Joseph DiMaria Quotes

This is the basis for the practice of Saudi Arabia and a few other nations which are so decried by most nations and religions or the world. Modern Muslims and Muslim nations do not follow this Koranic prescription any more than Christians and Jews follow the Mosaic Law of the Bible regarding punishment that we would today regard as cruel and which has become very unusual.

Sunday Excise Laws, sometimes called “Blue Laws”, prohibited commercial activity on Sunday, the day most Christians believe to be the Sabbath. Then such laws had not been constitutionally tested and when the were later were they were all found to be unconstitutional. Some Christian sects believe that Saturday is the Sabbath as do most Jews. Muslims believe Friday is the Sabbath. So any state determination on the Sabbath favors some religious viewpoint and discriminates against others. Today, decisions about Sabbath are left to individual consumers and store owners. Saloon keepers were particularly hard hit if they catered to the working man as in those days people worked a 6 day week and Sunday was the only day that people had leisure time. When TR became Police Commissioner, the law was on the books but rarely enforced as they were unpopular with most of the population—the orthodox Christians excepted. He felt obligated to enforce it even if he thought it too strict himself.

Sunday Excise Laws, sometimes called “Blue Laws”, prohibited commercial activity on Sunday, the day most Christians believe to be the Sabbath. Then such laws had not been constitutionally tested and when the were later were they were all found to be unconstitutional. Some Christian sects believe that Saturday is the Sabbath as do most Jews. Muslims believe Friday is the Sabbath. So any state determination on the Sabbath favors some religious viewpoint and discriminates against others. Today, decisions about Sabbath are left to individual consumers and store owners.

In effect this was one of the earliest civil Blue Laws.

This establishment and enforcement of the Christian Sabbath was really made unconstitutional when the Constitution including the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1789. None the less, many communities in the United States maintained laws and law enforcement regarding the Christian Sabbath (called “Blue Laws”) for years. It was only into the 20th century before the practice died out after a number of cases were declared unconstitutional. Even into the 20th century, there are occasional cases where communities try and use the civil law to enforce their religious beliefs about the Sabbath. There was even a Jewish community in upstate New York which passed laws enforcing the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday. That also was a violation of the First Amendment and thus was unconstitutional.

Twain was referring to the Bible.

Several years before the Battle of Bunker Hill, revolutionary activity had already broken out in the American colonies—See {634132} for an example. Parliament passed the Administration of Justice Act of 1774 which gave the British authorities much more “clout” in dealing with the “seditious” American activities. It protected English law enforcement officials from being tried in local Colonial courts for murder or assault or unnecessary force in putting down insurrections in the colonies. Washington and other patriots used this term to describe the Act. Their reason was that under the new law, a British Soldier could kill a colonist and would not be subject to arrest and trial in local colonial courts. So there was no check on the law enforcement authorities use of unnecessary or arbitrary force. English troops could commit murder and never be accountable to the people—hence the name. Ironically, in America today, most of the Federal and state laws on the subject tend to give law enforcement officials the same kind of immunity and impunity which the Founding Fathers found so objectionable. Civilian review boards of police use of force are no allowed in many American communities.

This is one of the several examples of Biblical injuntions to burn transgressors at the stake. See Related Quotes for others. Both New and Old Testamant not only did not condemn this cruelty, but actually proscribed it. This was one of the reasons that it was so difficult for Christian nations to abolish the practice. Not also the patriarchial nature of the rationale for such a punishment. It was not what the daughter did per se that was the offence. It was the the dishonor and profanity of the father that was the crime that had to be punished, Also, priest's daughters were treated more severly than other daughters.

As this quotation demonstrates, capital punishment was approved in the Old Testament for criminals and hanging was a Biblically sanctioned method of execution.