Thou Shall Not Kill On Sunday

March 17, 2006 5:03 PM

No Hunting on the Sabbath, Y'all: RALEIGH, N.C. - A longtime lobbyist for the National Rifle Association has stepped down from the job because he can't support the group's endorsement of Sunday hunting in North Carolina.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy (34 comments total)

I wonder if he goes out to eat after church?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:04 PM on March 17, 2006

Making the woods safe from vice-presidents at least one day a week.
posted by mischief at 5:09 PM on March 17, 2006

hunger strikes are so passe.
posted by visit beautiful mount weather! at 5:11 PM on March 17, 2006

Making the woods safe from vice-presidents at least one day a week.

Um, I'm pretty sure Cheney doesn't care whether or not he's hunting legally. Laws don't apply to the executive, remember?
posted by JekPorkins at 5:12 PM on March 17, 2006

besides, NC passed a bill a few years ago that legalized the removal and consumption of roadkill so he should be okay.
posted by visit beautiful mount weather! at 5:12 PM on March 17, 2006

Shomer shabbos dude.
posted by thanatogenous at 5:14 PM on March 17, 2006

This is so not fppworthy.

Why does anyone care?
posted by blacklite at 5:24 PM on March 17, 2006

Well, thank the gods they're out to make sure that I don't exert myself on the Sabbath.
posted by agent at 5:35 PM on March 17, 2006

I posted it because I found it to be an interesting juxtaposition of hunting and godliness: you can shoot at animals 6 days a week, just not on the Sabbath.

So here we have a guy who is a) very religious and b) very much into shooting and gun rights. He chose God this time, but I am guessing that if a burgler showed up Sunday night McClees wouldn't hesitate to blast him to kingdom come.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:40 PM on March 17, 2006

He has a wife named Henri? Sweet.
posted by ginbiafra at 5:43 PM on March 17, 2006

Secret Life of Gravy: Not a problem, it's ok to hunt people on Sunday if it's in self-defense.
posted by agent at 5:46 PM on March 17, 2006

Yes. Yes. We shouldn't slaughter the Lord's creations on the Lord's day. That would be bad. The Lord would not approve. He would probably send a plague of boils onto our pet locusts' asses. What? You don't have a pet locust? HERETIC! HEATHEN! YOU MUST DIE!

I am on drugs, yet I still know that religion is utter, utter bollocks. How cool is that?
posted by Decani at 5:47 PM on March 17, 2006

Exodus 20:8 "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holey."

Killing animals on the sabbath has a lot of support in the Bible. You just have to remember to burn the bodies as a sacrifice.


Tell me, why?
I don't like Sundays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.
posted by Silki at 5:52 PM on March 17, 2006

Quick search shows this has been a recent issue in other states, too. Kinda neat to see someone have a bit of conviction about the Sabbath these days. When I was a kid living for a while with my great-aunt and grandma in Brooklyn, I was fascinated by the other relatives in the building who wouldn't push the elevator button on Saturday and cooked enough the day before so they wouldn't have to use the stove (they were orthodox Jews). Now, in this case, it seems kind of quaint, but still admirable in a weird gunpowdery kind of way.

I posted it because I found it to be an interesting juxtaposition of hunting and godliness

And you couldn't be bothered to nose around for a couple of other interesting links to flesh it out? Come on; this was a flimsy post that just a little effort could have made much more interesting. Make it worth our while, eh?
posted by mediareport at 5:59 PM on March 17, 2006

juxtaposition is not an excuse.
posted by public at 6:05 PM on March 17, 2006

This just in: the lobbyist is in critical condition in a local hospital after being shot in the face while on a hunting trip with the Vice President. And he's apologized to Don Cheney for his disloyalty.
posted by orthogonality at 6:44 PM on March 17, 2006

Leviticus 15:19 - When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening. ²⁰ Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. ²¹ Whoever touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. ²² Whoever touches anything she sits on must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. ²³ Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, he will be unclean till evening.

Next up: Intelligent Design trial falters because a senior lawyer for the Discovery Institute steps down saying that she can't enter a courtroom during her "unclean" time of the month.
posted by Ryvar at 6:50 PM on March 17, 2006

Next up: Ryvar decides that bathing is stupid, since it's mentioned in the Bible.
posted by JekPorkins at 6:58 PM on March 17, 2006

Next up: JekPorkins on the existence of humor in the Bible.
posted by Ryvar at 7:01 PM on March 17, 2006

Only-semi-related, but:
A friend of mine recently yelled at me once he found out I was Jewish, as he'd been asking me to light his cigarettes and pipes on Shabbat. I had no idea it didn't matter whether or not I practiced.

