Sunday Saloons and Christian Inconsistency
Among the inconsistencies of professedly Christian people which furnish atheists with an opportunity to rail against Christianity and in their own eyes justify themselves, not the least is the attitude of most churches toward the restriction of Sunday traffic. The following illustration is furnished by the Freethought Magazine: “A convention of Christians recently passed the following resolution, which we clip from the Chicago Tribune:
“‘Resolved, That we give the weight of our influence to every legitimate movement which tends to abolish the sale of intoxicants on the Lord’s day, and we urge the complete closing of saloons on Sunday.’ “Now, if saloons are good things they ought to be open on all days of the week, and if they are a bad448thing they should be open on no day of the week. How would a resolution of this kind sound:
“‘Resolved, That we give the weight of our influence to every legitimate movement which tends to abolish highway robbery on the Lord’s day, and we urge that this crime be entirely prohibited on Sunday.’ And everybody knows that humanity suffers ten times more from the work of saloons than from the highway robbers.”