"Reconcile the Church's Teachings and the Church's Actions!"

[_Darth J]

In our previous episode, we attempted the challenge of reconciling some of the Church's conflicting scriptures.

Now we're going to move on to something a bit more challenging. That's right, it's time to play for fabulous prizes and eternal salvation as we try to:

Reconcile the Church's Teachings and the Church's Actions!

As we all know, if you're an animal lover, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the place for you. Here's some official LDS church curriculum telling us about the sanctity of animal life:

To promote our health and happiness, the Lord created all things of the earth for us to use and benefit from. They are to “please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul” (D&C 59:18–19). The Word of Wisdom suggests some foods that we should make part of our diet. These foods include all wholesome herbs and fruits (see D&C 89:10–11; 49:19). We may also eat the flesh of animals and of fowls of the air and use the skin of animals for clothing (see D&C 89:12–13; 49:18–19); however, we are not to kill animals for mere sport or pleasure and waste the meat (see D&C 49:21).

Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood: Basic Manual for Priesthood Holders, Part B
Living the Word of Wisdom

Got it? "We are not to kill animals for mere sport or pleasure." Now, let's compare this principle of the restored gospel with the Church not only owning a hunting preserve, but calling people on missions to work there.

Tending the flock
By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret News religion editor
Published: Monday, July 10, 2000 9:42 a.m. MDT

ELBERTA, Utah County — Every morning before sunrise, Clair Huff slips into his blue jeans, pulls on his boots, grabs a baseball cap and heads out the door to work with his charges. As a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he's shed the traditional dark suit, white shirt and tie.

His responsibilities don't include teaching people about church doctrine, improving their health or distributing food and clothing to disaster victims.

In fact, he doesn't deal with people much at all. His flock is literally that . . . a continually changing group of feathered friends: pheasants, geese, chukkars, doves and ducks. Instead of knocking on doors, he spends his time bush- whacking in the thick brush along the southwest shores of Utah Lake, looking for the perfect place to nurture his birds by planting numerous stands of corn, rye and other grains.

For more than two years, he and his wife, Beth, have been serving God in a most unusual way.

They operate a private hunting preserve owned by the LDS Church.

"I don't know of any other missionary doing what I'm doing," he says, pointing to a row of several hundred cedar trees he planted as a future wind break on the wind-swept acreage that stretches out in every direction. After spending an entire career as a wildlife biologist, including his latest stint as assistant director of operations for the state Division of Wildlife Resources, Elder Huff seems uniquely qualified for the volunteer job description he's taken on: turn this 11,000-acre piece of desert into a revenue-generating hunting preserve.

To do so, the Huffs left their new home in Draper more than 26 months ago to live full time in an isolated aluminum siding home miles from the nearest human inhabitant near the southwest shore of Utah Lake. Working 18 hour days, particularly during the hunting and planting seasons, is not uncommon for the couple, whose retired peers may have difficulty understanding the attraction of the unrelenting labor.

They've served longer than the traditional two-year missionary stint, but while the church looks for a suitable replacement biologist, the Huffs will stay — at least until November, when the majority of the hunting season is over.

In a way, he says, the two missionaries have become a part of the landscape itself. The only visible sign that sets Elder Huff apart from the few scattered ranchers in the area is the black missionary name tag he wears on the pocket of his plaid work shirt.
He admits he was reluctant to take on such a monumental task at first. "And it's been tough for (his wife), but we're making it work. We don't see many people out here, except during hunting season. Then we run the checking station," where hunters come to gain admittance to the private preserve, and where they must register the number of birds and other wildlife they take when they leave.

With thousands of birds flocking to the property in search of food, particularly during the fall hunting season, hunters stand a prime chance of "harvesting" their limit. But they pay dearly for the privilege.

Only a few pheasant and goose-hunting permits are sold each year, with hunting aficionados paying as much as $1,500 for the opportunity to hunt what is fast becoming an exclusive "club" for "members only." Once a hunter ponies up the cash to secure a permit, he's not only guaranteed a permit for the following year, but his chance to draw the prime target areas on the preserve improve along with his seniority in the exclusive group.

"All of our hunters are from Utah, many of them doctors, dentists and attorneys from Payson north to Ogden, including Park City," Elder Huff said.

