By ALBERT SABATE
c. 2011 Religion News Service
LOMA LINDA, Calif. (RNS) Postal carrier Ruth Gomez had prayed and waited for five years to be transferred to the Loma Linda Post Office so that she could finally put to rest the conflicts between her faith and her job.
As a Seventh-day Adventist, Gomez observes the Sabbath on Saturday and Loma Linda, with its strong Adventist heritage, had swapped Saturday mail delivery for Sunday for 81 years.
Just as Gomez arrived, however, the U.S. Postal Service announced it would end the special arrangement and align Loma Linda with the rest of the country. On the day before Easter, for the first time since the Great Depression, Loma Linda’s fleet of boxy, white mail trucks zipped around this 23,000-person city in San Bernardino County on a Saturday.
The decision surprised and angered many residents and hurled Gomez back into a difficult dilemma of balancing her duties to God and Caesar.
“I was so distraught. I couldn’t believe this. I had been waiting so many years,” said Gomez, her voice quivering with emotion. “I went outside and started crying in the parking lot.”
Most people in this Southern California town, both Adventist and not, either don’t care or else welcome the switch. Only a handful of local Adventists have organized opposition, an indication that Loma Linda and local Adventists have shifted over time.
Opponents of Saturday weekend delivery say they have a religious duty to refuse nonessential work on the Sabbath — even from people who, in most places, would be seen as providing a service.
“It’s a religious liberty issue. We do not need to have workers working on Saturday,” said resident Sylvia Sheppard, who sees the change as government meddling with local tradition and religious practice. “Why should the state sanction people being off on Sunday any more than Saturday?”
But most Adventists see Sabbath-keeping as a strictly personal matter.
“I personally do not believe that it impacts my personal faith and the way I practice my Seventh-day Adventist beliefs,” said Loma Linda Councilman Ron Dailey, pointing out that the Postal Service is facing billions of dollars in shortfall.
The Saturday change will save the local office operating costs, according to the Postal Service, which declined to provide exact figures. Instead, officials have emphasized how the switch will improve mail delivery.
“It’s a service issue,” said Dan Mesa, the Loma Linda postmaster. “We were trying to streamline service to customers, and that is one way we can improve service.”
On a recent Friday, Sheppard drove to the local churches to drop off boxes to collect signatures for a petition. So far, the retired speech therapist has gathered more than 600 signatures that she has sent to Congress.
Sheppard and others are hoping to get government officials involved, but Mayor Rhodes “Dusty” Rigsby said that would violate the principle of separating church and state.
“Local government shouldn’t tip the scales in favor of one religion over another,” said Rigsby, himself a Seventh-day Adventist.
Adventist roots once ran deep in Loma Linda, where church founder Ellen White had a vision to establish a church-run sanitarium in the area. That grew into church-affiliated Loma Linda University and the LLU Medical Center, now the area’s largest employer.
Adventism still blankets Loma Linda’s identity even as the proportion of Adventists has declined. Non-Adventists who move in, lured by the area’s high standard of living, slowly chipped away at the city’s Adventist character.
Even among Adventists, interpretation of Sabbath-keeping differs based on class and ethnicity. Shephard has received the greatest support for her petition from ethnic Hispanic and Romanian churches, while the 6,500-member mostly Anglo Loma Linda University Church of Seventh-day Adventists has refused to collect signatures, not wanting to get involved with political issues.
Four of the 18 mail carriers in Loma Linda — all ethnic minorities — keep the Sabbath. Mesa, the postmaster, said workers who prefer not to work on Saturdays could request leave without pay or vacation, but he did not commit to making accommodations.
“Employees are all treated the same,” he said. “We still have an operation — a business to run — so we still have to have enough employees to deliver the mail.”
Gomez and others are now filing a lawsuit against the Postal Service on the grounds of religious discrimination.
“Their jobs are on the line if they don’t violate their faith,” said Alan Reinach, executive director of the Adventists’ local Church State Council, and an attorney for the carriers. “The decision (to switch) was wrong-headed, and I’d like them to reconsider it.
In April, a federal appeals court ruled that an Adventist mailman in Missouri was not the victim of religious discrimination when he was fired in 2008 for refusing to work on Saturdays.
Reinach said the Postal Service has been asking Congress to eliminate weekend delivery altogether in a bid to save money.
“The Post Office itself has been pushing for several years to eliminate Saturday service, and whatever benefit they reap in Loma Linda is extremely short-term,” Reinach said. “Saturday delivery has to be on its way out.”
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posted May 26, 2011 at 7:10 pm
It’s one thing to try to not work on a given day, quite a different thing to get your undies in a bundle because mail is delivered to your house on a given day.
If it would save enough money our socialist postal system should be closed on Saturdays. I say socialist because delivering a letter to the middle of nowhere in, say, Wyoming, is done for the same stamp as one to NYC but it surely costs a lot more to get it there. I notice the Tea Party isn’t complaining about that.
posted May 26, 2011 at 7:12 pm
The USPS changed it’s delivery date to please a religion 81 years ago? How ridiculous is that? That is amazing. Well it seems it has finally come to it’s senses. Now all those 7th Day folks will have to be like the rest of the country—and we all might be losing Saturday anyhow. Saturday at my mailbox us either junk or 1 piece that could wait until Monday!
)
posted May 26, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Didn’t know that about Loma Linda, delivering mail on sunday, and we lived in CA for 40 yrs! Well if they had this perk for 81 yrs. then the ones who like saturday should have 81 yrs. of mail delivery, and etc. Sunday is considered the day of rest, reason everything but retail is closed. Not because of Christians but it is just the way it is. During World War II we never had sat. deliveries, and it didn’t seem to bother anyone, so if the Postal System has to drop sat. for economy reasons we’ll all live just fine.
posted May 27, 2011 at 12:32 am
totally unfair to those hard working folk.
posted May 27, 2011 at 1:20 am
Probably, 81 years ago, the postal workers were Seventh-day Adventist and it was easier to leave the mail for them to do on Sunday.now with the broader mix of people that issue has changed.
