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| Don Hodel's Article |
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The National Sunday Law
Focus on the Family: Sunday Laws Prove We're a Christian Nation
Perhaps if major Christian leaders never spoke in a positive way of Sunday as a Sabbath
enforceable by law in America, we could confidently say that Ellen White's prediction
was nowhere near being fulfilled. But alas, such is not the case.
The removal of Judge Roy Moore's 10 Commandment monument in Montgomery
motivated a number of comments about Sunday, such as those already cited from
Pat Robertson. Another prominent Christian leader
is Don Hodel, who had this to say in an article dated August 23, 2003. At the time
he was president of Focus on the Family:
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The foundation of our Constitution, our entire legal system, and most of the
attitudes of our culture is the Judeo-Christian value system found in Scripture,
including the Ten Commandments. There is ample historical evidence to support
this proposition. It is no accident that many of the Ten Commandments are codified
in law, (such as murder, theft, lying) and, formerly, many others were as well
(such as swearing, adultery, Sunday work). While there has been a whittling away
at these laws, like Sunday closings, it is undeniable that for most of our history
both the states and the national government incorporated the rules of the Ten
Commandments into laws.—"The
Real Ten Commandments Issue."
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Of course, this is not quite the case. America has never codified the
fourth commandment, for it never has prohibited work upon the seventh day of the week.
Consistently, whenever a particular day of rest has been enforced, it has been the first
day not the seventh day that has been mandated, contrary to what the Decalogue specifies.
We wrote to Focus on the Family about this discrepancy, and the reply we received
included the following:
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First, we are well aware that Sunday is not merely a Christian version of the
Jewish Sabbath. Although the earliest Christians, themselves Jews, probably did
worship on Saturday according to Jewish custom, they also held Sunday to be a day
of unique significance. . . . In time, as the church became predominantly
Gentile, the celebration of the Lord's Day gradually supplanted the observance of
the Jewish Sabbath among Christians, until at last Sunday worship became the norm.
As a result, it is traditional in some Christian denominations to use the terms
"Sabbath" and "Lord's Day" interchangeably. Mr. Hodel's statements reflect this
common usage.
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Thus many of these Christian leaders readily acknowledge that Sunday
keeping is based on tradition, not on any Scriptural or divine command.
This is all the more reason why it sounds so strange when they speak
in a positive way about enforcing Sunday rest.
We received one more reply which contained the following:
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Where Sunday Laws are concerned, I can assure you that Dr. Dobson does not
support them and never has. In his opinion, legislation mandating the observance
of Sunday as a holy day would be unconstitutional and an offense to millions of
Jews and Seventh-Day Adventists in our nation. It would also contradict the teaching
of Scripture: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect
of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days" (Colossians 2:16).
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Now if Pat Robertson and John Paul and European leaders were of the same opinion as
James Dobson, then perhaps Ellen White's prediction would never come true, at least not anytime
soon.
Don Hodel's comments, though, give one food for thought. We appear to be in a moral
crisis in America. Abortion, gay marriage, and nudity on prime-time TV, even during
Superbowl halftime, have angered Christians (and others). This nation, they say,
is based on Judeo-Christian values, and these things should be prohibited.
"How can you prove that our nation is really founded on Judeo-Christian values?" one asks.
They respond, "Our laws are based on the 10 Commandments." But most of the 10 are
endorsed by religions other than Judaism and Christianity. Just having a law against murder
does not prove that you are a Christian nation.
However, Sunday blue laws are different. There is no rational reason other than a religious one
why Sunday should be a mandated day of rest. And there is no religious reason other than a
professedly Christian one why Sunday should be enforced by law. Thus, the most potent proof
that our nation's laws are founded upon professedly Christian values is the existence of
Sunday blue laws.
But unfortunately, this line of argument is hopelessly inconsistent and contradictory.
As Don Hodel wrote:
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The foundation of our Constitution, our entire legal system, and most of the
attitudes of our culture is the Judeo-Christian value system found in Scripture,
including the Ten Commandments.
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Yet as their reply to our enquiry makes crystal clear, "the celebration of the Lord's Day
gradually supplanted the observance of the Jewish Sabbath among Christians, until at last
Sunday worship became the norm." Sunday rest is therefore neither part of "the
Judeo-Christian value system found in Scripture"
nor part of the 10 Commandments, but is instead based only on tradition.
One more such inconsistency will suffice: In the thick of Judge Moore's case,
James Dobson had this to say on the August 28, 2003, radio broadcast of Focus on the Family:
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We are recording these comments late Sunday afternoon, which our listeners will hear,
of course, on Monday. This is, I believe, the only program I have every prepared on the
Sabbath — I don't remember another one.
The reason we are doing it today is that — even though we honor the Sabbath as
a day of rest and worship — in this case the news story that we are going to be
covering is changing so rapidly that we would have been giving old information —
or misinformation — if we hadn't come in the studio this afternoon for an update.
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Dr. Dobson need not have worried at all. By the time he started that broadcast,
the Sabbath of the 10 Commandments, the same 10 Commandments this particular program was about,
had already been over almost an entire day.
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