c. 1998 Religion News Service

LONDON _ A small but influential English religious group, which counts Prime Minister Tony Blair among its members, has ruffled the feathers of the British gentry by condemning fox hunting and other forms of killing animals for sport.”The use of power to control and kill, diverted into pleasure, is a fundamental betrayal of the power which the (biblical) Creation story tells us is God-given,”reads a pamphlet published by the Christian Socialist Movement (CSM), a group that counts a number of cabinet members and top church officials, as well as Blair, among its supporters and members.”As the early saints showed, hunting for pleasure and Christianity cannot be bedfellows,”the pamphlet said.

The attack on hunting was published on Dec. 26 _ Boxing Day _ one of the most important days in the English hunting calendar and a time when most packs of foxhounds meet for a hunt.

Church observers said that while a century ago it could be assumed most Church of England priests at rural parishes would have ridden to the hounds along with their gentry neighbors, there are today only about 50 clergy who hunt regularly.

The CSM condemnation of fox hunting and other killing for pleasure was written by Martin Palmer, religious adviser to the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

It drew the endorsement _ in a letter to The (London) Times _ of nine Anglican church leaders, including Archbishop of Wales Alwyn Jones; former Bishop of Salisbury John Austin Baker, and Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali.

The church leaders called the CSM statement”an important contribution to this ethical debate”and expressed the hope”this will be the last Boxing Day when the savage and terrifying death of an animal is treated as a sport.” But the Rev. Hugh Montefiore, former Anglican bishop of Birmingham, said he was”saddened to have been asked to sign”the letter.

He argued that fox hunting abolitionists had a”prior duty to prevent stress and suffering”among domesticated rather wild animals.”I would pay more attention to the predominantly urban abolitionists of fox hunting if they gave priority in their publicity to the stress suffered by millions of hens in batteries (coops) rather than the comparatively few foxes in the hunting field,”he said.

The ethics of fox hunting is being widely debated in English society. In November, the House of Commons passed a bill banning hunting with hounds by a 411-151 vote, but the bill is unlikely to become law because the Blair government is not prepared to commit the time to pushing it through Parliament.

In the pamphlet, Palmer argued pleasure hunting is wrong because it involves humans taking pleasure in an activity leading to the death of animals.

On the basis of the Genesis creation story he concluded that, for better or worse, humanity exercised the power of life and death over most of creation.”The uncomfortable fact which the Bible confronts us with uncompromisingly is that we are not the same as other species,”Palmer said.”No other species has so transformed their environment. No other species literally holds the existence of so many other species in its hands.” He said the central question is how such power is exercised.”If we believe we are here to have dominance over all creation, we will act in one way,”Palmer said.”If we believe we are here to manage creation as stewards, we will act in another way. And if we believe we are here to have a sacramental relationship with God and creation, to be a source of blessing to all life, then we will act in a different way again.” Palmer said many saints, including Giles, Hubert, and Francis, see hunting as barbaric,”as indeed comparable to the crucifixion of Christ himself.” And, he argued, on the basis of recent research, it is possible to argue that foxes, far from being a pest, might even help farmers by keeping down rabbits, rodents, and insects that damage crops.

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So, too, with stag hunting, which is often defended as a means of controlling the their population.

Palmer said the number of stags might need to be controlled”because human beings have not controlled their own numbers and thus have appropriated most of the deers’ original terrain.” A Christian attitude toward the control of deer numbers should stress as much compassion as possible, Palmer said. But, he added, the power humans have over the rest of creation could not mean taking pleasure in the killing of a fox or stag.

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