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Author Topic: Is it sinful to buy gas on Sunday?  (Read 2255 times)

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Offline Ladislaus

  • Supporter
Re: Is it sinful to buy gas on Sunday?
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2020, 12:27:22 PM »
With regard to eating, here's the way I look at it.  Eating is necessary.  So doing work in order to eat is acceptable.  But if you choose to go out, you're just transferring the work from one person to another.  Money isn't the key concern.  If you're transferring work, then it's acceptable to compensate the person for the work you offloaded from yourself.

Gas may or may not be necessary, but it's acceptable for gas stations to remain open on Sundays in case people do have the necessity to buy gas.  Since it's already OK for them to be open, then it's creating no additional work for anyone to go in there and fuel up ... especially when you do the pay-at-the-pump option.  There's already an attendant there minding the store, so you're not causing more work.

Are you a material participant in someone else's violation of the Sunday?  Perhaps.  But perhaps someone has a legitimate necessity to work on Sunday, e.g. needs an extra job to make ends meet for the family.  Or perhaps an attendant isn't even a Christian but some infidel (as may gas station attendants tend to be).  In any case, I am not required to police everyone who works on Sunday, go into the store and interrogate the attendant whether or not he has sufficient reason to be working there.

Re: Is it sinful to buy gas on Sunday?
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2020, 12:47:19 PM »
I do agree that stressing over buying gasoline on Sundays, and what circuмstances could allow or forbid it, sounds a little scrupulous.  If I have the luxury of time and logistics, I try to complete even essential shopping and purchases (gas, groceries, medicine, etc.) on Saturday in anticipation of Sunday.  However, if I end up having to do some of it on Sunday, so be it.  Certainly if you have to drive a long distance for Mass, you are probably going to need to fill your tank up on the road.  Especially this time of year, where it is bitterly cold in so many places, you don't want to get out anywhere and run low on gas.  I try to avoid the major week's grocery shopping on Sunday, if I can, ditto for discretionary purchases that can wait until Monday or Tuesday.  In individual cases, I would recommend asking one's confessor. 


Offline Matthew

  • Mod
Re: Is it sinful to buy gas on Sunday?
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2020, 01:53:51 PM »
Shopping on Sunday is becoming an anachronism.

My future grandkids will ask "What is Shopping?"

Seriously, we order *everything* on Amazon.com or another online source if possible. There are only a few categories of items we can't buy online:
Things heavy/bulky (difficult to ship)
Things cheap (hence it's difficult to economically ship, even for Amazon -- adding $4 to a $1 or $2 item is hard to mask)
Food, perishables
Gas

But all the stuff my parents used to buy at K-mart, and we used to buy at a department/general store like Wal-mart -- all those things are Amazon now.
Pans, everything for the kitchen, Christmas and birthday gifts, books, parts for my outdoor equipment, electronics, computer parts, and hundreds of other things, too many to list. My first option for anything is "can I buy it from Amazon". The price is lowest, convenience is at a maximum, and I have the intelligence (as in, "military intelligence") to make an informed decision that I never had 20 years ago. Customer reviews are a priceless resource. I don't know how we ever lived without them! Actually I do know -- we used to have to learn about product faults and limitations "the hard way".

It's even more important for those of us who live in a rural area.

I also love having a record of everything I've ever purchased. I can do a search through my past orders and see what model/brand I bought 5 years ago, and buy it again.

P.S. We do this much online shopping, but for my wife and I PRICE is the main priority. If we were willing to pay a bit more for various things (read: more than the absolute lowest price) we would buy even MORE stuff online. Groceries, for example. But, frankly, Amazon has the lowest price on most goods AND they have the most convenience. I don't have to waste an hour driving to/from town, and I get the item delivered the next day. Hard to beat.

Änσnymσus

  • Guest
Re: Is it sinful to buy gas on Sunday?
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2020, 02:21:53 PM »
Full-service gas stations are a thing of the past. Most fuel transactions are done with 0 human intervention. 
You evidently have never been to Oregon.  Things are changing slightly there, but only in counties with a population of less than 40,000.
https://www.npr.org/2018/01/05/575975670/oregonians-arent-pumped-about-new-law-allowing-self-service-gas-stations

Änσnymσus

  • Guest
Re: Is it sinful to buy gas on Sunday?
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2020, 04:02:38 PM »
I've seen both Fr. Gruner (Fatima Center) and a Sedeprivationist priest (Fr. Christopher Spray) say this is acceptable, and I've also asked my own Byzantine Priest and he said this was acceptable, so I assumed this was just acceptable.  I could be missing something though.

(I am not the OP)
God rest Fr. Gruner's soul.
God bless Fr. Spray.