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At the turn of the last century, Jewish immigrants who sought to observe the Sabbath Day faced a work culture in the United States that required employees to work on Saturdays. A person could be employed Sunday through Friday, not come to work on Shabbos, and be summarily fired.
This culture led to a lot of stories that we celebrate of people who put their principles first. When Jews lose the Shabbos, we lose ourselves. But it also surely led to a great deal of assimilation, as families decided that putting food on the table was more important than a remnant custom from the Old Country.
Of course, these were stories we heard as children. And even then, they seemed hard to believe. What kind of employer would let an employee go, if that employee worked hard and well? After all, pay was only in return for hours worked, so a policy that fired Sabbath-observing Jews seemed to defy logic - and we like logic. Maybe the stories were really exaggerated...?
Not so much.
New NY bill would require restaurants in transit centers to be open on Sundays
New York and New Jersey might require restaurants along the New York State Thruway [and Port Authority] to stay open to travelers seven days of the week.This bill is aimed squarely at a Christian company, Chick-fil-A, as a direct attack on religious freedom.
I know well that there is no shortage of similar outrages (abortion, cake-baking, etc.). But this one really sticks in my craw as overt and institutionalized evil. If you believe that G-d commanded you to not work on the Sabbath Day, but a government tries to coerce you to act against G-d's word.... what scumbags.
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Discussion (14)
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This is much worse than old-style Saturday work: if you're running a factory, it really is important to have just about everyone there on the same day (depends on the individual job, of course)
This NY bill has no reason other than malevolence...it's not as if there were a shortage of other fast-food restaurants available.
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I feel the same way. And your description of "overt and institutionalized evil" is precisely correct.
I think the reason that this episode is so upsetting to me it that "overt and institutionalized evil" is the most common type of evil in American society today.
And yet our government grows ever larger and ever more powerful.
This is getting scary. Really, really, really scary...
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My initial take on this is that it is an outrage but the picture I am forming over time is that what they are trying to accomplish is not necessarily wrong, Tony Simone's mouth notwithstanding.
The thruway in question - if I am reading between the lines correctly - is a state-owned retail space that services travelers. The statue applies to future leases and requires that they be open during high-traffic hours.
Although I am indifferent to Chick-fil-A's charms I cannot help but admire a company that can compete with other fast food even with curtailed hours: long may they wave.
I am all about religious freedom, but if a government is hoping to offer retail space to accommodate X number of people and - for example - several religious cults famous for their restaurants but only allowed to work between midnight and four am on Wednesdays (Our Lady of the Socialist Martyr Local 2309, for example) the X number of people would not in any way be accommodated.
Government isn't renting these spaces for profit (as I understand it) but to feed people. While I have no doubt that there is an anti-Christian feeling animating at least some of the people involved in this decision, I am not certain that it is actually a violation of religious freedom per se.
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I agree with most of what you say, but not this sentence of course. I have a friend who worked at a pizza place at a stop on the WV Turnpike (Sbarros I think). I asked why the prices were so much higher at his store than any other in his chain. He said that it was unbelievable how much they paid in rent for that space. Lots of foot traffic there, of course.
But why is the rent so high there?
Because government is making a profit.
Exxon makes about 2 cents per gallon of gas, the government gets 50 cents or whatever. And it's not to provide gas for the people.
Likewise, the government at rest stops is more interested in the money than they are feeding people. I mean, come on.
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I am with TBA above that as a technical legal matter this may not be as egregious as some are presenting it. The purpose of a highway retail area on a government owned toll road is to provide services to travelers, and Sunday is a travel day popular with the public (as is Friday night into Saturday). It does highlight one of the problems with government ownership of property - government ownership and control makes resolving conflicts among priorities and interests difficult to manage.
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