I’m a woman who grew up around guns (my father was a police officer) and went on to marry a hunter (who has graced our table with venison and our walls with dead deer heads), but increasingly I’ve found that many people I meet are against gun ownership and hunting. (Poor Bambi!)
So when I heard that Dustin Ruth, lead vocalist for Tooth and Nail’s modern rock band Ruth, is a hunter, I decided to ask him a few questions about hunting, guns and the environment. He responded with some intelligent – and very witty – insight into the heart of a regular guy who knows that sometimes, a gun means the difference between eating and going hungry, and that God is evident in all Creation.
First, I asked Dustin for his thoughts on an American culture that has become increasingly anti-gun.
I have found that people who are anti-gun often times have never held a gun let alone shot one, and are very much not in touch with a culture of having guns [and] … just fear them and for good reason. But I do think in a matter of hours hanging with me and the band up in the amazing forests of the Northwest with a couple sweet guns and a few pop cans, we could definitely gently change their feelings. All I know is I like guns and the outdoors and shopping (when it’s for guns and stuff).
Do you eat what you kill?
Yes. I grew up in a pretty financially poor family. My dad is a mechanic and owns his own shop. If my dad got a deer, we had steak, jerky and burgers. If he didn’t we had to kill one of our handful of cows in our back acre. I had a cow named Pepsi. Needless to say I prayed pretty hard that he got a deer or elk each year. FYI: one year Pepsi was gone. I never knew where he went. I was really sad but I remember my dad BBQ’ed some burgers for me that night to cheer me up.
How did you feel the first time you killed an animal?
Every time I have ever shot an animal I have felt bad for a brief moment. I think that’s healthy and respectful. After that short initial feeling I have felt very excited and a sense of accomplishment, as well as feeling blessed at the same time.
Can you be a Christian and a hunter?
I definitely think Christians, just like every human being, have the right to hunt and fish and raise cattle to eat. God says so to Adam in Gen 2:15, where the Bible says God put Adam in the Garden of Eden “to work it and take care of it”. This meaning “work it,” to take something from it, and “take care of it”, by giving something back.
Many people might ask, How can you be a hunter and concerned about the environment?
I want to preface this with the fact that there are hours of great conversation in this. Hunting and fishing licenses and tags bring the majority of money to the wildlife resources in your state. Look it up. If I’m wrong I will give you a free poster. (If you come to a show and prove it.)
I think the world is pretty messed up in some of the things we get fixated on and other things we promote that are so damaging. Most eco-central/global-warming mantra people probably have a clothing item on that was made somewhere for pennies, in a country riddled with war. Or have a computer that they will throw away in 2 to 4 years for a new one. This will end up in most likely an Asian country or developing country to be “recycled” … Basically they turn into massive land-polluted cities where families there get paid pennies to remove valuable parts and then let the remains rot around them as they develop disease and serious health problems.
I believe Christians should be the most responsible with what God has given us. I’m not totally sure what our role should be, other than innovators and examples of good stewards of what God’s given us. FYI: I have a 1974 Ford Bronco with a 302 V8 5.0 engine that gets about 12 mpg. But I put a hybrid sticker in the rear window. What can I say? It makes me feel better about myself.
What have you learned about God from hunting?
I’m sure whatever style of hunting you do, you will get a lot of valuable lessons from God. Most of the things God has taught me through hunting have to do with how amazing and creative He is in His creation. It’s so complex and so perfect. Also He has taught me a lot about change. Your favorite hunting spots change so much over the years, from trees growing up to roads getting washed out, etc.. It’s always challenging to ponder the mysteries of time and memories and how God sustains all life.
After their successful 2007 debut Secondhand Dreaming and extensive touring with Switchfoot and Relient K on the “Appetite for Construction Tour with Habitat for Humanity,” rock band Ruth returns with their sophomore release, Anorak. The word “anorak” is British slang for an obsessive enthusiast, and refers to a person who has an unfathomable interest in something and feels compelled to talk at length about it. For a band that focuses their artistic endeavors on exploring their faith, it’s an apt title for their fantastic sophomore release, an album filled with modern rock and insightful lyrics. The album releases today, and as Dustin told me,” I live in my fiance’s aunt and uncle’s garage due to a lack of income (so buy our new record PLEASE!).”
