Sunday traditions

December 25, 2015 12:00 AM


Odds-makers out of Las Vegas have Sen. Marco Rubio winning the Republican nomination and Hillary Clinton winning the general election. We need the right leader for our times. The world is in turmoil in its struggle with the Islamic State group. On the home front, we have security, economic and social issues.

There is no argument or question that our country was founded on Christian values that have eroded over the years. A Dec. 20, Post-Gazette article is illustrative — “Church Fading Away After More Than a Century of Worship.” The subhead said the First Presbyterian Church in struggling Clairton will close with a Dec. 27 service.

Another article about the merit of religion appeared in the Dec. 20 Forum section: “Religion Is Good for Families and Kids.”

Our Congress should revisit and our candidates for president should consider advocating the restoration of Sunday as a day of rest, a paid day of rest, a required day of rest. Now we have the distraction of unnecessary shopping; in the not-too-distant past, nonessential business establishments were required to be closed on Sundays.

Americans deserve a day of rest, a day to be with families, attend church and interact with people on an interpersonal level. Imagine shutting down the Internet or cellphones for a day. How peaceful that day would be!

We have made a truly negative rat race, with limited time availability or potential for good interactions with one another.
We need to restore one takeaway from our past: Sunday as a day of rest, a day of worship, of prayer that was invaluable to our family values and individual well-being.

The odds are, regretfully, that our Sunday traditions of the past are gone forever just as are the odds that presidential candidates would even think of Sunday as an essential need. Merry CHRISTmas!

HARRY A. FLANNERY
New Castle


Source

.