To the editor:
I'm responding to the Chuck Spence LDS anti-hunt letter (Forum, May 26). I must say that Spence missed the Mormon message regarding hunting and fishing. The prophets don't now and never have considered this activity as a "grievous sin." Church President Wilford Woodruff was an avid fisherman and hunter (sportsman).The sin is in wasting. Mormon scriptural reference to killing without "need" refers to wasting or not using what's been killed. All hunters and fishers know it's unethical and illegal to waste game meat, and that's what the Lord and his prophets have spoken against - not the sport itself.
Neither does "need" refer to the hunter's or fisher's proximity to or availability of a 20th-century meat market. This interpretation leads to the Pharisee's question of, "What distance must the hunter or fisher be from a market to justify his killing of an animals for use?" - like the "Sabbath day's journey."
The Lord does not condemn "recreation" or "sports." The prophets don't say only to eat the slaughterhouse commercially killed animals since they are killed for money as opposed to recreation or because the "sport" is removed (that is, the animals have no chance of escape).
Some church leaders have used words such as "indiscriminately killing animals just for sport or recreation" meaning for no useful purpose or to "waste" the animal. To do so is unlawful, wasteful and definitely "unsportsmanlike."
With my 31 years as an LDS Church-employed religious instructor, I can assure Spence that the prophets are not part of today's anti-hunting and fishing movements. Anti-hunters are among the church membership, but should not attempt to pass off their radical politics as church dogma.
Let's not be afraid for or condemn those who find pleasure in the recreational pursuits of hunting and fishing. License fees and sports equipment taxes have provided the funding that rescued America's game animals, which suffered critically low numbers at the turn of the century, by providing professional wildlife management and saving some critical habitats from development.
Actually, wild game meat is leaner and healthier eating then your domestically raised and professionally packaged meats. Spence can choose his meat, but please allow sports people to choose which meat they prefer.
Dave Scott
Sandy