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Letter from Maureen DeLorme - 13 Jul 2008

RE: Comment on Juli's Pain

Hello!

I just found your site, and am rejoicing over it. I have struggled with the issue of animal suffering since I was a small child -- one of my earliest remembrances was of being out in the country with my parents, seeing two hunters go by, and yelling at them that I hoped their guns backfired and killed them!. I was 7 years old.

Both my husband and I are born-again Christians and have come up against the issue of hunting amongst our friends, our fellow Christians, and our pastor [with whom, I had to write a letter against on this issue]. It has caused us a great deal of pain, depression, and isolation, especially amongst the people we SHOULD feel closest to - our fellow Christians.

Our most recent experience was seeing a full-page layout in our local paper, complete with photos of trophy kills and little children beaming from ear to ear while holding guns at a "Christian Outdoorsmen" event held here last year. The event was professedly to "share the gospel" [yea, right], recruitment, and bonding between men and their children while reveling in the torture and deaths of the animals they killed.

I wrote an open letter to the Christian Outdoorsmen, objecting to hunting for eating or pleasure, as well as their abhorrent practice of teaching children to kill animals; I also wrote a lengthy rebuttal column on scriptural admonitions about Christian stewardship of creation. It unleashed a torrent of nasty, virulent hate mail directed against us, even including death threats. The newspaper editor told me that several of these "Christian" men had contacted him and tried to keep us from being able to express our opinion in the paper in the future, and had made death threats against us.

We have learned that when it comes to hunting, nothing, including Biblical truth, will stop these supposedly "Christian" men from their blood-lust.

We continually write letters to Christian organizations protesting their support of hunting, including Promise Keepers, Saddleback Church, and others. We often feel lonely and sometimes I get so depressed I cry for all the animal suffering. I try to remember that God is just and there will be a day of reckoning, and I cling to Phillippians 4:8, and Rev. 5:13, among others for comfort. Still and all, it is hard, especially when in social situations where these men [often obnoxious with their braggadocio] feel it necessary to regale everyone with their animal-killing talk. At those times I often speak up and pointedly ask them to PLEASE STOP or walk away. I have to fight to keep myself from being bitter and angry, and remind myself that there are SOME good men in the world, like my husband...

Anyway, thank you for listening...and for your wonderful site!

Love in Christ,
Maureen DeLorme

Reply from Frank and Mary Hoffman

Dear Maureen:

Thank you very much for writing to us and telling us about your unchristian-like experiences within the church, and in the name of Christ. We also have been fighting against this hardness of heart for many years.

We we are born again, the Holy Spirit is supposed to enter into us and give us the unction to do everything in our lives according to the will of God. And since there was no death or killing in Eden before the Fall, and there is no death in heaven, both of which reflect God's creation and heavenly will, then we should not be causing suffering and death in this world. Furthermore, Jesus taught us to pray for our Father's heavenly will to be done here as it is in heaven, and to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. This, we have a hard time believing that these people are really born again, despite what they may profess to the contrary.

We would also like to see your letters and responses, and publish them on our web site. The more of us who speak out, the sooner the suffering will end.

In the Love of the Lord,
Frank and Mary Hoffman

Go on to: Letter from Linda Campbell - 23 Sep 2008 - Updated 25 Sep 2008
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