For more about Ruth, visit the band’s website
posted October 29, 2008 at 3:53 pm
we bought your record Dustin! my brother got one and so did I!
posted June 12, 2010 at 3:09 am
It’s a very valid question that you have posed yourself, what would Jesus say about my hunting His animals for sport and pleasure?
It’s not a matter of life or death, whether you need to kill to sustain your body, but to kill for the sheer thrill and enjoyment. To kill out of the lust-for-blood and to raise your ego around the camp fire, telling of your brave hunting quests. To then laugh and joke about it while drinking and maybe feasting on the dead animal’s corpse.
We need to remind ourselves that if we have any belief in a Higher Power, then that same Power breathed the very same air into that animal’s lungs, as It did ours. We can search the Bible and find passages that suit our killing sprees, but our own conscience is the answer to many of the questions we ask ourselves.
What would Jesus do?
Surely, as a Christian this is the first and foremost question I have to ask?
Would He have purposely gone out and killed an innocent animal for fun or even just for the sport of it. Would He have stood next to His dead prize and puffed up His shoulders and smiled at His brave deed?
I have to say: NO.
In all the Bibles I’ve read and seen, especially the old illustrated one’s, I’ve only seen Him kneeling with animals collected around Himself. Even pictorial depictions of His birth, I’ve only seen animals collected around Him in wonderment. His messages and sermons were always about ending suffering and pain. The same physical attributes animals and man share.
At birth, does the mother of that animal not love her young? Does the young animal not also feel the comfort of the warm milk passing down its throat while suckling? Is their bond of love, compassion and togetherness any different from ours?
We have to pause and ponder on this thought. Is it right? Is it right to hunt and kill to fill a moment of passion? Is it right to end that animal’s life to enrich our own selfish ego? It’s all gone in a moment.
I’ll share two passages with you from “This Is My Word” taken from “The Original Christians”. The whole book can be found and downloaded from the internet and it’s quite an interesting read. It focuses on Jesus and His honest relationship with animals.
May all of you who read this find mercy in your heart and kindness in your spirit.
My Best Regards,
William De Britaine ———————————————-
CHAPTER 21
1. And it came to pass that the Lord departed from the city and went into the mountains with His disciples. And they came to a mountain with very steep paths. There they met a man with a beast of burden.
2. But the horse had collapsed, for it was overladen. The man struck it till the blood flowed. And Jesus went to him saying, “You son of cruelty, why do you strike your animal? Do you not see that it is much too weak for its burden and do you not know that it suffers?”
3. But the man retorted, “What have You to do therewith? I may strike my animal as much as it pleases me, for it belongs to me; and I bought it with a goodly sum of money. Ask those who are with You, for they are from my neighbourhood and know thereof.”
4. And some of the disciples answered, saying, “Yes, Lord, it is as he said, we were there when he bought the horse.” And the Lord rejoined, “Do you not see then how it is bleeding, and do you not hear how it wails and laments?” But they answered saying, “No, Lord, we do not hear that it wails or laments.”
(Chap. 21:1-4)
I, Christ, explain, correct
and deepen the word:
Even when a person has acquired an animal, it is nevertheless not his property. Just as the spiritual body, the soul in the human being, is part of the eternal Being – because the Eternal has created the spiritual body, and the spirit being lives through the Eternal in the eternal Being – so was the animal created by the eternal Creator-Spirit and is part of the life which is and lasts eternally – God.
The whole of infinity is serving love, serving life. Man, too, is called by Me, Christ, to serve his neighbour in a selfless way. This also includes his second neighbour. For the animal, too, is endowed with the gifts of selfless serving and serves gladly and readily the person who loves it.
When man does not selflessly love his neighbour, that is, his fellow man, he will not serve him selflessly either. He then transmits his selfishness also to the worlds of animals, plants and minerals.
An animal cannot speak. It suffers and endures silently and can hardly express its pain and grief. Only the one who selflessly loves people, animals, plants and stones perceives the pain and agony endured by the animal.
