When God said to remember the Sabbath, he was pretty explicit about which day it was. Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. It is the seventh day of creation week, immortalized in the Ten Commandments, and honored by faith followers of God. But…
Some people are confused and substitute the first day of the week for the seventh, thinking it probably doesn’t matter to God. It does, though.
Now we have court case that is about to be heard in the Supreme Court, where the plaintiff is demanding Sundays off from work. And he’s calling it the Sabbath. Maybe the court will correct his misuse of the term—but I doubt it.
Former U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Gerald Groff spent every day for seven years delivering the mail in a rural corner of southeast Pennsylvania -- except for Sundays when he would attend worship services and rest.
But in 2019, the former Mennonite missionary and son of a truck driver said his boss forced him to choose between practicing his faith or a paycheck distributing packages, and he resigned.
Next week, Groff will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to require employers to be more accommodating of religiously observant workers, including a right to skip shifts on the Sabbath and still keep their jobs.
The case has the potential to transform workplaces -- and the employer-employee relationship -- across America, experts say.
"I didn't really think I should have to quit. I really expected the post office to find a way to accommodate me and make it work for both them and myself," Groff said.
Federal law requires employers to accommodate the religious beliefs of workers unless it would impose an "undue hardship" on business -- a standard the Supreme Court interpreted 46 years ago to mean anything more than a "de minimis cost."
The USPS says Groff's refusal to work Sundays imposed a significant cost on operations, alleging the absences "created a tense atmosphere" and bred "resentment toward management" and that the need to find substitutes was "time consuming," according to court documents.
Two lower federal courts agreed.
The Postal Service does not deliver mail on Sundays, but beginning in 2015 carriers nationwide were contracted to help deliver packages for the online retail giant Amazon. The USPS says the arrangement has been a major source of revenue in the face of declining traditional mail.
"They began to ask people in my position to deliver on Sundays or holidays, and I told them, 'I'm not going to be able to work on the Lord's day at all,'" Groff said. "The Bible says that we're supposed to keep the Lord's day as unique and holy, a day that's set apart to worship and honor God."
After being repeatedly disciplined for not showing up, Groff resigned in 2019 and sued USPS for religious discrimination.
Groff says the bar for an employer legally refusing to accommodate sincere religious practice needs to be higher. But critics warn that could create a sweeping impact on non-observant Americans.
"This case opens the floodgates to every employee in the workforce being forced to carry the burden of someone else's religious practices," said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Groff's attorneys insist those concerns are overblown.
"Why in the world do you want to get rid of the guy who's going to deliver on Thanksgiving Day and deliver two shifts on a Saturday and go into the night all the rest of the days [of the] week over a few Sundays that we can always schedule around?" asked Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case on Tuesday and issue a decision before the end of June.
At a minimum, we hope that Groff will discover the true biblical Sabbath Day, and remember it (Exodus 20:8-11). That would be a real win.
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8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.