Sin, Selling and Sundays
“And on the seventh day God rested.”
The first response to Rupert Murdoch’s purchasing of the right to print the Collin’s Bible was a cartoon in the Sunday Express, “And on the seventh day God went shopping.” As Britain moves increasingly towards a free market society the long standing issue of Sunday trading is once again appproaching the forefront. Pressure is coming to Britain from the EEC Commission to fall in with a common trading policy and the Government has little choice but to use Parliament’s time on an issue on which its last attempt at reform was defeated.
Sunday trading is considered so controversial that it has been debated every year for the last three years at the Conservative Party Conference and has seen the emergence of pressure groups; the Shopping Hours Reform Council (SHRC), especially popular with the pro-Sunday trading Young Conservatives and the Keep Sunday Special which protests at the de facto liberalisation of Sunday trading as made visible by D.I.Y. stores etc.
Opinions vary in the party from those who see no conflict between Sunday trade and Christianity arguing that one can still follow Christian ethics without the Sunday ‘slideshow’, and more conservative Conservatives worried about the ‘social ethics’ of the issue and the maintaining of tradition.
Fortunately however, the Bible is, as ever, on hand to offer a clear message. Namely that Sunday is to be observed not for the sake of tradition, but to follow The Lord’s example. His aim however should not be pursued by making Sunday trading illegal for several important principles which I think are often neglected.
First, and the most simple arguement for legal and free Sunday trading is the fact that not everyone in Britain is a Christian. Britain in the 1990s consists of a multitude of groups and religions and to impose a ban to non-Christians would be an intolerable infringement of liberty. The issue however is less easy to ascertain where our fellow Christians are involved. The issue goes back centuries so to make my opinion as easy as possible to express I shall quote somebody else who had the same idea.
It was said in France that after Bonaparte repealed the revolution’s purges of the church that he had “given us back our Sunday”. And yet…
“When bishops urged him to shut all shops and cabarets on Sundays so that the faithful should not be enticed from Mass, Napoleon replied: ‘The cure’s power resides in exhortations from the pulpit and in the confessional; police spies and prisons are bad ways of restoring religious practices.’”
Vincent Cronin, “Napoleon”
In other words, Christians should persuade, rather than expect the law to do their work for them.
Napoleon’s argument however is acceptable only if people are genuinely free to choose whether or not to work on Sunday, and here it is necessary to examine different types of trading. Take firstly the example of a small retailer run by a single entrepeneuror a family firm. Here it is obvious that people can decide for themselves whether or not to trade on a Sunday.
This is not the case in High Street retailers which are run by managers and shareholders and it is here that difficulty lies. As modern companies become more dynamic and industrious, they increasingly rely on hard working, flexible employees and thus will expect them to work on Sundays.
The Shopping Hours Reform Council insists that watertight employment laws can exist to prevent the dismissal of workers for refusing to work Sundays, but having worked as a shop assistant I do not believe that such legislation can be completely effective. Employees refuseing to work Sundays may not be dismissed but may be discriminated against when promotion is available, the employer preferring the “dedicated” employee.
The problems of enforced Sunday employment not only affect church attendance but also the family. In alll cases of Sunday employment, it is argued, a day off during the week is the reward. What use is this, however, if your spouse is at work and the children at school?
On a more optimistic note, there is one excellent way of closing the High Street retailers on Sunday without using “police spies and prisons.” Don’t go shopping. There are two sides in every market transaction, the buyer and the seller, and without demand for goods on Sunday supply will soon end.
In other words, while “exhortations” by Christians cannot affect that sellers directly as they may not be trading through choice, it is safe to say that practically all the buyers do have a choice. Who can force you to go shopping in the High Street on Sunday?
There are many ways to persuade the Sunday shopper, even the non church-goer, to stay away. The most important reason in my opinion is the value of Sunday to the family as I have exlained above, but we can also appeal on a lighter note and poit out that there are more congenial ways to spend the Sabbath day; after all, when was the last time you saw someone carrying shopping bags to the bus stop looking happy?
The work of the Christian is to point out to the Great British Public that Sunday is the day to ask the old lady down the street round for tea, it is the day to go out with the car (to give the ozone layer a day off) and last, but not least, to bear in mind that churches are open between Christmas and Easter.
Looking to the future it seems certain that a Bill will come before Parliament to reform the confusion of laws about what can and can’t be bought on a Sunday, many of the regualtions hundreds of years old. Such a Bill is to be welcomed, but it is up to the Christian community to point out that whilst there are definitely profits from Sunday trading, there are also losses of the type which don’t show up on the balance sheet.