Closed on Sundays!

Press release from Catholic Vote dot org about being closed on Sundays. AMEN!

Dear CatholicVote.org Member,

Please don’t visit CatholicVote.org this Sunday.

Yes, you read that correctly. This Sunday, and every Sunday in fact, you will not be able to interact on our website.

That’s because starting this weekend CatholicVote.org will be closed on Sundays. You won’t be able to watch our videos, read our blog, or chat in our forums. In fact, you won’t even be able to donate to CatholicVote.org.

Every Sunday our website will display this simple message: “Sorry, we’re closed on Sunday.  Go to Church.  Read a book.  Take a walk.  Call a friend.  Celebrate life.  See you tomorrow…” For a glimpse of our Sunday page – click here.

In our hectic world, we at CatholicVote.org want to tell the world that Sunday is not simply just another day. As the Bible states: “The seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord,” (Exodus 31:15).

A recent headline confirms the need for us to do something. The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future just announced that 28 percent of Americans interviewed last year said that they have been spending less time with members of their households.  Only 11 percent said this in 2006.  While the researchers in that study didn’t assign a culprit, they did note that the trend correlates with the rise in Internet usage and a boom in social networking websites.

That’s why we’re encouraging people on Sunday to log off the Internet, Facebook and other sites. Of course, our Lord didn’t say ‘Thou Shalt Not Tweet on Sunday.’ But he did say, ‘Keep Holy the Sabbath.’  With this small step, we want to help reclaim the Lord’s Day as a day of worship and rest.

Our decision may surprise some.  But in many ways we believe this effort will be our most important initiative.  By encouraging our visitors to avoid our site on Sunday, we hope to spark a movement across many sites on the Internet.  Even a small movement to respect Sunday could have a profound impact on our culture.  If you think about it, every effort to reform our country, our politics, and our culture begins with what we do on Sunday.

The launch date of this new campaign is not coincidental.  This new Sunday campaign is our way of honoring our Heavenly Father this Father’s Day.

Put Him first and He will take care of the rest.

Brian Burch

President

P.S.  One of the more famous examples of respecting Sunday is fast-food chain Chik-Fil-A.  The second largest chicken-based fast food restaurant in America has over 700 restaurants that clse every Sunday.

Chick-Fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy once said: “Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and directing our attention to things more important than our business. If it took seven days to make a living with a restaurant, then we needed to be in some other line of work.”

Of course, we aren’t selling chicken.  Instead we are in the business of changing minds and the imagination of our culture with powerful new media campaigns.  If you like what we are doing, please consider chipping in.  We could really use your help in promoting this campaign.  Just don’t try and donate on Sunday!

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CatholicVote.org, P.O. Box 2709, Chicago, IL 60690 – Call us at 312-201-6559
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