Bryan Fischer
Shoot these man-eaters on sight
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Another human being is dead because of a grizzly bear attack, and hapless humans aren't doing anything about it. In fact, they are recommending that people in Yellowstone line up to be the next hot lunch.
Brian Matayoshi was mauled to death by a sow grizzly on July 6 when Matayoshi and his wife came across it while hiking. The grizzly, after turning Matayoshi in hamburger, went after his wife, lifted her up by her daypack, dropped her on the ground and left, her appetite apparently satisfied by gorging on her husband.
According to the Associated Press, park officials are going to do precisely nothing about this man-killer. "Park officials decided not to pursue, trap and kill the sow grizzly, saying she was behaving naturally in defense of her cubs and was unlikely to cause more problems." Well, of course, except for any other human beings who happen to get in her way. And since there may be more than 1000 grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and Yellowstone only gets about three and a half million visitors a year, I see no reason for concern. What could possibly go wrong?
The Old Testament has been preserved for us, in part, so that we may see how God deals with nations. It's not that its prescriptions are to applied woodenly or literally today, but there are principles of public policy embedded there which can be extracted and applied to contemporary challenges.
As I have written before, God's word to ancient Israel was that a growing danger from wild animals is a sign of a nation in rebellion against God. "If you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments...I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock" (Leviticus 26:14, 22).
In the case of the United States, there is no need for God to "let loose the wild beasts" against us, because we are doing a fine job of it all by ourselves. And we are doing it to ourselves because we have rejected the teaching of Scripture that God has given to man authority over the animal kingdom. Man has been given authority by God over the earth, to "subdue it and have dominion over...every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:28). This authority certainly extends to putting predators out of our misery.
But placing a higher value on human life than on animal life is now rejected by secular fundamentalists as "specie-ism" and a form of hateful bigotry. Can't be thinking that man is made in the image of God and animals are not, now can we?
The federal government, in a gross violation of the 10th Amendment, forced the introduction of Canadian gray wolves into Idaho in 1996. (Note: these were Canadian gray wolves, which are not native to Idaho.)
Despite warnings from ranchers and hunters, the bureaucratic tyrants from Washington, D.C. plowed ahead, and the wolf population has grown so rapidly, and so many livestock have been mangled, that officials have finally been forced to allow these wild beasts to be hunted. They first tried having government bureaucrats shoot them from helicopters and planes, but that didn't come close to solving the problem. Now they're handing out wolf tags like candy to try to protect what's left of Idaho's elk population and ranching industry.
Before, a rancher couldn't shoot one of these predators until it actually sank its jaws into one of his animals. If he even shot it in mid-air as it launched toward one of his calves, he'd wind up in jail. Reality has now forced officials in Idaho into compliance with Scripture whether they realize it or not.
According to Scripture, a nation operating under God's blessing and in obedience to his moral standards, in contrast, will have less and less to fear from predators. "If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them...I will remove harmful beasts from the land" (Leviticus 26:3, 6).
Word now comes of another grizzly attack in Yellowstone, on a man peacefully minding his own business while sitting on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. The man saved his life by throwing his daypack at the bear, who paused to rip through the food in the pack, giving the man time to escape.
Said a bright government bureaucrat, "We're pretty sure that he was starting to associate humans with food." D'ya think?
The bear weighed 258 pounds, and, according to AP, "had a long history of being chased from developed areas — at least 25 times from Lake Village, Bridge Bay Campground and Fishing Bridge area within the past few years."
"Until this latest incident, it hadn't really been known to charge anybody. This particular incident kind of prompted us to take another look at it," said a park spokesman. Just how stupid do these people sound?
The grizzly, as Lewis & Clark discovered to their shock and awe, is a relentless, savage, virtually unstoppable man-eater. Here one of these beasts threatened humans more than two dozen times, and nobody thought about shooting it? I submit this represents criminal negligence on the part of federal bureaucrats and a mindless moral equivalence between the value of human and animal life.
If fact, secular fundamentalists have actually elevated animal life above human life. Humans are expendable, in their worldview, and must be exposed to greater and greater danger lest we interfere with the natural right of grizzlies to chomp down on human heads.
Now get this. The helpful wizards of smart from the government don't advise folks to try the technique that saved this man's life. According to the AP, they "advise visitors not to drop their packs or throw them at bears, which risks exposing the animals to human food and isn't always an effective defense." Yeah, far better to let them eat you instead of your baloney sandwiches.
You can't carry firearms in a national park, since the federal government feels free to deprive the people of their Second Amendment rights anytime it feels like it, so human beings are left utterly defenseless against these hard-charging predators. And since park rangers apparently would rather have the bears eat you than your Lunchables, poor humans are just plain out of luck. Resistance is futile.
Instead of shooting these Jeffrey Dahmers of the animal kingdom, officials in Grand Teton National Park are now prohibiting people in cars from even watching grizzlies if they are less than 100 yards away. This comes in the wake of two incidents in which a female grizzly charged at people watching her from on top of their cars. Yellowstone is about to adopt the same policy.
Last month's mauling was the third fatal attack by grizzlies in the Yellowstone area in just over a year.
It's time to shoot these man-eaters on sight. Human life is of infinitely more value than the life of a grizzly. If it's a choice between a man and a grizzly bear, the grizzly bear is going down. Let's get back to Scripture, and spend less time saving grizzlies and more time protecting creatures made in the image of God.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
August 3, 2011
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Another human being is dead because of a grizzly bear attack, and hapless humans aren't doing anything about it. In fact, they are recommending that people in Yellowstone line up to be the next hot lunch.