The flatlands also provide an additional advantage for the well-heeled hunting crowd — a 2,600-foot landing strip where private aircraft can whisk hunters in and out of the remote preserve, saving them the long and lonely drive.
It is from the air that hunters can best see the vastness of the acreage they will explore, set amid additional thousands of acres of LDS Church farmland that stretches to the horizon on the south and west. Creating the type of habitat that will sustain a vibrant wildlife population alongside a huge agricultural operation would traditionally mean a clash between individual farmer and rancher. But because the church owns both operations, employees are working together to ensure that both the farms and the game preserve co-exist in a way that benefits everyone, Elder Huff said.

For example, runoff from the farm's irrigation operation is directed toward the game preserve, boosting the growth of both native plant life and more than 600 acres of dry-farm grain scattered throughout the property. Large holding tanks that are no longer used for farming now provide high-profile watering holes throughout the game preserve, attracting not only birds but rabbits, coyotes, deer and even antelope.

While the focus is on pheasant and other bird hunting, permit holders may also take limited amounts of other wildlife on the preserve during the appropriate season, Elder Huff said.

As noxious weeds and brush are controlled and scattered grains are introduced, the wildlife population on the preserve will continue to grow, boosting the number of hunting permits that can be issued to "harvest" the wildlife.
"Just like the farm derives revenue from harvesting crops, the preserve is designed to produce revenue when hunters harvest the wildlife here," Elder Huff said.

He realizes the concept isn't popular with everyone — particularly when the cost of hunting on the preserve is prohibitive for all but the most well-to-do.

"Hunting and guns are a big issue, and some people question whether hunting should even happen at all," Elder Huff acknowledged. "But the fact is, there are between 14 and 18 million hunters in America, and many more than that number that own guns. This is recreation for a lot of people. Some enjoy this as much as others enjoy camping in the mountains."

Consequently, there is a ready market "for the kind of hunting experience we provide here." Church land managers see it as a legitimate way to make thousands of acres of land productive that would otherwise lie fallow for lack of water, he said.

The preserve, known as Westlake Farm Commercial Hunting Area, is managed by the LDS Church's Farm Management Co., the same group that operates the adjacent farming operations and grain silos. The for-profit farming and ranching company is overseen by the church's Presiding Bishopric.
The church owns thousands of acres of farm and ranch land throughout the West, including the Deseret Land and Livestock Co., a private big-game hunting preserve scattered over 200,000 acres in northern Utah. Hunters from around the country vie for a limited number of elk and moose permits there that cost as much as $8,500 each.

Complete with a formal hunting lodge for housing and meals, the hunts are guided by a local outfitter. And while there's no guarantee that a hunter's bullet will find its mark, hunting on the preserve is so popular, there's a six-year waiting list to buy a permit.

Elder Huff is optimistic that the operation will turn a profit for the first time this year.

"This is a very viable habitat, and if they continue to invest the profits back in and find an innovative manager to run it, there's the potential to boost the number of permits we issue up to a maximum of about 250 someday."

And as the habitat, and consequently, the number and variety of wildlife improves, the price of the permits would logically go up as well, he said.

"Imagine if we got to the point that we could boost the price (of each permit) to $2,000 or $2,500. Times that by 250, and it doesn't take a lot to understand that this could be a very profitable operation."

Let's review:

1. The Church teaches that "we are not to kill animals for mere sport or pleasure."

2. As reported by a newspaper that the Church owns, the Church owns more than one hunting preserve where white collar professionals pay large amounts of money---cost prohibitive to most people---to kill birds and game for recreation.

Are you up to the challenge? Are you ready for the chance to win fabulous prizes, up to and including your eternal salvation? Then it's time for you to play:

Reconcile the Church's Teachings and the Church's Actions!

[_xolotl]

This is news to me I had no idea the church owned hunting preserves. I am not surprised at all that it is for profit, exclusive and charges a nice lump for its use. Did the church own any hunting preserves pre "don't shoot the birds?"

[_Joseph]

Do as I say, not as I do.

Or, as a BYU colleague used to say: "There is always Quick Repent".

[_The Mighty Builder]

is dead that even though he specifically commanded "DON'T KILL THE LITTLE BIRDS" and cited past DEAD prophets he was only speaking as a man. A reading of his conference talk will confirm that he really didn't mean it.


Fundamental Principles to Ponder and Live
President Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Nov. 1978, 43

It is a great joy to greet the priesthood of the Church this glorious night. All over the world we gather to worship the Lord and give him praise.
My brothers in the priesthood, it was a great thrill recently to have tens of thousands of the sisters of the Church assemble in hundreds of places around the world in a special meeting for the women of the Church. You will have had your own reports from your wives and sisters, mothers, and daughters about the meeting. We feel gratified that we were able to hold the meeting and that technology made it possible. We love the women of the Church! We have great respect for them.

