Sunday Shopping Bans
Partial or full shopping bans on holy days (actual holidays or weekly on Saturday/Sundays) exist in many places…as I was reminded yesterday when I tried to buy dinner supplies rather late in the afternoon and found all the nearest shops to me shut already.
The U.S. state of North Dakota is considering lifting its Sunday shopping ban, and the discussion around it (perhaps predictably for a conservative American state) has taken on a decidedly religious tone. The ban appears to have been in place since the start North Dakota’s statehood in 1889, and was put in place for explicitly religious reasons: to make sure citizens didn’t have anything else to do on Sunday mornings except go to church. Opponents of the repeal are trying to frame it as not a religious issue, but they are predominantly church affiliated. ‘Christopher Dodson, executive director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference, maintains that the law isn’t about religion, rather saying “The purpose of the law is to provide a common period of rest and relaxation for the benefits of families and communities. Humans and communities need periods of rest and free time that allow them to tend to family, cultural, social and religious life.”’
North Dakota Considers Repealing Sunday Morning Shopping Ban
While we’ve been considering the marriage of religion and commerce this week, this is a good example of the outright tensions that can exist between the two.
Contributed by SabineParrish on 30/01/2017