Brian Matayoshi was mauled to death by a sow grizzly on July 6 when Matayoshi and his wife came across it while hiking. The grizzly, after turning Matayoshi in hamburger, went after his wife, lifted her up by her daypack, dropped her on the ground and left, her appetite apparently satisfied by gorging on her husband.
According to the Associated Press, park officials are going to do precisely nothing about this man-killer. "Park officials decided not to pursue, trap and kill the sow grizzly, saying she was behaving naturally in defense of her cubs and was unlikely to cause more problems." Well, of course, except for any other human beings who happen to get in her way. And since there may be more than 1000 grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and Yellowstone only gets about three and a half million visitors a year, I see no reason for concern. What could possibly go wrong?
The Old Testament has been preserved for us, in part, so that we may see how God deals with nations. It's not that its prescriptions are to applied woodenly or literally today, but there are principles of public policy embedded there which can be extracted and applied to contemporary challenges.
As I have written before, God's word to ancient Israel was that a growing danger from wild animals is a sign of a nation in rebellion against God. "If you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments...I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock" (Leviticus 26:14, 22).
In the case of the United States, there is no need for God to "let loose the wild beasts" against us, because we are doing a fine job of it all by ourselves. And we are doing it to ourselves because we have rejected the teaching of Scripture that God has given to man authority over the animal kingdom. Man has been given authority by God over the earth, to "subdue it and have dominion over...every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:28). This authority certainly extends to putting predators out of our misery.
But placing a higher value on human life than on animal life is now rejected by secular fundamentalists as "specie-ism" and a form of hateful bigotry. Can't be thinking that man is made in the image of God and animals are not, now can we?
The federal government, in a gross violation of the 10th Amendment, forced the introduction of Canadian gray wolves into Idaho in 1996. (Note: these were Canadian gray wolves, which are not native to Idaho.)
Despite warnings from ranchers and hunters, the bureaucratic tyrants from Washington, D.C. plowed ahead, and the wolf population has grown so rapidly, and so many livestock have been mangled, that officials have finally been forced to allow these wild beasts to be hunted. They first tried having government bureaucrats shoot them from helicopters and planes, but that didn't come close to solving the problem. Now they're handing out wolf tags like candy to try to protect what's left of Idaho's elk population and ranching industry.
Before, a rancher couldn't shoot one of these predators until it actually sank its jaws into one of his animals. If he even shot it in mid-air as it launched toward one of his calves, he'd wind up in jail. Reality has now forced officials in Idaho into compliance with Scripture whether they realize it or not.
According to Scripture, a nation operating under God's blessing and in obedience to his moral standards, in contrast, will have less and less to fear from predators. "If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them...I will remove harmful beasts from the land" (Leviticus 26:3, 6).
Word now comes of another grizzly attack in Yellowstone, on a man peacefully minding his own business while sitting on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. The man saved his life by throwing his daypack at the bear, who paused to rip through the food in the pack, giving the man time to escape.
Said a bright government bureaucrat, "We're pretty sure that he was starting to associate humans with food." D'ya think?
The bear weighed 258 pounds, and, according to AP, "had a long history of being chased from developed areas — at least 25 times from Lake Village, Bridge Bay Campground and Fishing Bridge area within the past few years."
"Until this latest incident, it hadn't really been known to charge anybody. This particular incident kind of prompted us to take another look at it," said a park spokesman. Just how stupid do these people sound?
The grizzly, as Lewis & Clark discovered to their shock and awe, is a relentless, savage, virtually unstoppable man-eater. Here one of these beasts threatened humans more than two dozen times, and nobody thought about shooting it? I submit this represents criminal negligence on the part of federal bureaucrats and a mindless moral equivalence between the value of human and animal life.
If fact, secular fundamentalists have actually elevated animal life above human life. Humans are expendable, in their worldview, and must be exposed to greater and greater danger lest we interfere with the natural right of grizzlies to chomp down on human heads.
Now get this. The helpful wizards of smart from the government don't advise folks to try the technique that saved this man's life. According to the AP, they "advise visitors not to drop their packs or throw them at bears, which risks exposing the animals to human food and isn't always an effective defense." Yeah, far better to let them eat you instead of your baloney sandwiches.
You can't carry firearms in a national park, since the federal government feels free to deprive the people of their Second Amendment rights anytime it feels like it, so human beings are left utterly defenseless against these hard-charging predators. And since park rangers apparently would rather have the bears eat you than your Lunchables, poor humans are just plain out of luck. Resistance is futile.
Instead of shooting these Jeffrey Dahmers of the animal kingdom, officials in Grand Teton National Park are now prohibiting people in cars from even watching grizzlies if they are less than 100 yards away. This comes in the wake of two incidents in which a female grizzly charged at people watching her from on top of their cars. Yellowstone is about to adopt the same policy.
Last month's mauling was the third fatal attack by grizzlies in the Yellowstone area in just over a year.
It's time to shoot these man-eaters on sight. Human life is of infinitely more value than the life of a grizzly. If it's a choice between a man and a grizzly bear, the grizzly bear is going down. Let's get back to Scripture, and spend less time saving grizzlies and more time protecting creatures made in the image of God.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