The egocentric person, the domineering man, expects his fellow man to serve him. He also demands that an animal serve him beyond its capacity and strength. He gives orders – and does not serve. For this reason, he inflicts unspeakable torment on people and animals. If a person makes his fellow men dependent on him – as if they were slaves – he will also enslave the animals. The one who no longer listens to his conscience becomes hard-hearted towards man and animal. He cares solely for his own interests, his self-interest. He is full of self-importance and, in this process, forgets that his neighbour and his second neighbour, the animal, suffer under his egocentric dominance. Nor does he sense anymore what his neighbour and the animal need. When a person’s senses have become brutal, the whole person is poor in feeling. However, he will react more sensitively when his own ego is addressed and his actions are questioned.
Recognize: The one who is solely with this world also looks at just the small, limited world of his ego. He thereby becomes numbed to the law of life, thus becoming a spiritually dead person. Spiritually dead people are deaf and dumb to the true life. They will be born again into matter, as long as this is still possible according to the laws of incarnation, so that, in the course of their changing fate, they will learn and experience that their neighbour, who stands beside them, and the animal feel and suffer – particularly since all of them receive their life from God.
May it go well for those who recognize that their further existence can mean torment or freedom, because man reaps as he sows.
The time has drawn near in which the heavily burdened souls will no longer be able to enter into the temporal, because the light then dwells on earth. The shadows of the human ego will then no longer be able to rule the world, because the will of God is lived and becomes manifest.
The one who has consecrated his life to God has become selfless. His life is then one of selfless service to his neighbour. The one in the Spirit of the Lord no longer speaks of thine and mine. He lives in the fullness of God from eternity to eternity, in what God has bequeathed to him: all the Being, the eternity.
Therefore, the one who truly lives beholds what the spiritually dead do not see and hears what the spiritually dead cannot hear: the life, which flows from man, animal, plant and stone, from the whole of infinity. For the one who lives in Me is one with all people, beings, animals, plants, stones and with the whole of infinity. He understands the language of love.
5. And the Lord became sad and said, “Woe to you; because of the dullness of your heart, you do not hear how it laments and cries to its heavenly Creator for pity; but thrice woe to the one against whom it cries and wails in its torment!” (Chap. 21:5)
I, Christ, explain, correct
and deepen the word:
Woe to those who sin against man, animal, plant, stone and against everything God has given them for a life in Him! Many people have become numbed in their very nature. Their human ego strives solely for its own benefit. Thus, the selfish person deals unfairly with his fellow man and exploits the nature kingdoms, too. Man of this time [1989] has laid and is laying hands on the great earth-man, the earth. He pollutes the earth, violates the life on it and interferes in the atmosphere through his use of nuclear power, as well as of chemicals and other things. Thus, he violates the earth and all that lives on it, and destroys its atmospheric mantle, which provides it and all earthly life with protection.
Especially in this turn of time, the turning point from the old sinful time to the Era of Light, animal and plant species are calling out – with the forces of their sensations, with the language of their consciousness – to their Creator for help and rescue. Animals and plants are suffering unimaginably from the excesses of the human ego, of human selfishness. Oppressed life calls for mercy and deliverance.
God, My Father, the Creator of all forms of life, has heard the oppressed creatures. Many animal species are dying out because of man’s negative practices. Their spiritual powers either return into the soul of the earth or go into the pure spheres of the eternal Being. For many, this is a deliverance. Many of them, however, will come back when the light dwells on earth, because people then live in unity with God.
Know that every misdeed and every ill-treatment that has not been atoned for – whether towards humans, animals, plants or even stones, that is, towards the whole earth and the atmosphere – falls back upon the initiator. Recognize: Many animals are given to man so that they may serve him. Many are given to preserve the ecological balance. However, a right, reciprocal serving can exist only when man has unfolded the filiation-love that comes from the Father-Mother-God and has unfolded the creator-love which is effective in the animal, plants and stones. Then he can communicate with all Being.
Where there is pure communication, the eternal, cosmic energy also flows. But where the powers of love are bound, there is hard-heartedness, selfishness and slavery. There is neither understanding nor tolerance; there is only taking and no flowing out of the giving and receiving.
It is law: What man does unto the least of My brothers, unto his fellow man, that he has done unto Me, the Christ – and in the last analysis, also unto himself; for what man sows, he will reap. The harvest always corresponds to the seed. When a person violates the eternal law of selfless love, he turns away from the eternal energies, which he needs for a healthy life, for the well-being of his soul and of his body, as well. Therefore, the one who turns to the world and its shadows turns away from Me, the light. And the one who turns away from Me steps into the shadows of the human ego. The one who stands in the shadows suffers and wastes away and becomes the slave of his own ego and makes of his neighbour also a slave.
