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Efforts in Other Countries to Force Sunday Rest

Avid critic Dirk Anderson thinks that when John Paul was calling for legislation, he was only calling for the protection of voluntary rest, not enforcement of mandatory Sunday rest. Dirk quotes John Paul below and then comments:

Therefore, also in the particular circumstances of our own time, Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy. Of course, Seventh-day Adventist leaders often encourage their members to do the exact same thing-supporting legislation that guarantees their freedom to worship on the Sabbath.

Perhaps Dirk hasn't been keeping abreast of the news. In 2004, Croatia, at the behest of the Church of Rome, passed a law going well beyond simply protecting voluntary Sunday rest. The law dictated that stores must remain closed on Sunday. Running into some sort of problem with the Constitutional Court over the matter, the Croatian government announced in mid-May 2004 that they would pass a new ban on Sunday trade.

Predominantly Catholic Slovenia passed a trade act which would ban Sunday shopping as of September 15, 2004 ("Lawmakers Put an End to Sunday Shopping").

Commerce trade unions from countries where Rome's influence is strong stated clearly in January 2004 that they didn't want the enlargement of the EU to mean Sunday shopping. The countries represented included Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia ("EU enlargement should not bring Sunday shop opening").

Germany's highest court upheld its Sunday shopping ban in June 2004 ("Germany rejects Sunday shopping").

A few points stand out from these new stories:

1. Not once do we find any mention of respect for the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
2. Not once do we read of only toleration of voluntary rest.
3. In every case we find enforcement of mandatory rest on Sunday, though Scripture says not a word about resting on Sunday.
4. Not once do we read of protests from John Paul condemning such legislation, which unites church and state and discriminates against those who wish to honor the Bible Sabbath.

Has Dirk read something we have not?

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