismiss deer as "varmints." If anything, he reveres the animal for its grace, beauty, and intelligence. At the mere sight of a deer, he says, "my nerves tend to turn into a bowl of shaky Jello."

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