Should Blue Laws mandating closures of non-essential commercial activity on Sunday be revived? Some integralists advocate so, as do some Calvinists who envision a more vigorous Christian public life. Some advocates see Sabbath laws as not just a spiritual imperative but also a protection for workers compelled to labor on Sunday.
The plausibility of restoring Blue Laws, most of which faded in the 1970s, is low. Most Americans almost certainly want the convenience of 7-day shopping. It’s my personal experience that even most devout Christians at least occasionally shop on Sunday. The constituency for resurrecting Blue Laws seems small.
Almost certain opponents of Blue Laws include not just business owners, both large and small, but also millions of retail employees who depend on income from Sunday, income they would lose under Blue Laws. Ironically, resurrecting Blue Laws would at least in the short term advantage white collar upper income employees who already have Sunday off and would barely be affected. The sacrifice would largely fall on small business owners who would lose income and employees who would lose Sunday wages. Large retail businesses also possibly would suffer and have to fire employees. Lower income people, especially immigrants, who often have multiple jobs and rely on Sunday for errands and shopping also would have to sacrifice or at least rearrange their already crowded schedules.
These negative results of Blue Laws do not necessarily trump the argument for them. The Sabbath is one the greatest societal gifts from Judaism and Christianity. Many pre-Christian civilizations toiled 7 days a week. The day of rest is a social and spiritual blessing. Maybe the economic losses are more than worth a unifying civic Sabbath on the same day. There should be a break from the constant hum of commerce, which modern society only experiences any more on Christmas and to some extent Thanksgiving.
Of course, Blue Laws are not required for believers to celebrate Sabbath. But how many devout U.S. Christians rigorously honor the Sabbath? The shopping malls would be less crowded if Christians were mostly absent. How many churches and clergy strongly stress rigorous Sabbath observance? I’ve heard a sermon on this topic maybe only once in my life.
What if churches and clergy were to stress vigorous Sabbath observance as central to faithful Christian living? What if Sundays were more intentionally designated for church going, prayer, self-reflection, rest and time with family and friends uninterrupted by work and commerce, including internet shopping? What if every Sunday were a sort of Thanksgiving? Few would quarrel with this vision. For Christians to model Sabbath rather than politically lobby for Blue Laws seems at this time wiser and more plausible, not precluding that Blue Laws may be desirable and attainable in the future.
Blue Laws advocates insist that voluntary Sabbath observance does not preclude advocacy for encoding into civil law. They exclaim: “Why not both?” Perhaps, but church goers, themselves a minority, cannot be persuasive in a cause when they already largely fail to practice what they seek to impose on society. Laws cannot be implemented without strong majority support, and they cannot be sustained if widely disregarded. There may be jurisdictions where intense lobbying could by narrow majorities encode Blue Laws. But if much of the population evades those laws by shopping in other jurisdictions, or violates the law directly, those laws will not endure and will be revoked. All sustainable laws require an approximate public consensus.
Advocates for Blue Laws are admirably seeking public policies through which Christians might spiritually reinvigorate America as part of their vision for a more Christian society. These conversations are needed. But with commitment to religious institutions and formal religious affiliation continuing to shrink in America, such advocacy at this point seems almost desperate. Contrary to the integralist dream of Catholicizing America by seizing the levers of the managerial state, there are no laws that will of themselves spiritually revive America or reverse the demise of institutional Christianity.
Christians need not withdraw from vigorous social and political witness to understand that such societal revival can only be achieved through the internal reanimation of Christian institutions. Admittedly, this task is harder than political advocacy.
Integralists and some others romanticize the ancient monarchs who Christianized their nations by effectively baptizing their society while wielding their swords. Constantine, Charlemagne and other warrior emperors played their providential role. But it’s hard to think of a modern Christian ruler who substantively advanced Christianity through his governance. More often, there was a backlash. Francisco Franco’s 40-year pro-Catholic dictatorship helped to ensure Spain would become one of Europe’s most secular nations.
America has been Christianized numerous times in its history through waves of religious revival unconnected to public policy and typically disdained by ruling and cultural elites. The First and Second Great Awakenings were central to building American democracy, its egalitarianism, and its thirst for social reform, including anti-slavery. Subsequent religious revivals fueled the demands for societal change in the late 19th and early 20th century. The changes included restrictions on labor abuse, women’s enfranchisement, and anti-corruption drives. For better or for worse, Prohibition was achieved largely by decades of Christian commitment to temperance, but instructively, its overreach ensured it could not endure. Prison reform, civils rights and women’s equality in law and employment would not have occurred absent Christian ministries that only later led to public policy. The pro-life movement, now seemingly on the verge of overturning or at least curtailing Roe v. Wade, was largely rooted in localized Christian spiritual vitality that included providing help with crisis pregnancies.
