The story of the Minnesota dentist who killed Cecil, the lion, by bow and arrow has forced me to delay posting the Blog I had written for today.
This man may not have done anything illegal, but he will never undo the moral damage to himself he has done. It doesn’t matter to me that he relied on his African guides to ensure he was killing a lion legally.
The fact is, he was killing a lion, period, for no reason other than the sport of it.
Had he not killed Cecil, but some unsuspecting lion or lioness not living in a protected area, the outrage should have been the same.
Safari hunting is both primitive and morally offensive under any circumstances.
Frankly, I feel the same way about any kind of hunting for sport. Killing an animal for the sheer enjoyment of taking the shot, whether with a bullet or an arrow, is a sick way to find pleasure.
Hunting for food is one thing. Hunting for sport is barbaric.
I said years ago in a lecture on peacemaking that I believed anyone who killed for sport would with a slight change in circumstances kill me. A few hunters in the audience took great offense at that, but I stood by what I said then and I do now.
If you are of the mind and heart that watching something die for no reason other than your having the power to make it happen, it would not be a giant step for the situation to arise that would cause you to kill another human being before thinking it through.
I don’t say this because I am a pacifist. Nor does it have anything to do with knowing that if someone you loved were threatened you might be willing to kill to protect them.
No, what I am talking about is what killing for sport does to a person’s character. It damages a person in unseen ways they do not even realize themselves. How do I know? Because they kill for the pleasure of killing. No one with a strong moral character can do that.
But that aside, the fact is, hunting for sport is totally and absolutely pointless. There is not one redeeming quality about it.
That the world is outraged about what this man did is a good thing. Demonstrations have already begun outside his office here in Minnesota. Whatever public scorn he gets is well deserved.
But hunting for sport will continue, and not just in Africa. It happens because of men (and even some women) who dare to call themselves “sportsmen.”
I think they give the word a bad name. They are not “sportsmen.” They are “little boys” pretending like they are real men.
The truth is, they will be real men only when they grow up.
linnposts.com 