I felt kinda guilty, until I lit the pipe for myself.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:02 PM on March 17, 2006

Genesis 21: 6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.
posted by JekPorkins at 7:06 PM on March 17, 2006

The Code of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in its section prohibiting Sunday hunting, has a justification along the lines of "to provide a day of rest for man and beast", which is wonderfully quaint. I'll just add that if you're a non-hunter living on the side of a mountain in the Blue Ridge that is heavily deer-hunted, you are damned appreciative of the Sunday respite during the season (so you can stick your nose out the door without it getting shot off) even if you support church-state separation in every other area of your life.
posted by Creosote at 7:34 PM on March 17, 2006

Damn, good call Jek. I knew there had to be a couple - the New Testament generally has a lighter tone - but I totally forgot that one.

Let us come together in brotherly love.
posted by Ryvar at 7:47 PM on March 17, 2006

And you couldn't be bothered to nose around for a couple of other interesting links to flesh it out? Come on; this was a flimsy post that just a little effort could have made much more interesting. Make it worth our while, eh?
posted by mediareport at 8:59 PM EST on March 17 [!]

I don't care for multiple link posts myself: usually they are a waste of space, links that most people don't bother clicking on. Now if you, mediareport, are interested in the subject, maybe you "could do some nosing around" and find a link you want to add.

What? Did you want me to link to the NRA page? The North Carolina Government site? The listing for "Blue Laws" in Wikipedia?

Sometimes short and sweet is best.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:47 PM on March 17, 2006

Ryvar: Agreed. *smooch!*

(btw, I consider that particular verse conclusive proof that God is a big joker - even if it is taken out of context and the Bible isn't really proof of anything about God)

Back on track: Thanks for the FPP, Secret Life. It could have been a little deeper, but it's good to see that there's at least one lobbyist out there with principles, even if they're not the same principles I believe in.
posted by JekPorkins at 7:53 PM on March 17, 2006

it's good to see that there's at least one lobbyist out there with principles,
Exactly. How many stories have we seen about religious leaders being hypocrites-- this guy is the complete opposite.

But the other part of this story that I find so fascinating (and alluded to in my first comment) is the idea of what constitutes "resting on the Sabbath."

The Jewish law is very precise on this point with modern updates as they arise (for example, no skating) but Christians don't have the luxury of specifics. Each person must figure it out for him/herself. In this case, McClees has decided that hunting is not resting. But what about other sports, such as golf? It isn't illegal to play golf on Sunday, but why is that different from hunting?

Also do you go out to eat after church or do you go home and let your wife do all the cooking and clean-up? I don't think there is as much resting for mothers and wives.

Sorry, it is such bad form to comment so much in one's own post. I read this story this morning, and I thought quite a bit about it all day-- it is the sort of small story that would usually get little attention and I thought others might find it interesting as well.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:42 PM on March 17, 2006

Sabbath? You can't hunt on Saturday? Oh, you mean Sunday. That's not the Sabbath. The papists declared it as such, somewhen long ago, but that didn't make it so.

Creosote: Very good point.
posted by Goofyy at 9:39 PM on March 17, 2006

maybe you "could do some nosing around" and find a link you want to add.

You'll notice I already did. The point, Secret, is not to add filler, but to add meaningful context to a fleeting daily news story - a very *short* fleeting daily news story. Linking to an eleven-sentence AP story is a lazy post by any standard. If you can't be bothered to offer this community more than that, then you probably shouldn't have bothered to post in the first place.

Take some time, craft a relatively rich and meaningful post - and I honestly don't give a fuck how many links it has, so long as you point to something more than a tiny wire story. Yeesh. The front page deserves at least that much effort.
posted by mediareport at 9:49 PM on March 17, 2006

mediareport: take your pills. ;-P

BOT, the anti-hunting contingent is saying: 1 down, 6 to go.
posted by mischief at 5:23 AM on March 18, 2006

This is the most retarded thing I have ever read. And I've read Xenocide.

That said:

I don't want to start any blasphemous rumours
but I think that God's got a sick sense of humour
And when I die
I expect to find
Him laughing
posted by Sparx at 6:06 AM on March 18, 2006

thanatogenous beat me to it
posted by Afroblanco at 7:35 AM on March 18, 2006

This is just an extension of east coast "Blue Laws" that also exist in many liberal east coast states, a hold over from the 1600's. While many conservative western states who were formed later don't have these laws. Growing up in Maryland, I had always assumed that it was illegal everywhere to hunt or buy alcohol or go the mall on sunday. Yes, malls were (are?) closed on sunday, except the movie theater (they're not selling material objects).
As to the "rest for man and beast" part, hunting on the east coast is so different than wersern hunting. A lot of agricultural areas support huge numbers of deer, many more than when the land was covered by woods. But there is little woods for the deer to hide in. City folk pour in and fill the woods, I've seen herds of panting deer standing in the middle of a field in the middle of the day; they can't go in the woods, it's full of hunters.
posted by 445supermag at 7:43 AM on March 18, 2006

Wikipedia on Blue Laws.
posted by 445supermag at 7:50 AM on March 18, 2006

I also found it interesting that the cited law from North Carolina repeatedly referred to hunters as being male, even though it was revised in 1994.
posted by Whistlepig at 1:24 PM on March 18, 2006