When malls stay open on Sundays, the pious party

[Newswire]

While bars, cheap hotels and similar places of questionable repute may remain America's favorite spots to sin, two economists say that giving people an extra day to shop at the mall also contributes significantly to wicked behavior -- particularly among people who are the most religious.

More... (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR2006091301759.html)

[lpetrich]

Shows how successful their religion has been at making them virtuous. :p

[purple_kathryn]

Ive always found it slightly bizarre here (in NI) that supermarkets and shops can only open for 6 hours but somewhere like the local gym, petrol station, cinema etc can open whatever hours it likes. Pubs too. :huh:

I don't see how buying groceries on a sunday is something that needs to be limited.

[JustBlazed]

I STILL feel weird about drinking on Sundays....unless there is a big NFL game that I'm getting into. Ok, that and I don't like to start the week off at work hungover. :) I guess I'm not FULLY deconverted yet....

[flintknapper]

Quote: "He suspects that keeping businesses open on Sunday means that some religious young people have to work or choose to go shopping, which apparently increases their exposure to sinners or otherwise weakens their resistance to the dark side."

The way I see it, the religious right is the dark side.:huh:

[EthnAlln]

The last time I lived in the UK, during the late 1980s, Parliament was considering a relaxation of the restrictions on Sunday sales. The local evangelical/Anglican parson at the church my wife attended was furiously organizing as much political pressure as he could bring to bear to keep the laws intact.

Being a foreigner, I decided it wasn't my place to say anything. But I wanted to ask him the following question: In the UK, on a given Sunday that isn't Easter, church attendance by Anglicans, Catholics, and Protestants is at most 5% of the population. That means 95% of the population prefers to be doing something else. Do you really think it advances your religion to communicate so clearly to the population at large that it is Christians who are interfering with their full enjoyment of the day? Was this the priority of the Christian martyrs in ancient Rome, on whose blood the Church allegedly grew? (Hint: If it had been, the persecutions would have been a lot worse.) What makes Christians think they should tell their non-Christian neighbors what they may or may not do on a day that is special only to Christians?