Laws in a Mormon Country

[emmiedahl]

The thing about taking Sundays off is that it makes it harder for people of other religions to take off their own Sabbath. Most Christians will eagerly trade their Sunday shift for a Jewish person's Saturday shift, and then everyone is happy. When I worked at Macy's, there were several people who always had Sundays off for religious reasons, and I think many employers try to be accommodating of these things. If an employer is jerky about people taking time off for religion, we need more employee protection laws, not a mandated Sunday off.

[Kelya]

They can have my diet coke when they pry it from my cold, dead, jittery hand.

Loma Linda's hospital doesn't have caffeine (and maybe not meat, i forget) because they're SDA. Sounds miserable for an ER doctor!

[Kelya]

They can have my diet coke when they pry it from my cold, dead, jittery hand.

Loma Linda's hospital doesn't have caffeine (and maybe not meat, i forget) because they're SDA. Sounds miserable for an ER doctor!

[Stickers]

It's so weird to read about all the rules for buying alcohol in other places . I live in California where you can buy it... anywhere anytime, I think(I don't drink). A lot of grocery stores have multiple isles dedicated to it. But we are one of the largest producers of wine in the world, so.

Forcing to people to "observe the sabbath" is ridiculous, and totalitarianism. AND, and, it's anti-captilism. Putting limits on the free market! I thought most conservatives did not like that.

[emmiedahl]

Many conservatives have a real issue understanding "freedom to" versus "freedom from." They want freedom to practice religion, but don't understand that others want freedom from practicing religion.

The Mormons I know just seem to assume that everyone would love having a Sunday off, and that it would create this amazing culture in which everyone had a day of rest. But their freedom to have Sunday off goes against my freedom from having someone else's religion dictate my schedule.

[Rosa]

The red dots are hilarious!

I remembers when WalMart (or at least the shipping center where a friend of mine worked) was closed on Sundays. That ended right after Sam Walton died.

[Eclipse]

The thing about taking Sundays off is that it makes it harder for people of other religions to take off their own Sabbath.

That was the exact reason the Canadian Supreme Court overturned Sunday closings laws.

[JesusFightClub]

The thing about taking Sundays off is that it makes it harder for people of other religions to take off their own Sabbath. Most Christians will eagerly trade their Sunday shift for a Jewish person's Saturday shift, and then everyone is happy. When I worked at Macy's, there were several people who always had Sundays off for religious reasons, and I think many employers try to be accommodating of these things. If an employer is jerky about people taking time off for religion, we need more employee protection laws, not a mandated Sunday off.

QFT.

We get blessedly few religious discrimination issues where I work because we have a system whereby an employee can take paid time off for such holidays up to a certain amount of days. Also we have such things as a circular which goes round to all managers at the start of Ramadan every year explaining challenges fasting employees may face at this time and how to be sensitive towards their needs. Jewish, Christian and Muslim workers have written circulars to all staff explaining their religion and holidays (not proselytising, just saying "this is what we believe and why"). It's planned to expand this to Pagan and Sikh workers too, I hear.

No Festivus circular yet though ;)

[FundiesInMyFamily]

Don't forget our favorite fundie snack, Chick-fil-A, which is closed on Sundays for entirely Christian and fundie reasons. Hobby Lobby is also closed on Sundays, I would assume for Chritian reasons.

I agree with you Emmie that they are incredibly presumptious in assuming that because Sunday is their sabbath that Sunday is everyone's sabbath. I wish they would get it through their thick skulls that we are NOT a christian nation (although I know they'd like it to be!).

[AmyP]

.... Like putting framed portraits of the dad next to each child's bed.

REALLY???? That is kind of odd, unless it is in the context of a grouping of family photos? maybe?

[lilwriter85]

They can have my diet coke when they pry it from my cold, dead, jittery hand.

They would have to do the same to me too.

[emmiedahl]

REALLY???? That is kind of odd, unless it is in the context of a grouping of family photos? maybe?

No, it is just a framed portrait of the dad. He used to have to go away a lot for work, but no longer does so, so I wondered if that was the original reason (so the kids could see him before bedtime even if he was gone). That was when they lived in a different house though; the dad no longer goes on business trips and the mother still put the portraits up in the new bedrooms. Another LDS family that I know had a framed picture of the dad on the daughter's bedside table, so I thought maybe it is a Mormon thing? I mean, your dad is your future God, right?

[StarrieEyedKat]

They would have to do the same to me too.

That's because y'all have made idols of your diet soda. SINNERS!!!

[YPestis]

I have had situations where people talk about doing this or that to respect Christian practices. I point out that I'm not Christian and why should I have those policies imposed on me? Most of the time, people just give me a blank look or nodded. Some people just can't fathom other people living differently than them. To them, taking Sundays off should make everyone happy. However, heaven forbid if someone doesn't want to sit and listen to Bible readings because that's just a weird. It's that type of close mindedness that drives me nuts.

[Rowan]

They can have my diet coke when they pry it from my cold, dead, jittery hand.

I used to say that about my Dr. Pepper. Then I got a kidney stone over Labor Day weekend. Oh let me tell you I went from 1-2, sometimes 3 a day to less than one per week since! Although I haven't lost the weight that I was expecting to by giving it up. :(

/threadjack

I am disgusted by the hours the stores are having now. You know the corporate brass making these decisions haven't worked in the front lines in decades, if ever. THEY should be the ones having to go to bed at 3:00 on Thanksgiving afternoon so they can work a midnight - 9am shift. Maybe then they'll realize it's not worth it.

