Let us all give thanks that the Mall of America is closing its offices for Thanksgiving and encouraging the stores inside it to do the same. Apparently it cannot legally compel the stores to close, but it seems to be sending a pretty strong signal that they should – and businesses do tend not to want to tick off their landlords.

A small – or is it? – sign of renewal in the recognition that businesses should not treat people as mere units of commercial activity. Business takes place within the higher structures of culture and civilization, and must operate within some boundaries of respect for them (even if that fact is often abused in the other direction by businesses’ enemies who work in the “culture” racket).

Reading the account I was struck by two further thoughts:

• I may have been too harsh in my long-held judgment that opening businesses on Thanksgiving is a particularly scandalous act. I still think it’s bad, but there is something really sympathetic about business owners struggling to make ends meet, keep the lights on and paychecks flowing to employees, in an environment where they cannot assume their competitors will be high-minded. If I had to talk to a store owner deciding whether to open on Thanksgiving I would be ill-advised to address him as if he had no legitimate pressures operating to keep him open.
• There really is a harmony between treating people humanely and economic flourishing. Yes, sometimes the tension between these values can’t be resolved. But often they can! In this case, part of the motivation for closing on Thanksgiving is to create a more appealing context for Black Friday shopping. So is this move not a recognition of human cultural needs, but merely a ploy to protect profits? I think it would be morbid scruples to assume so. Let us rather open the book of Proverbs (we can keep Ecclesiastes handy, too) and admire the harmony of God’s design in making us creatures who flourish when we do what is right.