Sacred Grizzlies? (Griz Bless America!)

One of several considerations recently before a federal judge: Native American tribes from seven states and Canada claim that lifting protections for grizzly bears, and allowing the hunting of grizzlies, violates their religious freedom because they consider the grizzly sacred.

This may not seem the strongest case in context of the modern world. But consider this: Many of the same people ridiculing it believe in talking snakes, immaculate conception and a resurrected guy who walked on water.  Some of them believe it’s a violation of their religious freedoms to bake a cake for certain individuals because of cherry-picked words from a contradictory, archaic book written thousands of years ago and translated numerous times into dozens of conflicting versions. 

Personally, I believe if there’s a god at all it’s tied to the energy that runs through all things; the sun and the rain and the air and the sedges and the elk and the trout and the huckleberries that run through me and back to Earth. (As Edward Abbey put it, i’m an “Earthiest,” I believe in what I can touch, smell, hear, taste and walk on.) And I believe one of the quickest routes to god is through the digestive system of a grizzly bear. 

I’m going with the original Americans on this one. Thank Griz for the First Amendment!