If they don’t like it, Move to Canada where there is no mail delivery on Saturday OR Sunday.
posted May 27, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Regardless of delivery day decisions, the government is resposible to respect the religious freedoms of the employees involved. Since faith is involved, this country is obligated by the Constitution to play no favorites–including the decision that would exclude certains faiths due to scheduling problems. Dishonoring religious liberty naturally begins against a minority, and just as naturally ends in loss of basic freedoms for all. How few really care about the freedoms that have made us great, as long as the money and fun holds out.
posted May 27, 2011 at 9:43 pm
What if those who have a problem checking their mailbox to get their mail on Saturday just leave their mail in the mailbox over the weekend and check it after Monday’s delivery, making the point that the USPS is wasting their time delivering mail on the weekend? If most of the residents did that, the USPS might realize how much money they really are wasting by delivering mail if its not going to be checked by most of the citizens until Monday anyways. 99% of all the mail I ever receive is junk mail anyways and it goes into the garbage and I don’t read it. At some point, with technological advances of direct deposit, paying bills online, email, web, Facebook, etc., snail mail has become unnecessary. Let UPS deliver those packages. For the environmentalists, save the trees. For the government and USPS, with no weekend delivery, more money saved and that should please the Tea Partiers. For me, save energy walking to the mailbox and throwing away the junk mail. Hmm…good idea. I think I’ll stop checking my mailbox on weekends now, waiting to check until Monday evening.
posted May 28, 2011 at 2:34 am
Before the late 1800s, mail delivery occurred every day of the week. Mail delivery is a federal constitutional mandate. In the 1800s, many states had Sunday laws and the federal mails were a thorn in the flesh of those who wanted no mail delivery on Sunday for religious reasons. Eventually, the need to have the mails move seven days a week lessened as the country became more integrated via railroads and highways. So the postal system indirectly accommodated Sunday rest advocates so that the federal mails were now in line with State Sunday laws. Perhaps with the changes in society today, the postal system will indirectly accommodate Saturday rest advocates by closing all offices on Saturday to save money. Then mail workers will all work five days a week regardless of what shift they work.
posted May 29, 2011 at 5:29 am
So, what if the person is an Orthodox Jew? Will he also be fired for refusing to work on Saturday?
posted May 29, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Was raised in town where most stores had Jewish owners. They would go to temple and work later. Probably took turns with family so someone would always be in the stores. Jewish people usually do not cause trouble for other people like other religious faiths, from my experience and observation.
posted May 29, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Did you know that postal workers get a 25% premium added to their pay for working on Sunday’s?? I wonder if Loma Linda waived that or that’s why it lasted 81 years because the workers were enjoying the extra pay!
posted May 29, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Just one more reason to shut down on Saturdays.
posted May 29, 2011 at 5:20 pm
If the city of Yorba Linda, CA has been getting Sunday mail delivery in lieu of Saturday mail delivery for 81 years then why change it now? I have not seen how much money the USPS states they are losing due to the Sunday delivery but what have the USPS not disclosed this. Shouldn’t this be costly to change the delivery day from Sunday to Saturday now? My opinion is to keep everything the way it was for 81 years with Sunday mail delivery in lieu of Saturday in Yorba Linda, CA.
posted May 29, 2011 at 8:47 pm
If it facilitates the liberty of someone’s practiced belief then why not? When people expressed discomfort with people wearing turbans in the work place legislation forced everyone to observe this practice as the norm. If there are enough days of the week to work and still observe the 7 Day Sabbath then why not? Others could work Saturdays.
posted May 29, 2011 at 11:21 pm
If you have a problem with working on Saturday, why would you apply for a job that requires such?? I certainly wouldn’t expect someone who thinks alcohol is the devil’s tool to take a job as a bartender and expect all alcohol to be removed from the premises. Jeepers!!!
posted May 30, 2011 at 12:47 am
apples and oranges; one is doable as Loma Linda history shows and the other obviously is not.
posted May 30, 2011 at 9:39 am
Nobody in USA should lose their Sunday service. That is terrible. Everyone needs to write to congress and complain. What next? They are going to take away everybody’s Saturday mail too. We, as taxpayers, pay for it with our taxes. If it weren’t for all us taxpayers paying USPS to operate, they would not exist.
posted May 30, 2011 at 9:46 am
If you don’t want your mail delivered on Saturday, put a lock on the mailbox and block the opening. You won’t get it on Sunday, but it’ll be brought back on Monday. Enough people do that and it will slow down the mailman enough on Mondays to get the attention of even the thickest headed postal supervisor. Well, maybe not the MOST thickest headed ones.
posted May 30, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Tax dollars, everybody knows that USPS is not supported by tax dollars. Duh!!
posted May 30, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Hum, 25% Sunday premium x $25 an hour x 8 hours x 18 carriers = $900 a week in savings, not including all of the clerks it takes to sort the mail for the carriers on Sundays.
What next? Fridays off because of religious reasons?
posted May 30, 2011 at 7:20 pm
So bj, does this mean that you are going to personally pick up the tab for the extra money that they earn delivering on Sunday’s?
No, I thought not!
posted June 1, 2011 at 1:51 am
why would Sunday be worth more than Saturday?
posted June 1, 2011 at 11:17 am
No one will have weekend delivery soon anyway, so it is a moot point. Not News.