Protestant and Catholic women in the United States have grown unhappier since stores have stayed open on Sundays, according to a study by economists from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Chicago’s DePaul University.
The study found that the repeal of “blue law” restrictions on Sunday shopping has corresponded with lower church attendance for white women. Meanwhile, the probability of women becoming unhappy increased by 17 percent.
Maybe lower church participation and the end of blue laws are both symptoms of the same disease: the cult of busy-ness and shopping idolatry. Six days a week wasn’t enough to accomplish all the shopping we needed to do.
We have had Sunday shopping for many years, and just recently I became aware that I was increasingly shopping after church.
I think Sunday shopping is a choice — and it shouldn’t undermine our faith, but only will if we let it.
I have taken a real pull back — and actually I feel better about the idea that I will choose not to shop on Sunday, than the idea that I would compel people not to.
More women work than in years past and Sunday becomes a day of shopping necessity for many moms, especially those with children and Saturday activities. I try and set aside Sunday as a day of worship and quietude and avoid shopping, except for the odd grocery requirement.
I was reminded when I prepared to preach last week that the Sabbath is about freedom, linked very closely to the whole Exodus project:
“Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” (Deut 5:12ish)
Not a burdensome rule to be slavishly enforced, but a right to be freely chosen.
Unfortunately for the cause of accurate journalism, the contents of the article do not support the statement made in the article’s title. Instead the contents portray women as addicted to shopping rather than preferring to attend religious services on Sunday. The contents of the article, however, are worthwhile reading, once one gets beyond the inaccurate and misleading title.
I hope the publication rather than the author is responsible for the title. But would that mean that the Ethics Daily is actually unethical? Perhaps blame it on the Religion News Service instead.
I’m not quite getting the either/or proposition here: stores are generally not open when church services are held, so what is wrong necessarily with worship in the morning and shopping afterward? And what about groceries or going to a restaurant? Does that count? Hopefully this demonstrates the silliness of the issue…