Years ago my dad rattled off this little rhyme about diets:
Why do diets start on Monday?
Why not Saturday or Sunday?
Why not any other one day?
While there is a certain psychology behind the answer to that question, the main reason is that we like to unwind over the weekend — and perhaps even indulge — before starting a new diet. Also, by starting on a Monday, we can get in several days of dieting before the next weekend and thus stay motivated to stick with it. In other words, the structure of our week determines our selection of a day to start dieting.
This same principle came into play 175 years ago when Congress passed a federal law designating the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November as Election Day. Previously, states had been allowed to hold elections with a 34-day period before the first Wednesday in December.
Since American society was mostly agrarian at the time, Congressional leaders considered that the month of November would be ideal for voting. Harvest would be over, yet the cold of winter would not have yet arrived. But the 34-day voting window created what Senate Historian Don Ritchie called a “crazy quilt of elections,” held at different times, all over the country.
So on January 23, 1845, Congress passed the Presidential Election Day Act “to establish a uniform time for holding elections for electors of President and Vice President in all the States of the Union.” This Election Day would occur every four years on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
But why Tuesday? As Dad would say, “Why not Saturday or Sunday, or any other one day?”
History.com provides a concise answer (with a creative 90-second video):
In the 1800s, most citizens worked as farmers and lived far from their polling place. Since people often traveled at least a day to vote, lawmakers needed to allow a two-day window for Election Day. Weekends were impractical, since most people spent Sundays in church, and Wednesday was market day for farmers.
With this in mind, Tuesday was selected as the first and most convenient day of the week to hold elections.
Various insights could be gleaned from this explanation, such as people’s willingness to travel a great distance to to vote. (Do we complain for having to travel a few miles and wait a few minutes in line?). But here’s what really stood out to me: “most people spent Sundays in church.”
Church attendance on Sunday
was a key factor in selecting
Tuesday as Election Day.
How times have changed! Whereas back in the 18th century 75-80 percent of Americans went to church weekly, nowadays (according to a 2019 survey), 29 percent of Americans never attend church or synagogue, and only 23 percent of Americans attend on a weekly basis.
Imagine an American population that was so committed to attending church each Lord’s Day, that it was a major factor in determining the Presidential Election Day!
Yet consider where we are now in 2020. I wonder how much more church attendance has precipitously declined even over this past year. Given the moral trajectory of our nation, we should not be shocked that several state governments did not consider church “essential.” However, we should be greatly saddened that many professing Christians no longer consider church “essential.”
Yet God says otherwise.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day [of Jesus’ return] approaching. (Heb. 10:23-25)
Less than three months ago, Christian researcher Thom Rainer listed “Five Types of Church Members Who Will Not Return after the Quarantine”:
The decreasing church members - those whose frequency of church attendance had already decreased before the pandemic. Now they’re attending zero times.
The disconnected church members - those who attended Sunday worship only but never built meaningful relationships.
The church-is-another-activity church members - those who let inclement weather or Sunday sports keep them from church. They have no commitment in the post-quarantine era.
The constant-critic church members - those who have had a pattern for complaining and are still doing so, even though they have not returned to in-person services.
The cultural Christian church members - those who were never truly converted but gave the appearance of being Christians to look good to others. But now that they have an out (Covid), they’ve called it quits.
Perhaps you may be thinking, “Hey, I thought this blog was supposed to be encouraging!” It is, which is why I want to persuade all my fellow believers to be the people God has called us to be! Because we live in dark days, we can shine all the more brightly “as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life” (Phil. 15-16). “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thess. 5:11).
As our congregation was reminded at our Sunday evening gathering, “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). As believers in Christ, we are an outpost of God’s kingdom on earth. Let’s live like it!
Remember Tuesday became Election Day, largely because of the Lord’s Day.
Let’s “make America great again” by making church the priority it once was.