Eating out on Sundays

[2bizE]

I have several friends who are active Christians including Methodists, Catholics, and others. Many of them enjoy going out to eat after church on Sundays. When did Mormons adopt the super conservative Sunday observance where you can’t go out to eat?

[Palerider]

The "prophets" may have been saying this for quite some time. I don't know the answer.

But I can tell you that while on my mission we were taken to dinner at a restaurant by a high level "church employee" who had called our mission president asking for a recommendation of some missionaries he could take to dinner while he was traveling in our country.

During the evening conversation we were regaled with stories about the GA's. One such was that in the 1950's-60's, every Sunday afternoon the Q15 would drive to Maddox's (Maddock's?) in Tremonton and have an extended, enjoyable dinner while they discussed church matters.

Apparently during the 70's someone (more conservative) decided it wasn't good optics and they cut it out. Or maybe word started getting around a little too much?

The guy seemed to think it was kind of comical in view of how critical it was for membership to keep the Sabbath holy. I was unsure at first whether or not to believe him. I later came to the conclusion that he was absolutely telling the truth.

[moksha]

During the evening conversation we were regaled with stories about the GA's. One such was that in the 1950's-60's, every Sunday afternoon the Q15 would drive to Maddox's (Maddock's?) in Tremonton and have an extended, enjoyable dinner while they discussed church matters.

That's a shame they quit. Maddox had excellent fried chicken.

When I used to visit a variety of faith traditions when I was younger, I always enjoyed going out to Sunday Brunch with friends afterward. It seemed an extension of the Sunday celebration.

[glass shelf]

i have no idea. It was definitely a thing my whole life, and my mom told me a story from her childhood in the 60s where she made a big deal out of it with some non-LDS family members.

Ironically, I remember on one of our early family Sunday outings going out for ice cream with my family, and the little shop was full of Amish teens/young adults.

[stealthbishop]

I would like to know a timeline for this as well. I get the sense that eating out on Sunday was more relaxed at one time? Not sure.

[deacon blues]

My mother's diaries remind me that we used to eat out on Sunday a lot, maybe once or twice a month. My Dad would frequently remind us that the Hotel Utah, now the Joseph Smith building, was always open for meals on Sunday!
In retrospect, I think it was very helpful for my Relief Society President Mom to not have to worry about meals all the time.

[Just This Guy]

I remember in the 90's when GBH came to power, not shopping on Sunday's was one of his big pushes. I remember his logic was that by us going shopping or eating out on Sundays, it was forcing someone else to work and therefore beak the commandment to keep the sabbath holly.

I don't know if this was the start of it or not.

[1smartdodog]

Its probably an extension of the march to a more conservative “boring” church over the last 50 years.

I can say as a child in the 60’s we went out to dinner after church all the time.

Living in Utah I hope all the Mormons observe a strict sabbath day. Don’t need them crowding me on my weekend activities.


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[2bizE]

I remember in the 1970s, I went on a trip to Montana with my grandparents to visit my aunt or some friends. I remember that on a Sunday they had run out of baby food and needed to go to the store to get some. My grandma nearly died because they had to go to the store on a Sunday. My family rarely ate out anyway, but in the 1970s, we would not have gone out to eat on Sunday. Something changed between the 1960s and 1970s. Remember the BYU women of the year photos from the 1960s with exposed shoulders? That also seemed to decline in the 1970s….it looks like David O McKay was prophet from 1951 to 1970. There is probably something he said that caused this practice of eating out on Sunday to stop.

[stealthbishop]

I remember in the 90's when GBH came to power, not shopping on Sunday's was one of his big pushes. I remember his logic was that by us going shopping or eating out on Sundays, it was forcing someone else to work and therefore beak the commandment to keep the sabbath holly.

I don't know if this was the start of it or not.

Good to know. That makes sense for me in terms of the timeline.

[stealthbishop]

I remember in the 1970s, I went on a trip to Montana with my grandparents to visit my aunt or some friends. I remember that on a Sunday they had run out of baby food and needed to go to the store to get some. My grandma nearly died because they had to go to the store on a a Sunday. My family rarely at out, but in the 1970s, we would not have gone out to eat on Sunday. Something changed between the 1960s and 1970s. Remember the BYU women of the year photos from the 1960s with exposed shoulders? That also seemed to decline in the 1970s….it looks like David O McKay was prophet from 1951 to 1970. There is probably something he said that caused this practice of eating out on Sunday to stop.

I was at BYU in the late 80's and early 90's and the dorm photos at that time showed probably a third of the girls in something sleeveless.

I wonder if some of this depended on where you lived too. Was Utah more strict or less strict compared to other regions with lower density LDS populations. Each family probably had it's own culture on these things too.

[wtfluff]

I showed up on this pale blue dot in the late '60's in Utah. Born to over-the-top believing, conservative, hermit parents who were products of the great depression. Parents emphasized constantly how poor we were, so we almost never ate out. (We were not really poor.) We would have had to be in a MAJOR zombie apocalypse for us to eat out on Sunday. Or literally do anything else on Sunday that would involve exchanging money.

So in my lifetime experience, according to conservative MORmONs like my family, eating out on Sunday was NEVER OK.

[dogbite]

Sunday is a prime day for dim sum. Many Salt Lake Valley restaurants only do their full dim sum service on Saturday and Sunday.