Sure, we all know G-d is for kids and we have to think for ourselves, but a little controlled weekly get-together keeps us balanced stoics/epicureans in touch and prevents the wackos from sacrificng their children or baying at the moon.

What a patronizing fool. I prefer Harry's murderous frothing at being deprived of his waffle fries on Sundays.

Not only do we want them to go to church; we want them to go church for the right reasons....

It seems to me that the author is trying to explain, with the help of self-disparaging humour, that which he is not entirely sure can be explained satisfactorily, and perhaps may even approach the terrifying (yes, I realize I exaggerate on this last).

But allow him to humour himself (and us), while hoping that his spiritual and community needs (and yes, there is overlap there) are met.

(P.S. oj, "Scotsman," not "Scorsmam.")

Barry:

OK, OK, let's be charitable. Food and fellowship and all that. But let us also not forget what often happens to churches that become filled with these types. They lose their modest confusion pretty fast when decisions have to be made. Suddenly they speak from the perspective of a "higher" spirituality and the whole thing starts falling apart.

So Howell Raines is going to a chruch now after that Jayson Blair kerfuffle, eh...

A long time ago, an editor suggested this approach to me. The context was an acquintance of his who had killed his girlfriend in a botched abortion. (This was in the distant days when abortion was illegal.)

But he got off because he was an esteemed member of a prominent Christian church.

Thinking it over, I decided I'd just skip killing my girlfriends and I wouldn't need a church.

You don't get it about the Chick-Fil-A, do you, Peter? I don't care when the one on the highway in Irvine is closed. At an airport, particularly under current conditions, different story.

I don't wish him ill because he's a Christian, but because he's a jerk. I'd think the same if closed one day a week to play golf.

And I think the airport management ought to kick him out.

Jerk, yeah sounds right jerk uh huh yeah. No doubt that says it all.

Harry, no I don't get it at all. If it has nothing to do with religion, which was rather prominent in the post, isn't your argument with the Atlanta airport authority? Why the bile directed at this guy? For all you know, he is doing exactly what he promised the airport he would do.

Remember, the repeal of the blue laws was supposed to be about freedom and choice (as all great liberal causes always are).How did it morph into mandatory work on Sundays?

If you object o serving the public, don't take a job in the service sector.

I'd divide my pique into two parts. One, you're right, about airport management. It isn't looking out for its clintele, but, unfortunately, the market is not likely to pop up a competitor for Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, is it?

Second, my judgment that the guy is a jerk. The reasons for his jerkiness are irrelevant -- and the Irvine critic is a jerk, too -- but it's characteristic where this kind of jerkiness arose, isn't it?

The problem with blue laws, in principle, is that they prevented people who wanted to work (or consume) on Sundays from doing so because of the superstitious busybodiness of some really repellent sectarians.

Law in the service of religion. Not what America is about.

Finally, there's the observation of Harry Hopkins that "people don't eat in the long run, they eat every day."

Peter:

Extend Chick-fil-a's practices to the entire airport, then travel.

The company owner plays holier than thou as a free-rider upon all the others who do work on Sundays.

I had the occasion to live in places burdened by blue laws. They were as good an argument as you will find why freedom from religion is so important.

Yes, that's right. The notion that you have to be able to buy paper towels on a Sunday is exactly how important it is.

OJ, you obviously have no problem with buying Internet services on a Sunday.

The days that everyone can take Sunday off are gone for good, our modern world is a machine that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we all rely on it being there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week whether we want to or not.

Jeff/Robert:

"The company owner plays holier than thou as a free-rider upon all the others who do work on Sundays."

Hmm, see how irrational you secularists can be when you start frothing at religion? Obviously the ones that work on Sundays will take clients of the closed ones and presumably increase their profits. The free-loader argument makes no sense whatsoever, unless you are marxists who see all work as a public service. I thought the fast food business existed to make a profit and earn a living, not to perform an essential public duty.

It is fascinating to see how you guys turn the issue of whether someone should be allowed to close up on Sundays into an argument for universal compulsory work. As Robert says, the "machine" goes 24/7 and we had all darn well be ready to do our part, right? Nothing more unpatriotic than slowing down the machine.

Robert, repeat after me: there is no machine.

Robert:

Well, I'm not the man my grandfather was and I'm not a sabbatarian. But if the Internet went off-line on Sundays I doubt our quality of life would be adversely affected.

Two issues here. One business, one religious.

Will you admit, Orrin, that the chicken guy is morally bound not to ask for help if he needs it on Sunday?

Harry:

No. Why? Weren't you ever a shabas goy?

Peter:

I must have written very unclearly. My argument has not the first thing to do with economics. He is not an economic freerider, but rather a religious one. He is able to take a holier-than-thou position precisely because no one else does.

Nor does this have anything to do with compulsory work in general, but rather the differences that ensue when the audience is completely captive.

I apologize if my writing sounded as if I was frothing; that certainly wasn't my intents.

Peter:

Imagine not being able to get a chicken sandwich on demand if you imagine yourself a god...

"Robert, repeat after me: there is no machine."

Peter, pick up the phone any hour of the day or night. Do you hear a dial tone? That is the machine. If you need to call 911 on a Sunday morning at 1:00 am, do you expect someone to respond? I bet you do. Don't knock the machine, it could save your life someday.

The machine won't. People will.

Not if they don't know they need to.

Why wouldn't they?

Because when he's lying on the floor of his mansion, frothing, and feebly crying for help, nobody will hear him.

He could touch his electronic caller, but the person who answers it wouldn't be there, because she doesn't work on Sunday, see?

So he'd get to meet his maker. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes when he does.

He's a sabbatarian. She may not be. I bet he's got someone looking after him.

And therein lies his hypocrisy.

If it's a sin for him to work on Sunday, it's a sin to hire others to work on Sunday, even if they don't believe.

Thus, the point of him not watching live TV on Sunday, receiving the Sunday paper, etc.

However, EMTs and 911 operators, and the people waiting for his "Lifeline" emergency gizmo signal, are clearly excluded by scripture from the prohibition against working on Sunday.

Michael:

There's no reason heathens can't work. Do you murder people because murderes exist?

Michael, things became so much more convenient for Christians when the 4th Commandment became optional. They can refrain from work and feel morally superior, or go out on Sunday to a game or the Mall and enjoy the fruits of the great heathen machine that never stops working. It's not about hypocrisy, it's about choices.

By the way OJ, exactly when did the 4th Commandment become optional? It must have been when football was invented.

Robert:

Oddly enough, Henry Ford did it.