A resolution titled “No Menthol Sunday” was signed by the mayor of Minneapolis on May 11, 2023. The resolution calls upon all city residents to observe this measure. This is a faith-based initiative sponsored by The Center for Black Health & Equity and local area churches with the aim of creating a tobacco-free world. [1]
The following press release was issued by political, community, and religious leaders:
“No Menthol Sunday is an opportunity for faith leaders to raise awareness about commercial tobacco’s harms, especially menthol cigarettes which cause disease and death in Black communities. No Menthol Sunday is observed by Black churches across the nation and several churches in Minneapolis and Saint Paul will participate, in partnership with the Minnesota Menthol Coalition. The annual No Menthol Sunday event is led nationally by the Center for Black Health and Equity.” [2]
The mayor and city council approved a resolution that reads as follows:
“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED — That the Mayor and City Council do hereby declare May 21, 2023, as NO MENTHOL SUNDAY throughout the City of Minneapolis, and commends this observance to all its city’s residents. Passed this the Eleventh Day of May 2023.” [3]
Here, we see an obvious attempt to establish Sunday as a special day for the community through a campaign designed to help people stop smoking. Community leaders, faith-based groups, and city officials have come together to support the joint effort of establishing an annual smoke-free Sunday. We were warned in the book The Great Controversy that the temperance work would be “combined with the Sunday movement.”
“Here the temperance work, one of the most prominent and important of moral reforms, is often combined with the Sunday movement, and the advocates of the latter represent themselves as laboring to promote the highest interest of society; and those who refuse to unite with them are denounced as the enemies of temperance and reform … It is one of Satan’s devices to combine with falsehood just enough truth to give it plausibility. The leaders of the Sunday movement may advocate reforms which the people need, principles which are in harmony with the Bible, yet while there is with these a requirement which is contrary to God’s law, his servants cannot unite with them. Nothing can justify them in setting aside the commandments of God for the precepts of men” (Great Controversy, p. 587).
Recently, we have been seeing calls for work-free Sundays. The decision was then made to include the effort to guarantee car-free Sundays. Now we have a new resolution passed to promote a smoke-free Sunday. Sunday is regarded as a special day for a variety of non-biblical reasons, and the significance attached to it can vary from climate change solutions to pagan culture or man-made traditions. However, we understand where this is headed:
“Yet this very class put forth the claim that the fast-spreading corruption is largely attributable to the desecration of the so-called ‘Christian Sabbath,’ and that the enforcement of Sunday observance would greatly improve the morals of society” (Great Controversy, p. 587).
We are living in a day when the call for Sunday rest through legislation will become universal. They just passed a smoke-free Sunday resolution in Minneapolis. According to prophecy, these Sunday measures will not only become more popular, but they will also be a threat to our religious liberties. With all the widespread Sunday agitation going around, God’s people must meet this challenge with widespread evangelism. Now is the time to get the truth that addresses the Sabbath question into the hands of people in our neighborhoods and communities. May the Lord help us to work in His vineyard so that the seeds of the Third Angel can be sown.
Sources
[1] https://www.nomentholsunday.org/
[3] https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/Download/FileV2/31387/No-Menthol-Sunday-Honorary-Resolution.pdf
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I don’t think anyone who smokes will abide by this resolution. Nicotine is a powerful drug. On the one hand it’s the most silliest thing, and on the other hand it’s another way to put emphasis on Sunday being a holy day. Now more than ever we need to emphasize the true Holy Sabbath Day. We need to gear up our efforts and combat these errors.
They are looking for any reason to justify setting aside God’s law for man’s.
Yes, being a former smoker, I agree. I doubt I would have paid any attention to this call for a healthier life.
However, what an opportunity for satan to give victory to those that do participate and strengthen the Sunday Sabbath sacredness.