A renewed commitment to serious Sabbath observance by churches and by Christians will, if sustained, have social and potentially social implications. What if Christian business owners start voluntarily closing on Sundays? What if Christian employees start declining to work on Sundays? What if more Christians decline to shop on Sundays? What if the habits of Sabbath become widespread and appealing so that even the non-religious find them attractive and happily embrace, as they largely do with Thanksgiving and Christmas?
If ten million Christians resolved to honor the Sabbath more seriously, although only a small percentage of the population, the impact could be profound, far greater than more blogs or social media advocating Blue Laws.
Christmas celebrates the incarnation of God among us. The influence of the Christ Child across the centuries is more often not through statecraft or the sword but through more quiet, unfolding changed attitudes and habits, often undiscernible in the moment, but momentous in ultimate impact. Jesus, in His earthly ministry, transformed his audience through example and encounter, not through coercive politics. His followers are rightly concerned about just governance, but the church’s most potent influence is through soulcraft, not statecraft. Civil laws may point to virtue, but they do not of themselves achieve virtue. They reflect culture more than they change it.
Blue Laws, even if politically plausible, would not revive Christian America. But if Christianity in America is revived, then Blue Laws might result.
Comment by Phil on December 23, 2021 at 7:49 pm
Considering the number of churchgoers who rush off to Sunday lunch at their favorite restaurant as soon as their service lets out, I doubt most American Christians would actually support the reimposition of blue laws.
Comment by Dan W on December 23, 2021 at 9:12 pm
I remember blue laws in Georgia in the 1960s (I was pretty young.) The one essential business that was open on Sunday, was owned by the Mayor’s brother. If you wanted alcohol on Sunday you went to the bootlegger. Of course most Georgia counties were dry back then, so the bootlegger was busy 7 days a week. It’s the American way!
Comment by David on December 24, 2021 at 7:11 am
Blue Laws are clearly an establishment of religion to any reasonable person. Sunday is not the Sabbath, of course, and the whole idea is a Christian invention. It makes little sense to take this one aspect of Jewish law, transfer it to another day, then ignore that great bulk of biblical regulations.
Ocean Grove, NJ, was founded as a permanent seaside camp meeting in 1869 and with strict rules, some of which still exist. Originally, the town had gates that were closed all day on Sundays. One could enter by foot, but the use of any vehicle on the streets was prohibited. In 1914, street parking was prohibited and the residents generally had to move their cars out of the town as few had garages. Many changes took place when the Camp Meeting Association’s government-like authority was declared unconstitutional in 1981. However, the town prohibits alcohol sales, and most businesses, other than those providing food, are closed on Sundays. The beach was formerly closed all day, but now, just in the morning so as not to distract people from services. The Association retains ownership of the lots that are leased with restrictions, though not the streets.
Blue Laws are actually a violation of the religious freedom of the many, if not most of the country at this point, who do not consider themselves Christan.
Comment by Phil Hawkins on December 24, 2021 at 11:39 am
I tend to agree with many of your thoughts on this, but I am not so sure about what it would cost businesses. I am 71 years old, so I grew up in the days when most stores were closed on Sundays. In my hometown of Cincinnati, OH, there was local discount chain called Swallen’s, started after WWII by a local man who was a committed Christian. I worked in one of their stores while in college for a bit over a year. They held to the policy of closing on Sundays well after most of the chains dropped it. In the ’90s, when the sons of the original owners were running the company, they expanded to open more stores, incurring debt to do so. And their lenders began insisting they should open on Sundays. I knew an older man who was their corporate chaplain; he told me it turned out that opening on Sundays did not increase their sales significantly–it did raise their expenses–some in utility costs, but especially on labor costs to keep the store staffed.
Comment by Tom on December 24, 2021 at 11:42 am
The most common complaint I hear from people today is that they are overworked, overburdened, tense, pressured, stressed, on call 24/7.
There is an obvious solution: Take a day off. You would think that a religion that requires its adherents to take one day a week off would be more popular.
