I enjoyed his rant. I like people who hold their views passionately (so long as it doesn't involve cutting off their opponents' heads); but what was shocking to me was that Stig wasn't really setting out to be shocking. He genuinely believed what he was saying; he wasn't rude, he was just 'under-informed'. I'm not sure if that is better or worse, but at least it meant he ran the risk of becoming better informed.

In one sense he was right. The battle is almost lost. But I thought it was worth trying to bring some perception to the polemic. Economically, I'm not sure the case it as obvious as some people make out. There is only so much money to go round. Keeping shops open on Sunday doesn't magically make a 6th more money available. What it means is that the big shops are muscling into Sunday trading at the expense of the smaller ones. The smaller ones are more personal, and we will miss them badly when they are gone. Spending is just spread out a bit more.

Calling the Bible old fashioned and anachronistic has a hidden false assumption in it. It suggests that we are making overall progress. Of course we are making technological progress, but in other ways we going backwards; it's not just the polluting and wasting our natural resources; but because capitalism is no respecter of the individual and his or her needs. We choose our gods. Secular capitalism, masquerading as progress, is an unkind and rather brutal god. We are suffering from more and more stress as the economy is driven on faster and faster.

A recent survey of doctors' sick notes claims that 35% of illness is related to stress, anxiety and subsequent depression and this costs the economy over £15 billion a year.[1]

That doesn't seem like progress to me. It seems a very unwise way of running a society. Sunday trading contributes to people being stressed and ill and costs us enormous sums in sickness. How clever is that?

The Bible contains some principles that hold good today as they have for three thousand years. When I suggested to Stig (who hasn't read the bible) that it was wisdom that had been tried and tested and held good for millennia, he was literally amazed. It was a point of view that he had never come across before. He had been surrounded his whole life by secular rhetoric. This was a totally new perception for him.

The seventh day- the day of rest, a day of peace, is a break in the rhythm of the treadmill. It's also a way of protecting workers at the bottom of the heap from the relentless demands of people higher up the food chain. The rich will always be able to protect themselves, the poor less so. Is this anachronistic?

Why do people go on holiday? Because they need a break. What is the 7th day of the week? A mini holiday ('holy-day') to act as a buffer zone from the sheer grind and demands of the rest of the unremitting schedule.

What happens if you don't take a break- a rest? We risk a break of a different kind --the break-down.

We lament the breakdown of the family, the isolation of people in society, the lack of time and places to meet people and relax, the drive, the unremitting pressure and wonder why a 24/7 lifestyle inflicts so much damage on us.

So far from people whose lives are shaped by the Bible being rooted in mental illness (as Freud fraudulently tried to convince us), the recent psychiatric evidence [2] is that going to Church and living by the principles of the Bible is a major predictor in suicide prevention, protection from substance abuse, and closely associated with longevity, lower heart disease and blood pressure. The faith, hope, trust and tolerance intrinsic to the spiritual journey, contribute powerfully to mental health and well-being. So, it turns out, does keeping the Sabbath. Why not follow the Maker's instructions?

[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2349574/Stress-anxiety-common-reasons-sick-leave--men-likely-longer-women.html

[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705681/
Indian Journal of Psychiatry. January 2013.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Gavin Ashenden is Vicar of St Martin de Gouray in Jersey, the Channel Islands (just off the French Normandy coast). Trained at Oak Hill Theological College he became Senior Lecturer in the Psychology of Religion at Sussex University. He is a Chaplain to the Queen and Canon Theologian at Chichester Cathedral. As a broadcaster he has hosted a BBC Religion and Ethics show for 4 years (2008-2012) which had 100,000 listeners across the South East of England, and presented the BBC podcast on Religion and Ethics. He is the author of a number of books and essays on the Oxford Inklings.