My home state of North Dakota just removed the respirator from a dying vestige of American culture.
On March 25, Governor Doug Burgum signed legislation repealing the state's blue laws. These laws, which made it illegal for retail stores to be open from midnight to noon on Sundays, used to be common throughout the country. But now, only some liquor stores are still subject to such constraints. Sunday rest for retail is a relic of the past.
Puritan theology certainly lurks behind these blue laws. But the principle that the state should ensure we have rest goes much deeper than narrow-minded prissiness. God's rest on the seventh day was of great comfort to the Israelite slaves in Egypt, who knew not rest. The Exodus story implies that the goal of our rest is worship, and the result of worship is rest: "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me'" (Exodus 8:1). God fights to keep us free from all powers that seek to enslave us. Today's culture of slavery does not involve overlords cracking whips, but rather the irresistible urges of a consumer economy.
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