Moose Droppings

Sunday Hunting Part 2 “Separation of Church & State”

Nov 26, 2007 @ 08:46 pm by Moose

People often refer to the First Amendment of the US Constitution as the “separation of church & state” which is a completely wrong interpretation of the 1st amendment. It disallows the government from establishing an “official religion” for the country but at the same time it does not prohibit the expression of Judaeo Christian principles that are integrate philosophy of the founding of this country.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Needless to say I believe that many of the liberals including most of the media has twisted the First Amendment to attempt to blot out any mention of God, to stop prays, and to block the rights of individuals to practice or display religion in public. I could expand even more on that topic but I won’t at this time.

How does this apply to hunting on Sunday? Those who want to have this law over turned would have you believe that this law violates the “First Amendment” by believing that it establishes an official religion within the State of North Carolina or by taking the more liberal interpretation it violates the “Separation of Church & State”. I don’t see that it does.
I will grant you that this law along with many others has some foundation within Judaeo Christian principles but it is not totally based on them. The government has not allowed a variety of activities on Sundays over time and many of them have been changed not because the violated the “separation of church & state” but the people got the laws changed. Many of us remember when stores use to be closed on Sundays for example. Currently in the State of North Carolina you can not purchase hard liquor on Sundays if this was a 1st Amendment issue one would think the popularity of alcohol would drive a challenge to the state’s stance.

In North Carolina we have a representative government which means we elect individuals to go to Raleigh and make the laws and change the laws for us. We do not have referendums for the people to decide but we tell our legislators what we want. Currently I don’t see a group of legislators that see this as an important issue to even attempt to put it on the docket. The legislators did ask for the North Carolina Wildlife Commission to study this issue and the results came back last year showing that there was not majority support among the people of the state to change this law. Even when you separate out the hunters from the study that sub group did not support the changing of this law.
Those who want to see this law changed could challenge it violates the 1st Amendment but I don’t think this will change it. They must get the legislators to change the law and in order to do that they must gain the support of many of the stake holders including land owners which is the next thing I’ll talk about in this series. The rights of property owners when it comes to the Sunday Hunting issue.

Sunday Hunting Part 1