Christians Bullied Shop Owner to Stay Closed on Sundays

[NeoGreen]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/11/22/christians-bullied-shop-owner-to-stay-closed-on-sundays-but-the-plan-backfired/

Christians Bullied Shop Owner to Stay Closed on Sundays, But the Plan Backfired

Earlier this month, Leona Rawlinson, the owner of a shop called Tweed Tastic on the Isle of Lewis (off the western coast of Scotland), received a strange package in the mail. It was a Bible along with a letter from Dan MacPhail, secretary of the Day One/Lord’s Day Observance Society.

He had a problem with the fact that Rawlinson, unlike other business owners on the island, kept her shop open on a Sunday (something she began doing this past summer due to increased demand). Good Christians didn’t work on the Sabbath, dammit, and maybe a Bible would steer Rawlinson in the right direction.

He wrote: “The purpose of our letter is certainly not to intimidate you into closing on Sunday… nor are we aware of any organised campaign in relation to this matter.

“However, it is a sincere and humble request that you consider closing the shop on the Lord’s Day.”

The letter adds: “We are concerned for the spiritual and eternal as well as temporal consequences of such actions of Sunday opening and do not believe that lasting blessing or profit will follow.

“Indeed, we are aware of many Christians expressing disappointment that such an interesting shop as Tweed Tastic is trading on Sundays and that solely because of this they are refusing to give of their patronage.”

We’re not trying to intimidate you, but seriously, close your damn shop.
We don’t know of any organized boycotts, but a ton of Christians are totally boycotting your store.

(snip)

There is some good news to all this: The story has taken on a life of its own over the past two weeks even since it was first shared on the Facebook page for the Western Isles Secular Society. You can’t buy the sort of publicity Rawlinson has received for doing nothing more than being available for her customers.

Lots of lovely people have called into the shop to offer support, people of faith and no faith alike. The resounding message, over and over again, has been that this is not about religion, it is about controlling behaviour. By a tiny sanctimonious minority that professes to speak for the island but in reality only speaks for its narrow fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity. That is a topic in itself, and I may return to it later.

Then the cards started arriving. Messages of support from as far away as Leeds. And on Facebook, the messages of support come from all over the UK, Europe, South Africa and Canada.

Neither of us can walk along the street or round the supermarket without being stopped and offered support and encouragement. My ten minute trip to Tesco today took me nearly an hour. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. So many people saying, “About time…”

It looks like the Christian bullies who wanted to intimidate Rawlinson have given her more business than ever before — and more reason to stay open on Sundays indefinitely. Maybe other stores will follow suit as more people speak out against the irrational way Christians have shut down so much of the island on Sunday because of their personal religious quirks.

I guess Bibles really do work wonders.