In following up on that event, I want to counsel you as sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands. As you serve with the women of the Church, follow what Paul said when he urged Timothy to “intreat … the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity” (1 Tim. 5:1-2). We men of the priesthood ought to so do. We must be different than other men, and I am sure most priesthood holders are. Paul’s suggestion that we treat older women as if they were our mothers and younger women as if they were our sisters and to do so with “all purity” is excellent instruction. Men of the world may disregard women or see them only as objects of desire or as someone to be used for selfish purposes. Let us, however, be different in our conduct and in our relationships with women.

Peter urged us to give honor unto our wives. (See 1 Pet. 3:7.) It seems to me we should be even more courteous to our wives and mothers, our sisters and our daughters, than we are to others. When Paul said that a man who did not provide for his own and those of his own household was “worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8), I like to think of providing for our own as including providing them with affectional security as well as economic security. When the Lord told us in this dispensation that “women have claim on their husbands for their maintenance” (D&C 83:2), I like to think of maintenance as including our obligation to maintain loving affection and to provide consideration and thoughtfulness as well as food.
President Lee once observed that the “needy” around us may need friendship and fellowship as well as food. I sometimes think our own Latter-day Saint women are “needy” just because some of us are not as thoughtful and considerate of them as we should be. Our pantries can be filled with food and yet our sisters can be starved for affection and recognition.

Let us, brethren, support the sisters of our household in their Church callings as they so wonderfully support us. Let us not neglect them simply because they sometimes go on being good even when they are neglected.

Let our homes be filled with praise and commendation for all those of our household. Let us also, brethren, not get so concerned with our priesthood peers, those men we are associated with in our church assignments, that we neglect our eternal companions, for our association with our wives will be forever.

Our Father in Heaven was gracious enough to give to us for our pleasure and convenience all life on earth. Let me read to you from his personal statement:

“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

“And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Gen. 1:20, 29-31.)

I read at the priesthood meeting at the last conference the words to the verse of the song years ago, “Don’t Kill the Little Birds,” with which I was familiar when I was a child growing up in Arizona. I found many young boys around my age who, with their flippers and their slings, destroyed many birds.

In Primary and Sunday School we sang the song:
Don’t kill the little birds
That sing on bush and tree,
All thro’ the summer days,
Their sweetest melody.
(Deseret Songs, 1909, no. 163.)

As I was talking to the young men at that time all over the world, I felt that I should say something more along this line.
I suppose in every country in the world there are beautiful little birds with their beautiful plumage and their attractive songs.

I remember that my predecessor, President Joseph Fielding Smith, was a protector of these feathered and other wild life creatures.
While President Smith at one time was in the Wasatch Mountain Area, he befriended the creatures from the hill and forest. He composed four little verses as follows, and opposite each he drew a little picture. Of the mountain squirrel first, he wrote:

This is little Chopper Squirrel
Up in the mountains high.
He begs us for some grains of corn,
With thanks he says goodbye.
And then the bat was next:
This is little Tommy Bat
Who flies around at night.
He eats the bugs and ‘skeeters’ too,
Which is a thing quite right.
Then he came to the deer:
This is little Bambi Deer
Who comes to the cabin homes.
She licks the salt we feed to her,
And on the mountain roams.
And then the birds:
This, our little feathered friend
Who sings for us all day.
When comes the winter and the cold,
He wisely flies away.

Now, I also would like to add some of my feelings concerning the unnecessary shedding of blood and destruction of life. I think that every soul should be impressed by the sentiments that have been expressed here by the prophets.

And not less with reference to the killing of innocent birds is the wildlife of our country that live upon the vermin that are indeed enemies to the farmer and to mankind. It is not only wicked to destroy them, it is a shame, in my opinion. I think that this principle should extend not only to the bird life but to the life of all animals. For that purpose I read the scripture where the Lord gave us all the animals. Seemingly, he thought it was important that all these animals be on the earth for our use and encouragement.

