Sunday Laws Used for Oppression
WE oppose Sunday laws not because the day is without divine authority, but because it is a religious institution, and because with matters of religious faith and practice civil government cannot of right have anything whatever to do. The innate iniquity of Sunday laws is well illustrated by the administration of such laws in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Georgia, where they have been used not to preserve the peace of the community while a portion of its citizens are engaged in worship, but to oppress those who conscientiously observe another day in obedience, as they verily believe, to the divine command. In the States mentioned, as the readers of the AMERICAN SENTINEL are aware, men have been fined and imprisoned for digging potatoes, painting, plowing, and such other work. But it may be urged that this is only enforcing the law; then why is it not enforced upon all alike? In all of these States, and in the very neighborhoods where the hand of the law has been laid upon these seventh-day worshipers, members of other churches and men who belong to no church at all have been permitted to violate the law with impunity, no complaint being made against them. The law has simply been used to harass those who hold views that are distasteful to the majority of the community in which they live. Such laws are a disgrace to any State.