Pastor's Corner

28 Oct
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Mid-Week Challenge

Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday November 1, 2020, and then begins again Sunday March 14, 2021. 

Set your clocks! The change will take place at 2 a.m. on those fall and spring mornings. Things you might not know about Day Light Saving Time 

Why 2 a.m.? The thought behind the early-morning swap is pretty simple: According to LiveScience, most people are expected to already be at home and in bed, and that time won't bother many bars or restaurants. It also likely doesn't affect those who have early shifts at work. 

It sounds odd, but Daylight Saving Time is the correct phrasing. 

No, it wasn't started to help farmers.  In fact, according to National Geographic, farmers had a lobby that campaigned aggressively against Daylight Saving Time. That's because it gave them one less hour in the sunlight to send their crops to market. To this day, many farmers don't like it, especially because cows like to be milked on a schedule and moving the clocks disrupts that. Farmers in the U.S. lobbied successfully to stop Daylight Saving Time after World War I, and it wouldn't go back into effect until the next world war.

It started in Europe. Time reports that in 1907, William Willet wrote a book called The Waste of Daylight, arguing for a Daylight Saving Time. “The sun shines upon the land for several hours each day while we are asleep," he wrote, but there “remains only a brief spell of declining daylight in which to spend the short period of leisure at our disposal.” Willet lobbied Parliament for the change, saying it would increase people's enjoyment of sunlight and also save money on fuel, but it wasn't passed there until after his death. 

People think it may help conserve energy. Between January 1974 and April 1975, the entire country went on daylight saving time year-round to combat the energy crisis. And in 2005, Congress passed a law that extended Daylight Saving Time by a month to keep energy costs down. But the Washington Post reports that a study found that it really only saves a tiny fraction of our electric bills at best, especially since if you stay indoors, you're more likely to run your air conditioning.

It's more recent than you think.  Benjamin Franklin is credited with coming up with the idea in 1784, and Germany was the first country to try it out in 1916. President Woodrow Wilson first made it law in 1918, but it was repealed seven months later, the Chicago Tribune reports. President Franklin D. Roosevelt relaunched it in 1942, the time change wasn't official until 1966, when President Lyndon Johnson signed a law to make the start and end dates of Daylight Saving Time uniform across the country.

Not everyone observes it.   Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands don't recognize Daylight Saving Time. Parts of Indiana didn't as well until it was adopted statewide in 2006. Several state legislatures have tried to abandon the time change in recent years. And around the world, only 70 countries actually observe it, according to CNN. 

It might be bad for your health. According to The Atlantic, the time shift might be detrimental to people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder, a depression that kicks in when the seasons change. That's because it changes your sleep cycle, and it turns out that change could even be linked to higher risks of heart attacks, car accidents, and even malfunctioning medical equipment.

 But it could cut down on crime.  Popular Mechanics reports that Daylight Saving Time has been shown to reduce robberies, as they tend to happen more under the cover of darkness. With more light, there are likely fewer threats.

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  Matthew 6:27 

Serving the Savior,

Bro. Jonathan

 

By: Dr. Jonathan Richerson

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