I mean really, do the stores actually make MORE money by opening earlier and earlier? Or is it the same amount of money they would have taken in anyway, just spread out over more hours? I'm thinking when you take into account payroll and everything else there isn't that much gain. Or if there is, I'm disgusted by the shoppers who encourage that behavior by the bigwigs. (And I have a good friend who goes out at midnight and the buttcrack of dawn every year as tradition!)

[lilwriter85]

It wouldn't be practical or possible to have everything closed on Sundays. Obviously, things like the hospital, police, fire department, etc. have to be open at all times, but I bet people (even Mormons) would also get pretty pissed if they couldn't run out to Walgreens to get toilet paper on Sunday. I do think it would be nice if employers would simply be considerate of employees with very devout religious beliefs that prohibit them from working on a certain day of the week.

I know (or at least I'm pretty sure) that there are no paid ministers, music directors, etc. in the Mormon church, it's all just members of the congregation who have been assigned to a particular task, but I wonder what they would think of someone like the music director at my church, who works from 7:30 to 12:00 every Sunday conducting choirs for the services and the rest of the day at rehearsals. He's working on Sunday, but his work is an integral part of the church services.

Sometimes companies and employers will try work around schedules for people religious' beliefs. worked for an Albertson's grocery store part time years ago and one of the application forms there was a section in which you could write why wouldn't be able to work certain days and the managers always did their best with the schedules to allow some people to have Sundays off. The store that I worked at usually had most of the part time employees covering the weekend shifts, at the time I was there, the other part timers I worked with were also college students who preferred to have weekdays off for school and studying.

[Kate]

They can have my diet coke when they pry it from my cold, dead, jittery hand.

Mormons can drink cola, so it they take over the world, you're still good--Steve Maxwell and co., on the other hand and there will be trouble! :evil:

[Jessica]

Yes, rumor has it, Thomas S Monson (current president of the LDS church) is quite the Coca Cola fan. ;) I've also heard that someone questioned Spencer Kimball on his love of Godiva chocolates because of the caffeine in chocolate. His response was something like "Are you trying to take all the joy abd fun out of the earth?" :P

[Wolfie]

Mormons can drink cola, so it they take over the world, you're still good--Steve Maxwell and co., on the other hand and there will be trouble! :evil:

It depends on their interpretation. Some see the "hot drink" prohibition as meaning no caffine. Others have no problems with it, but I've met a few who don't drink caffinated sodas.

[Wolfie]

I used to say that about my Dr. Pepper. Then I got a kidney stone over Labor Day weekend. Oh let me tell you I went from 1-2, sometimes 3 a day to less than one per week since! Although I haven't lost the weight that I was expecting to by giving it up. :(

Did they test your kidney stone? I didn't have to give up ALL caffine, just some stuff like instant coffee. I did have to change my veggie eating habits.

[galaxygirl]

Back in my birth country, all stores were closed on Sundays. I didn't know any better. When I started working in retail, the store was open from 9-6. I believe it's 8-8 now, but I could be wrong because I moved away over 6 years ago. Stores are also closed for a lot more Christian holidays, like 2 days for Christmas and Easter and nonreligious holidays like New Years Day. If you don't know any better, I guess you just adapt to it. The last few years before I moved away the cities slowly started to allow stores to be open for a set amount of Sundays a year. IIRC the amount was decided by the cities themselves and the religious ones didn't allow any stores open on Sundays.

As I said, it's been over six years for me, so things could have changed a bit since then.

[NurseNell]

Our liquor laws in Minnesota are ridiculous, and they vary not just state to state (you know when you hit the Wisconsin state line by the row of alcohol, porn, and fireworks establishments - sometimes all in one store.) but county to county and city to city. If I forget to buy alcohol for a party by the Friday deadline I can drive down one suburb and get it a little later.

Here in Ramsey County you have to buy liquor at a liquor store, not in the grocery store. I use wine and beer for cooking, and having previously lived in states where I could buy those in the grocery stores it was a surprise to learn I couldn't here.

[Maul the Koala]

It depends on their interpretation. Some see the "hot drink" prohibition as meaning no caffine. Others have no problems with it, but I've met a few who don't drink caffinated sodas.

I've always been so confused. One of the Mormon guys I know says tea is bad because of the tannins in it. But then that rules out a lot of other beverages as well. Which he did drink. :think: None of the Mormons I know drink coffee or tea but some do drink colas. There seems to be a lot of disagreements.

[JumpingtheSnark]

So banning tonic (soda, pop, coke for you non Bay Staters) would be the "abortion debate" of a Mormon Country. Some people are pro choice (pepsi, fanta, diet coke) and some are pro-lemonade. The Tea Party would actually be fighting for Tea. *I'm killing myself here, yuk, yuk*

[dirtyhippiegirl]

Loma Linda's hospital doesn't have caffeine (and maybe not meat, i forget) because they're SDA. Sounds miserable for an ER doctor!

That's weird! I did nursing clinicals in a big SDA hospital. They offered caffeine and meat but also had an alternative meatless option for every meat option that they offered in the cafeteria. As a vegetarian, I appreciated being able to eat more than salads, veggie burgers, and pizza. I can't imagine ANY hospital not offering caffeine 'tho. Caffeine fuels most medical staff.

/did not appreciate the pressure that the nursing staff put on me to attend daily prayer circle/session 'tho