At our men's Bible study this morning, we discussed Matthew 5:13, the verse which talks about Christians being the salt of the earth and about not losing our saltiness. We had a good discussion incidentally, but I couldn't help but think of a quote I read recently in J.P. Moreland's Love Your God with all Your Mind. Moreland decries what has happened to our culture and the marginalization of Christianity in society that has failed to stem the tide because it is ceasing to be salty:"Our society has replaced heroes with celebrities, the quest for a well-informed character with the search for a flat stomach, substance and depth with image and personality. In the political process, the makeup man is more important than the speech writer, and we approach the voting booth, not on the basis of a well-developed philosophy of what the state should be, but with a heart full of images, emotions, and slogans all packed into thirty-second sound bites. The mind-numbing, irrational tripe that fills TV talk shows is digested by millions of bored, lonely Americans hungry for that sort of stuff. What is going on here? What has happened to us?"
He continues:
"One job of the church is to be salty to the world in which it finds itself, so if that world grows saltless, we should look first to the church herself to glean what we can about her contribution to the situation...[A] major cause of our current cultural crisis consists in a worldview shift from a Judeo-Christian understanding of reality to a post-Christian one. Moreover, this shift itself expresses a growing anti-intellectualism in the church resulting in the marginalization of Christianity in society--its lack of saltiness, if you will--and the emergence of the most secular culture the world has ever seen. That secular culture is now simply playing out the implications of ideas that have come to be widely accepted in a social context in which the church is no longer a major participant in the war of ideas."
Christians, in order to be "salt," must shirk this "growing anti-intellectualism," regain the mind, and engage in this war of ideas with our culture.
1 comment:
Great post! I would encourage the members of 1st Pres to try to take a fresh look at your long-standing membership. Some are falling through the cracks - especially some of your elderly members who have so much salt left in them. For reasons, perhaps not obvious ones, they may need a little encouragement to get involved again. Seek them out -- they need you and you need them whether you realize it or not.
Post a Comment