If there is to be any hope of retaining what is left of the
once enviable Ulster Sunday, then it is vital that MPs support
the plea of Jeffrey Donaldson, MP, to support the early day
motion opposing any further extension to Sunday trading hours.
At present large stores are restricted to just six hours
trading on Sundays, and Mr Donaldson said he believed this
was "more than adequate."
He also said he knew from talking to workers in the retail
sector that they are strongly opposed to the proposal.
Mr Donaldson said: "I believe it represents a further
diminution of the special place as a day of rest Sunday has
in our culture."
Mr Donaldson is spot on in his belief that Sunday as a day
of rest is part of the Ulster culture. However, that culture
has been under enormous pressure from secularism and from
many decisions taken by British governments to open the floodgates
as far as Sunday sport, entertainment and shopping is concerned.
What a contrast to the 1950s, when Britain was still largely
a God-fearing nation. Attendance at church were very high,
by today's abysmal standards, and millions of children still
attended Sunday schools.
But the onslaught on Christian standards had already begun,
and at what a cost. An article in a magazine I read a few
years ago referred to the transformation of Wales from being
a church and chapel-going society to one where Methodist,
Presbyterian and Baptist chapels had been closed by the hundred.
In their place were striptease clubs and gambling halls,
and many of the famous Welsh male voice choirs were struggling
to remain in existence.
"Was it right that the Government should have bombarded
the Welsh with secularism at the cost of traditional religious
values?" was the theme of the argument.
Scotland has gone down the same road since, and although
the Kirk is still relatively strong, church membership has
declined sharply in the past three decades.
Northern Ireland remains the only strongly churchgoing part
of the United Kingdom, but what remains of the traditional
Ulster Sunday is now under constant threat.
The Orange Order and Royal Black Institution are Christian
orders committed to defending the Protestant faith against
attack. That doesn't just mean from traditional foes like
militant republicanism and dogmatic Roman Catholicism.
Secularism and materialism are just as hostile to the principles
of the Reformed Faith, and in ways pose an even greater threat.
All around the evidence of this can be found, with increasing
crime rates, drug-taking on a large scale, criminality, public
drinking, and lack of respect for law and order and decency.
Family values are under great threat and pressure, reflected
in the soaring divorce and separation rate, and the record
number of births outside marriage.
Those who are so strong in their advocacy and support for
Sunday sport, entertainment and shopping seem oblivious to
the fact that their success in undermining Christian values
and ethos has contributed in very large measure to the disintegration
of society.
Orangemen must remain steadfast in their opposition to any
threat to the Ulster Sunday, and they must demonstrate this
by their faithful attendance at church, and by encouraging
their children to attend Sunday school.
The 21st century is already presenting Orangeism with a whole
range of challenges, but none more important and vital to
win than the resistance to the tide of secularism and materialism
which threatens to destroy the very fabric of society and
family.
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