Comment by Diane on December 25, 2021 at 11:21 pm
Seventh-Day Adventists are an example of a faith community keeping the sabbath (7th day of the week) holy. Having been raised near their DC headquarters, citizens in the community know its better to need healthcare on any day but Saturday if the local hospital is Adventist-run. Only a skeletal staff is maintained on Saturdays to treat emergencies. Adventist healthcare workers are generally not working that day, nor shopping, going out for entertainment. If others want to do as Adventist’s do, whether it’s on Saturday, Sunday, or any other day, that’s their choice. But don’t force it on the rest of us with faith-based Blue laws. Religious freedom does not mean forcing a religious belief on non-adherents to said belief.
Comment by Rich Gaffin on December 26, 2021 at 12:46 pm
Mark, you’ve touched on something close to my heart. I am a member of a conservative Presbyterian denomination and have been bemused and dismayed by the widespread disregard for the Sabbath that has developed over the last 30 years amongst even this otherwise very orthodox group of believers. Most praise Chick-fil-A for its decision to remain closed on Sundays, yet most are also patronizing its competitors. Christians should live in a way that does not facilitate others in violating the Sabbath, yet by and large we do not.
What prompted you to write this post? If you are attempting to organize a movement in this direction, sign me up! It is so important that we set aside our day-to-day cares and concerns on the Sabbath as an acknowledgment of our ultimate dependence on God – our lives will not come to ruin if we let some task or another go until Monday – and as a means of facilitating fellowship and rest among God’s people
Comment by Vance on December 28, 2021 at 10:08 am
A significant percentage of the Christian community are not Sabbatarian in their approach to the “Lord’s Day” (Sunday). They meet on Sundays for worship and fellowship, but they do not regard Sunday as the “Christian Sabbath,” for they believe that Sabbath obligations were exclusively for Israel and were abolished at the cross, so biblical Sabbath laws do not pertain to Christians. (See “From Sabbath to Lord’s Day” [edited by D.A. Carson]). Many such Christians believe sporting events, dining out, work, etc., are entirely appropriate Sunday-afternoon activities, so they might see blue laws restrictive on their freedoms and an attempt by the government to impose upon Christians a law that pertains to a covenant that is now obsolete.
And then there are Sabbatarian Christians who believe God established Sunday through Friday as the period in which “all your work” was to be done. These Christians observe a Saturday Sabbath, which is universally acknowledged as the original Sabbath, or seventh day of the week. They include Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh-day Baptists, and various Church of God and Messianic groups. In addition, there is America’s Jewish community to consider.
Interestingly, many among these seventh-day-Sabbath observers oppose government enforcement of the seventh-day Sabbath upon the rest of the country. You would think they would be all for it, but they’re not. Why? Because they recognize that doing so is outside the God-ordained function of governments. Do we want governments telling us which god to worship or how to worship that god? I may be wrong, but I don’t think so. I think most would agree that the government’s God-ordained responsibility is to protect its law-abiding citizens and punish the lawless (Rom 14), not tell us which god (or concept of God) to worship or how to worship that god.
Imposing Sunday blue laws would only be a burden for many who religiously observe the seventh-day Sabbath and have ordered their day-to-day lives around that faith practice and perhaps by non-Sabbatarian Christians who enjoy Sundays as a day not only to assemble for worship but also as a time to work, shop, dine out, etc.
Comment by Lilly Parson on January 17, 2022 at 3:36 pm
In Daniel 3:4, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon kingdom, released a new commandment “to fall down and worship the gold image” that he had set up. For a long time, Babylon had been worshiping different gods and bowing down to many idols (images), and so to fall down and to worship to this gold image was not new nor strange to Babylon empire.
The three Israel, Hananaiah, Mishael and Azariah, who had been previously taken as captives from Israel by King Nebuchadnezzar and then trained as Babylon administrators, had to live side by side with this pagan worship every day of their life. They were still given the freedom to worship the God of the Bible. UNTIL, one day King Nebuchadnezzar made his commandment that would violate the supreme Commandment of the God of the Bible, the 2nd Commandment as written in Exodus 20:4. Then they were in BIG trouble. Which Commandment would they rather obey? Because of their utmost love in the God of the Bible, they decided that they’d rather die in the fiery furnace than to break God’s 2nd Commandment.
God’s 4th Law tells us about the 7th day Sabbath Commandment.
Blue Law is like King Nebuchadnezzar’s law, it is a counterfeit Law that is in contradiction to God’s 7th day Sabbath Commandment.
Which Law would you rather obey? Peter gave a smart answer. We must obey God rather than men. Joshua did too, in Joshua 24:15.