Cook Island Christians pray for Sunday flights reprieve

BBC News ^ | 12-27-09 | John Pickford

[smokingfrog]

"The sanctity of the Sabbath is of a higher value than the dollar," declared the protesters' banner.

It was a wet Sunday in Aitutaki and I was looking at a bedraggled band of demonstrators outside the tiny airport.

When the local airline decided to add a Sunday service to its normal schedule it may have anticipated some hostility.

Most Polynesians have been devout Christians since the arrival of missionaries in the early 19th Century and on many islands Sunday is a special day.

But on Aitutaki, as well as the airport protests, 1,300 people signed a petition against the flight.

"That's most of the adult population," declared one campaigner jubilantly.

Elections will be held next year and the protest continues.

I had been in the Pacific two months and was about to experience my ninth Polynesian Sunday. I was unsure about the ethics of riding a hired bicycle on the Sabbath but I thought I would risk it.

There is no better way to explore a 21st-Century Polynesian island than to "get on your bike" and cycle round it.

[Gay State Conservative]

Interesting position taken by these people.You’ve gotta admire them for their honoring of the Sabbath.I used to love Sundays here in Massachusetts when I was a kid.Basically *everything* was closed and Sundays were for church and family get-togethers.

[smokingfrog]

Texas used to have some fairly strict “blue laws” when I moved here in the 70’s. Not very many businesses were open on Sunday.

[Gay State Conservative]

Texas used to have some fairly strict “blue laws” when I moved here in the 70’s. Not very many businesses were open on Sunday.

Our blue laws are long gone.Very "regressive",don't you know! But you've gotta give my state credit...we still honor the one man we truly revere.....*everything* is shut tight on Karl Marx's birthday.