Jan. 13, 1916
MOVIES ON SUNDAY
Out of Keeping With the Day as God Meant it to Be.
Editor of The Citizen:
The question of Sunday movies is a most interesting one and one that concerns all citizens of Auburn. It is to be fought out in the courts we are told, but it seems to me this is another case that would have made our great fellow citizen, William H. Seward, cry out again, "There is a higher law than the Constitution." There is a bigger question involved than can be determined by any court.
We have been taught from our youth that Sunday was set apart from the other days of the week, set apart for recreation and rest — that anything which tended to make Sunday just like ordinary week days was opposed to the spirit of true religion.
There is scarcely a man or a woman in Auburn who cannot go to the movies in the evening of every week day. Why then should he or she wish to go on Sunday? For doing so makes Sunday just like an ordinary week day — and the Lord never meant it to be so.
Sunday is the day for recreation or rest, which is the same thing. Spell it "recreation" if you want to get the real meaning of it. Now no man was ever re-created by going to the movies — even if the pictures shown were David Copperfield's Old Curiosity Shop, and other fine films.
And just the same — no man ever felt really rested by sitting in a cramped seat at a movie show, breathing in such impure air.
Rest and re-creation may mean exercise out in God's fresh air and that is what they should mean to everybody on Sunday, though there is lots to be said for the rest and re-creation a man gets at home with his feet on a chair and a pipe in his mouth.
No, movies make Sunday like week days and so they were never meant for Sunday and it doesn't make a bit of difference whether admission fees are charged or not. The thing is out of keeping with Sunday as God means it to be. I don't care how you put it.
Yours truly,
H.H.
— Compiled by David Wilcox
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