“Secularizing” Sunday by S. B. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 26, 1911

“Secularizing” Sunday

By S. B. H.

THE Lutheran churches of Baltimore passed resolutions Sunday, October 8, on Sunday-law enforcement, as follows:—

“Whereas, There appears to be a growing tendency to secularize Sunday and disregard the laws as to the Lord’s day, as was instanced in the concert held in the Maryland theater Sunday evening, October 1,—”

“Resolved, That as law-abiding citizens we protest against the negligence of certain officials in executing justice against violators of the Sunday laws.”

Here is an instance showing the real motive, the design, governing Sunday legislation to be the subserving of religious rather than civil interests, else why the expression, “There appears to be a growing tendency to secularize Sunday”? and why, resolve to protest against the course of the civil authorities in neglecting to arrest “violators of the Sunday laws?” To secularize means “to convert from spiritual to secular or common use, to make worldly.”

The Lutherans of Baltimore, in common with Sunday-keepers in general, regard Sunday observance as a sectarian or religious institution. But who made it so? Surely, not the Lord of the Sabbath, for he commanded the seventh day, Saturday, as the rest day. Sunday observance was not devised in heaven, nor by Christ while upon earth, but it is admitted to be the devising of man. It is, therefore, of worldly, or secular, origin. In fact, Sunday was regarded as a heathen festival day, “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times,” and was adopted by the early Christian apostasy, with many other heathen relics, and bequeathed to present-day Christendom.

Why, then, should our Lutheran friends lament the “secularizing” of a secular institution? S. B. H.