The Case Against Sunday Laws
The greater part of the above is literally true, but there is connected with this righteous protest the very principles which make the protest necessary. These are found in the last paragraph. Admit the right of a Sunday law, and all the evils which follow are admitted with it. "Disorder," "noisy pursuits" "in the vicinity of public worship" are forbidden in all communities; and in no State is better order preserved in this respect than in California, which has no Sunday law. As to the matter of "deference to the religious feelings of the great body of our citizens," we have just simply this to say: The "feelings" of the majority are no more sacred than the feelings of the minority. They are entitled to the same respect which the feelings of the minority are, and no more. Every man should be treated civilly on all days; but civility does not demand a Sunday law. The "propriety and religious sentiments" of arrogant and popular religious bodies, as all history demonstrates, are easily offended. The Jews were offended because Christ's disciples rubbed out some wheat in their hands on the Sabbath day, or because he healed the sick. The "religious sentiments" of the Roman Catholic priests were offended because Anne Askewe would not confess to transubstantiation. The "religious sentiments" of some of the people of Gainesville, Ga., were offended because two men worked in a quiet way on a Sunday in a church on the opposite side of the town—work which they could neither hear nor see, only as they went to spy it out. It is the old, old story. They watched Christ to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might have whereof to accuse him. Sunday laws of all kinds have a purely religious basis, and, if logically followed, will inevitably lead to persecution, and the people of conviction will be the persecuted.