President Joseph F. Smith said, “When I visited, a few years ago, the Yellowstone National Park, and saw in the streams and the beautiful lakes, birds swimming quite fearless of man, allowing passers-by to approach them as closely almost as tame birds, and apprehending no fear of them, and when I saw droves of beautiful deer [feeding] along the side of the road, as fearless of the presence of men as any domestic animal, it filled my heart with a degree of peace and joy that seemed to be almost a foretaste of that period hoped for when there shall be none to hurt and none to molest in all the land, especially among all the inhabitants of Zion. These same birds, if they were to visit other regions, inhabited by man, would, on account of their tameness, doubtless become more easily a prey to the gunner. The same may be said of those beautiful creatures—the deer and the antelope. If they should wander out of the park, beyond the protection that is established there for these animals, they would become, of course, an easy prey to those who were seeking their lives. I never could see why a man should be imbued with a blood-thirsty desire to kill and destroy animal life. I have known men—and they still exist among us—who enjoy what is, to them, the ‘sport’ of hunting birds and slaying them by the hundreds, and who will come in after a day’s sport, boasting of how many harmless birds they have had the skill to slaughter, and day after day, during the season when it is lawful for men to hunt and kill (the birds having had a season of protection and not apprehending danger) go out by scores or hundreds, and you may hear their guns early in the morning on the day of the opening, as if great armies had met in battle; and the terrible work of slaughtering the innocent birds goes on.

“I do not believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he needs them for food, and then he should not kill innocent little birds that are not intended for food for man. I think it is wicked for men to thirst in their souls to kill almost everything which possesses animal life. It is wrong, and I have been surprised at prominent men whom I have seen whose very souls seemed to be athirst for the shedding of animal blood.” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1939, pp. 265-66.)

One of the poets stated in this connection:
Take not away the life you cannot give,
For all things have an equal right to live.
—and I might add there also, because God gave it to them, and they were to be used only, as I understand, for food and to supply the needs of men.

It is quite a different matter when a pioneer crossing the plains would kill a buffalo to bring food to his children and his family. There were also those vicious men who would kill buffalo only for their tongues and skins, permitting the life to be sacrificed and the food also to be wasted.
When asked how he governed so many people, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.”
We look to the Prophet Joseph Smith for proper teaching. He said once: “We crossed the Embarras river and encamped on a small branch of the same about one mile west. In pitching my tent we found three massasaugas or prairie rattlesnakes, which the brethren were about to kill, but I said, ‘Let them alone—don’t hurt them! How will the serpent ever lose his venom, while the servants of God possess the same disposition and continue to make war upon it? Men must become harmless, before the brute creation; and when men lose their vicious dispositions and cease to destroy the animal race, the lion and the lamb can dwell together, and the sucking child can play with the serpent in safety.’ The brethren took the serpents carefully on sticks and carried them across the creek. I exhorted the brethren not to kill a serpent, bird, or an animal of any kind during our journey unless it became necessary in order to preserve ourselves from hunger.” (History of the Church, 2:71-72.)
Now, my brethren young and old, there is another matter I wish to mention. I wish to read for you a verse for your serious thought. The verse is called “Keeping Clean” and is in somewhat the same area as the other Brethren have talked about.

When you tell a filthy story,
Do you ever stop to think
What impression you have made upon the crowd?
Do you think the boys enjoy it?
Do you think because they laugh
That you have sufficient reason to be proud?
Do you know that you exhibit
All that is within your soul,
When the filthy story passes from your tongue?
It reveals your own defilement,
It proclaims your ignorance,
It disgusts all decent boys who love real fun.
Do you think that you exhibit any real common sense,
When you show the crowd how rotten is your mind?
Do you know that you dishonor
Both your parents and your friends?
Think it over, boys, and that is what you’ll find.
Be a little choice in language;
Be a little more refined,
If respect of those around you you would win,
You will have a great advantage over those who are inclined
To go through life in filth, and slime and sin.

Brethren, let us think about these things. Ponder them in your heart. Live worthily, keep the commandments, honor your priesthood and the Lord will love and bless you; and as his servant, I leave my love and blessing with you.

I want to mention one other matter before closing, and that is, we’ve been talking about the great missionary program which Brother LeGrand Richards mentioned in the first of the meeting. We now have some 26,606 missionaries. Every week the number is increasing.

There are many nations where we have not been able to get in, to get visas, or get passports; and it is very important. If we are to fulfill the responsibility given to us by the Lord on the Mount of Olives to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, then we will need to open the doors to these nations. I mentioned this the other day to the brethren in the Regional Representatives meeting. We’ve hardly scratched the surface. We need far more missionaries, and we need more countries that will think of us as being their friends and will give us an opportunity to come into their nations and give to their people the finest thing in the world—the gospel of Christ—which can be their salvation and their great happiness.

