The Mark of the Beast!!!
Prophetic Intelligence Briefings
Sunday Closing Law in North Dakota · July 27, 2011
The North Dakota Catholic Conference defended a state-wide Sunday closing law restricting Sunday shopping by saying that the law is in place to “preserve the common good by ensuring that society is not overtaken by work and profit.” The regulation benefits everybody, they said.
“The purpose of North Dakota’s Sunday closing law is not to impose times of worship. Nor is it to demand adherence to religious doctrine,” wrote Christopher Dodson, executive director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference.
While critics suggested that partial opening on Sundays does not “honor a Sabbath day,” Dodson responded by saying that the laws “‘serve a secular, not religious purpose.’ He said that all people need periods of rest and free time for the sake of their families, social lives and religious activities.” “Only when communities set aside time devoted to these functions can human persons prosper and develop,” he said.
Dodson pointed out that individuals, families and communities can experience negative consequences if they do not have common periods of rest.
Please note the idea of “common periods of rest” for members of society. This is a common argument used in favor of Sunday closing and Sunday rest laws. A common period of rest was one of the reasons why God gave the command to observe the seventh day. Now this very principle is being used to argue for the preservation of an alternate common rest day in place of the one God commanded.
Closing stores on Sunday mornings is not merely a secular purpose. That is usually when church is convened. And people naturally associate Sunday mornings with church. This suggests that there is more to the idea of Sunday closing laws than just secular purposes.
Also, Dodson did not fail to mention Roman Catholic Social doctrine when he said that the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, “describes public authorities’ duty ‘to ensure that, for reasons of economic productivity, citizens are not denied time for rest and divine worship.’”
In spite of his own denials that the law serves a religious purpose, Dodson, who represents the Catholic Church in North Dakota nevertheless, includes in its purpose the human need for “divine worship.” He gives away the underlying purpose for Sunday closing. It is so that people can attend church. While they can attend church even if the shops are open, the Sunday closing law removes the temptation to shop, in theory, thus boosting church attendance by providing a common free time, when people normally go to church. Of course the Catholic Church doesn’t want to say that openly, but fundamentally, Sunday blue laws, as they are called, have this underlying purpose.
If common free time and store closing laws were provided on Thursday morning, the law would indeed be secular since very few, if anyone, goes to church on Thursday. But the fact that the law is coordinated to restrict shopping on Sunday morning inherently tends toward an underlying religious purpose.
The fact that the Roman Catholic Church is defending and promoting the so-called “secular” Sunday laws undermines the argument that they are secular. The Roman Catholic Church is a religion and is inherently promoting its own religious purposes.
Dodson concludes by saying that “Sunday closing laws are not about honoring the Sabbath day… They are about honoring people and families.” But the law doesn’t actually give a purpose. He is making that up. It is his opinion and that of the Catholic Church. The North Dakota law is inherently religious in its language, and it says not a word about families.
Interestingly, the wording also states that the law does not apply to a person who “in good faith observes a day other than Sunday as the Sabbath,” as long as he closes his business to the public on the same time period on the day he observes.
This provision does protect the minority faiths that observe a day other than Sunday as the Sabbath, but the way it is worded, clearly implies that the whole idea of the law in the first place, is for a religious purpose.
The notion that Sunday closing laws benefit the “common good” is essentially an argument for the cooperation between the church and the state. The “common good” refers to the majority of society. In other words, so long as the majority supports Sunday closing laws, the common good is served. However, majority decisions do not usually protect the rights of minority groups, particularly those of a religious minority.
Those defending Sunday laws have to misrepresent the laws themselves in order to support their claims.
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