Eat Mor Chikin (except on Sundays)

I've long been fascinated by Chik-fil-a's decidedly counter-cultural policy of remaining closed on Sundays.

My first real job was at the Dairy Queen in my hometown of Paragould, Arkansas. The owner of our local DQ maintained a "Sundays Closed" policy as well. While I never asked him directly, I always heard that it was for purposes of religious observance.

Chik-fil-a is the only national fast food restaurant that observes such a policy. Lisa Landoe at the Christian Century's blog recently wrote about it.

Large corporations are easy to criticize. (And often there are good reasons for the criticisms.) But I think Chik-fil-a's policy is commendable. It serves as a public Christian witness in a time when such witnesses are rare. The profit motive long ago caused most corporations in the services industry to forgo the traditional practice of closing on the Christian Sabbath. (As Ms. Landoe points out in her blog post, Chik-fil-a loses $500 million per year in income from being open only six days per week.) Chik-fil-a's policy means that all its employees at least have the opportunity to attend worship services and spend time with their families every Sunday.

The decision to close on Sundays was made long ago by Chik-fil-a founder S. Truett Cathy. And while he and his family could be even wealthier than they are if the company had done otherwise, he insisted that he wanted to run his business as a Christian. And his particular ethic can remind us that there are things more important than profit motive.

I've struggled with Sabbath observance myself for a long time. As a pastor, I have tried to practice Sabbath in various ways and preach about it from the pulpit. But it's tough. Everything in the culture pushes us to treat Sunday like any other day -- and truth be told, our willingness to patronize the businesses in our towns and cities only encourages business owners to stay open.

We take most of the other 10 Commandments pretty seriously, so why not the one about Sabbath observance? Is it possible that a fast food restaurant might serve as a prophetic voice for Christians today?