I’m hoping that every man and boy listening to me this night will make it a solemn practice in regular life to pray constantly for this great blessing to bless the brethren who are making a special effort to reach the leaders of these nations and to convince them that we have only good for their people. We will make them good citizens, we will make them good souls, and we will make them happy and joyous.

I hope that every family will hold home evening every Monday night without fail. Missionary work will be one of the strong points that will be brought before it; and the father and the mother and the children in their turns will offer prayers which will be centered around this very important element—that the doors of the nations might be opened to us and then, secondly, that the missionaries, the young men and women of the Church, may be anxious to fill those missions and bring people into the Church.

In China we have nine-hundred million people. Yesterday about fifty Chinese Saints came in to see me. I took them through the Church offices and told them about our programs, and then I said to them, “We have been talking about China today.” (That was the day of the Regional Representatives meeting.) “We’ve learned of that people’s good qualities and that the Spirit of the Lord seems to be brooding over them, to bring the possibility of the gospel to them.” I asked all of those Chinese people who were here at conference, “Will you guarantee that in all your home evenings and in all your family prayers and in all your public prayers you will mention this to the Lord? Now, I know he can do it without our help; but I think he would want to know that we were interested in it and that we would appreciate it greatly.”

So I’m hoping that, beginning now, the prayers of the Saints will be greatly increased from what they have been in the past, that we will never think of praying except we pray for the Lord to establish his program and make it possible that we can carry the gospel to his people as he has commanded. It is my deep interest and great prayer to you that this will be accomplished.

And now in closing, I wish to express appreciation for all that has been said by these beloved brethren who have spoken. I bear my testimony to the truth of the gospel and to the greatness of it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

SEE, HE WAS ONLY KIDDING.

[_harmony]

Does it make a profit? We have no idea. The books aren't open.

Another of a long list of reasons why they are not open, it seems.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

I would be willing to pony up a fair sum of money in exchange for the opportunity to chase mo'pologists around a paintball range for a few hours.

Having one running through on occasion in full temple garb would cost extra.

[_xolotl]

If I recall correctly, during Zions Camp Joseph rebuked the elders for toying around and harming snakes. He then stated (more or less) that there will always be enmity between man and beast if man continues to find pleasure at the expense of God's other creations. If the millennium is to ever come about the church needs to close those preserves and not shoot the birds. Unless, of course, Joseph was just telling those men his opinion.

[_MCB]

It amazes me that LDS can glare at someone drinking coffee, or beer, but yet totally ignore 1/3 of the WOW, which promotes the limitation of intake of meat protein. One simple question---- why?

To me, it may have something to do with pride. " We have enough money to eat a lot of meat, so we show our neighbors how wealthy we are by eating meat."

Is there any other reason why they obsess with 2/3 and ignore the other 1/3?

[_Polygamy-Porter]

It amazes me that LDS can glare at someone drinking coffee, or beer, but yet totally ignore 1/3 of the WOW, which promotes the limitation of intake of meat protein. One simple question---- why?

To me, it may have something to do with pride. " We have enough money to eat a lot of meat, so we show our neighbors how wealthy we are by eating meat."

Is there any other reason why they obsess with 2/3 and ignore the other 1/3?

They probably would be 2/3 the size that they are now if they would obey the other 1/3.

[_Uncle Dale]

...

1. The Church teaches that "we are not to kill animals for mere sport or pleasure."

2. As reported by a newspaper that the Church owns, the Church owns more than one hunting preserve where white collar professionals pay large amounts of money---cost prohibitive to most people---to kill birds and game for recreation.
...

This was the sort of thing that kept getting Jesus in trouble with the Pharisees and
the Temple Establishment in Jerusalem.

It works out even worse than the old directive "Do as I say, not as I do."

The LDS hunting preserve example comes out more like: "Don't just do as I say;
also just do, without consulting whatever else I've said."

I don't eat meat, so it isn't something I think about much.

But my cat eats meat: mice and lizards, when she can find them.
Even though she gets plenty of store-bought cat food every day.

Not only does she NOT need to hunt down the little critters --
she need not torture them either. -- But she does, mercilessly.

And I'm partly to blame for letting her do that -- letting her
resort to her most brutal instincts/desires, because she enjoys
hunting and torturing her prey -- and then leaving it to die.

I'm an enabler.

But at least I do not preach "don't kill the birds" conference talks
to kitty -- and then charge her cold hard cash to go hunting.

UD