Sunday parameters

 My name is John Hillstead and I'm co-hosting Seth's blog this week.  Make no mistake that this is entirely Seth's blog, but I earned the privilege of guest writing by posting hilarious comments on his board.  I can't guarantee that you'll ever get to be a guest writer here, but if you actually make comments on the board, you too could get the right to make a contribution on "entertaining ramblings."  So keep reading and start posting comments.  Between Seth and I we hope to gain at least five people that will faithfully follow this blog. (Excluding immediate family members who already read it out of obligation).

         The subject for my post came about a month ago when a few of our friends were trying to agree on a date when could all go snowboarding together.  Long story short we were having trouble coordinating our schedules so that we all could go together.  After two failed attempts it looked like we would never find a night that would work for all four of us.  We were about to jettison the idea altogether when I threw out the possibility of going boarding on a Sunday, because it might be the only day of the week that would work for all of us.

   Ok, so before you think that I am a complete reprobate for suggesting it, let me assure you that I didn't expect any of my friends to agree to Sunday snowboarding. And sure enough they all respectfully informed me that they wouldn't participate in a recreational activity on the Sabbath, even if it was the only day we could all go together.  I didn't push the issue, in fact, I applauded them for adhering to their conviction to keep the sabbath day holy.  As you are well aware,  we were finally able to find a day that would work for all of us and we had a good time snowboarding without breaking the sabbath(See Seth's blog entitled "snowboarding.")

       The whole incident got me thinking about how we as Latter Day Saints observe the sabbath.  It seems like one of those commandments that is open to a wide array of interpretations.  Most of my friends and family try to observe the sabbath, but it seems they all do it in a different way.  Now bear in mind I'm not calling anybody a hypocrit here, just making observations on how different people observe to keep the sabbath day holy.

      Sunday of course is a big day in the world of sports entertainment.  Most members I know would never attend a sporting event in person on Sunday (with the exception of my friend Doug, see Seth's blog entitled "Doug"). They also would never participate in a sport activity on Sunday.  However, nobody I know seems to have any qualms about watching sporting events on television on Sunday.  My dad in particular enjoys watching pro football after he attends his meetings.  He also relishes the opportunnity to watch the superbowl with his family every year.  In fact, everybody I know watches the superbowl, even those that claim they have no interest in football.   The event itself has transcended the world of sports and has become an unofficial national holiday which will always fall on Sunday.

         Some members view sabbath observance more stringently.  For instance, they refrain from watching television and doing homework on Sunday.  I think they must be the exception because I currently don't know  anybody who refrains from tv on Sunday.  In fact I think we watch an awful lot of tv on Sunday (but only after we attend our meetings of course).  We even watch movies on Sunday, either on our cable tv packages or on dvd.  Generally speaking nobody goes out to the movie theaters to see a movie on Sunday.  One time I was contemplating going to the cinema on the sabbath (ok now you really think I am a reprobate) my brother James admonished me not to go.  I rationalized by saying that we already watch movies at home on Sunday so why couldn't we go to the theater?  His response was that when we go to the theater, we are making somebody else work on Sunday.  I didn't end up going to the movie but I thought about his response.  Under that logic, can we rent a movie from redbox or download one from our netflix account?  What if I did go to the movie on Sunday but bought a ticket from the kiosk vender instead of the person at the box office?  That way I wouldn't be making anybody work on Sunday (at least not as many).

          Finally, as a general rule we reserve party's and get-togethers for other days of the week outside Sunday.  But there are a lot of exceptions to to that.  For instance if your birthday falls on Sunday we usually celebrate it.  Even if it doesn't, Sunday is a good day to have your birthday party because family and friends can celebrate with you.  I think we also have other partyesque activities on Sunday that we don't necessarily call parties.  For example in a former singles ward of mine a group gathered together every Sunday night after family home evening to have a "game night."  They would play get-together games card games and bring food.  I've known other singles wards to have "movie nights," where a circle of friends gather every Sunday to watch an old movie on DVD at somebody's house (see paragraph #4).   Some of you may even be old enough to remember the days when we had missionary farewells and homecomings.  The missionaries family would host an "open house" where members of his ward would leave church early to eat lunch buffet style and congratulate the departing missionary or welcome him home.  It wasn't called a "going away party" or a "welcome back party," we called it an "open house."  But of course the church came out and advised against those in 2002,  maybe because they looked too much like a party.  I'm just saying.  There are other examples of things we in the church do that look like parties but you get the idea.

              So there are just a few observations on how we as members of the church observe the sabbath.  But I want to know what you think. How do you as members of the church obey the sabbath?  Do you think we sometimes rationalize our sabbath activities like I did?  Or is it that sabbath day observation is really up to the individual and his family, i.e. many different ways to look at it?  I guess the most important question is how do you keep somebody like me from persuading you to do something you know you shouldn't be doing on the sabbath?  I think that is a post for another day.