Re: blue laws, I don’t like them. They are a watered down hold-over from prohibition, i.e., “you shouldn’t drink at all, but since it’s legal, we’ll make it hard for you to do it when you should be in church anyway.” If it’s legal to sell, there is no logical reason to make it illegal for a particular day or portion of a day. It is ludicrous.

By extension, if not working on a certain day is a matter of principle, then let it be that, but don’t impose it on the rest of the population. If a company wants to make it a part of their corporate culture, so be it. Chick-fil-A is a great example. Having worked for a company that owns shopping malls, I can state confidently that most lease language requires tenants to open during a mall’s operating hours and days. Chick-fil-A has refused to budge in their principles and you won’t find one open anywhere on a Sunday. However, due to the quality of and demand for their product, they currently have 1,428 restaurants in 38 states - many of these are in malls that open on Sunday, yet none of the restaurants are open on Sunday. There is no pressure to get the malls to close on Sunday. Likewise, if business owners’ principles require them to close on Sunday, then they should. They should not, however, insist that other businesses do likewise.

Life is full of choices and when we make them we should accept the logical consequences of them. Sometimes our choices will be matters of principle that put us at a decided disadvantage when compared to others. It is unfair to attempt to impose our principles on others to avoid the outcomes involved in living by them ourselves.