Q. Most Christians, really worldwide, would not agree with the view of Dr. Lincicum that seems to suggest Christians shouldn’t even have hunting rifles. It seems to me that the focus in the Bible including especially in the teaching of Jesus and Paul is focused on no violence against human beings. Do you think Lincicum overegged the pudding, as the Brits would say?
Prof. Chris Hays answers:
A. I think David covered himself here. On p. 114, he wrote: “For the sake of the current argument, I’m setting aside gun ownership for hunting or sport shooting or collecting.” And on p. 127 he wrote, “For anyone to responsibly purchase a gun (unless it is with the sole intention of, say, hunting or sport shooting), they must at some point imagine a scenario in which they would use the gun against a human.” So hopefully you and he could enjoy a pudding together and see eye to eye on this issue.
I suppose you could ask the further question, what hunting does to a person’s psyche (especially in light of Tracy Lemos’ essay)—but I don’t think that’s what David is talking about.
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