TO HAVE DOMINION:

Christian deer hunters take Scripture to the stand: We're one of the more religious states; Sixty-two percent of Minnesotans claim to be members of an established faith. It's well known that Minnesotans also love their deer-hunting. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before someone put these two things together. (Jeff Horwich, December 22, 2002, Minnesota Public Radio)

"Unfortunately, I poached my first deer while I was squirrel hunting at age 11, and things just went downhill from there," [Tom] Rakow says. "Deer hunting was my God."

A teenage Rakow was carrying an archery permit when he shot his first deer with a .22. He stuck an arrow in its side and got away with it. When Rakow was born-again at 21, after watching a televised crusade by preacher Billy Graham, he realized deer hunting was his own false idol. He says either he had to find a way to harmonize God and deer hunting, or the hunting had to go.

On this day we're moving over a plowed field, into tall grass on our way to deer stands in the forest. Needless to say, the Rev. Rakow is now at peace with his two passions. He ministers to 80 people in his independent Silver Lake church each Sunday, and spends up to 30 days in the woods each fall.

Rakow's theology of hunting balances two main messages from the Bible. The first one is the chance to appreciate God's natural splendor. Rakow marvels at pheasants and mice that cross our path, and of course the deer whose scrapes, rubs and tracks are left along the path we're following.

"Ultimately God created that deer," Rakow says. "What did I have to do with it? He fed that deer in the wild, caused the antlers to grow. I didn't have any part of that."

But the Bible's second message is the mandate to hunt. As one example, Rakow cites Psalm 8.

Psalm 8 (King James version)
1   O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2   Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3   When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4   What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5   For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6   Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7   All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8   The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9   O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

On The Splendid Table last Sunday, a woman called in and asked the host how to keep a turkey tender while it roasted. Her case presented particular problems because it was a wild turkey that she'd shot herself and then skinned rather than plucked. The thought occurred that you just wouldn't hear some European or Japanese woman calling in with that problem. Don't know what that means, but somehow it must be good for us and bad for them. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 25, 2002 11:02 AM