Recognize: Only the person who stands in the shadows himself and is thereby already enslaved allows himself to become the slave of the domineering man. In this case, he sells himself to the domineering man for a few pieces of silver, and thereby betrays his true Lord. This happens towards humans, animals, plants, the earth and the atmosphere.
6. And He went forward and touched the horse, and the animal stood up, and its wounds were healed. But He said to the man, “Go on your way now and henceforth strike it no more, if you, too, hope to find mercy.”
7. And seeing the people come to Him, Jesus said to His disciples, “Because of the sick, I Am sick; because of the hungry, I go hungry; because of the thirsty, I suffer thirst.” (Chap. 21:6-7)
—————————————-
CHAPTER 34
The Love of Jesus for All Creatures
The one through whom God flows becomes a blessing (2-6). Respect for all that is created; disrespect is subject to the causal law (7-10)
1. When Jesus noticed how the pharisees murmured and took offence that He gained and baptized more disciples than John, He left Judea and went again to Galilee.
2. And Jesus came to a tree, beneath which He dwelt for several days. And Mary Magdalene and other women also came there and served Him with what they had, and every day He taught all who came to Him.
3. And the birds gathered around Him and greeted Him with their singing; and other creatures came to His feet, and He fed them, and they ate out of His hand.
4. And when He departed, He blessed the women who had shown Him their love; and He turned towards the fig tree and blessed it, too. And He said, “You gave Me shelter and shade against the burning heat, and moreover you gave Me food.
5. Be blessed, grow and be fruitful and let all who come to you find peace, shade and food, and let the birds of the air find their joy in your branches.”
6. And behold, the tree grew and flourished in quite an extraordinary way, and its branches extended more and more upwards and downwards, so that no similar tree of such beauty and size and none with such an abundance and such goodness of fruit was to be found. (Chap. 34:1-6)
I, Christ, explain, correct
and deepen the word:
The one who lets the blessing, the power of God, flow through him is a source of strength for human beings, animals, plants and minerals.
Only when a person lets God flow through him will he be a blessing for everyone and everything. The one through whom God streams loves people, animals, plants and minerals selflessly. The one who incorporates people and the nature kingdoms into his life is in communication with the all-life. Life in its diversity thanks him by giving itself in abundance, and it will give to all who come to the source of life.
The one who respects life also knows the eternal home. Already on earth, he lives in the middle of the paradise of God, for the nature kingdoms serve him and the elements obey him.
7. Jesus came into a village and saw there a stray kitten, and it suffered from hunger and cried out to Him. And He picked it up, wrapped it in His robe and let it rest at His breast.
8. And when He went through the village, He gave the cat to eat and to drink. And it ate and drank and showed Him its thanks. And He gave it to one of His disciples, a widow called Lorenza, and she took care of it.
9. And some of the people said, “This man takes care of all the animals. Are they His brothers and sisters, that He loves them so?” And He said to them, “Verily, these are your fellow brothers from the great family of God, your brothers and sisters who have the same breath of life from the Eternal.
10. And whoever cares for the least of them and gives it food and drink in its need does this to Me, and the one who deliberately allows that one of them suffer privation and does not defend it when it is ill-treated allows this evil to happen as if it were done to Me. For just as you have done in this life will it be done to you in the life to come.” (Chap. 34:7-10)
I, Christ, explain, correct
and deepen the word:
Verily, I say to you, life is the breath of God. Whether it is man or animal, they are all breathed upon by o n e power, by God.
God is life, and life is breath. The one who deliberately robs his neighbour of his breath by killing him will fall into spiritual death. In the realm of the souls, he will be a stranger; for he does not know his own consciousness and, therefore, does not know whether he lives or is dead. Even if a person deliberately and knowingly allows that people and animals be tortured, neglected and ill-treated, he will experience the same or something similar.
So, what man does to his neighbour and second neighbour, that is, the animals, plants and stones, he does to Me, and thus to himself.
Recognize that even stones are creation-powers of God, and they, too, should be met with respect.
And so, the seed of man will be his harvest.
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