You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Matthew 5:13
Growing up in an evangelical church, I heard a lot more sermons about being light than being salt. There is something clear cut, black and white, about being light. And Jesus makes clear what letting your light shine means, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
But Jesus doesn’t really explain what being salt means probably because everyone knew that the purpose of salt was to flavor and preserve food. But it is exactly at this point that some evangelicals have a problem. Why would we want to preserve or flavor the world if Christ is about to return? Our evangelical heritage emphasizes saving as many as possible before Christ returns. We are more likely to shun the world than flavor it.
One consequence of this evangelical “otherworldliness” is that large parts of our culture have gone unsalted. Salt preserves best when evenly spread and worked into every part of the meat. The unsalted parts rot. A 2007 Pew report surveyed journalists and found that only 8%, compared to the 39% of the public, attended church weekly. But most Christian colleges have not been busy making well-salted Christian journalists. Nor have Christian colleges been known for their contributions to the film industry. For many years evangelical colleges failed to encourage or train students for law school.
But failing to salt these areas of our culture has not kept us from wringing our hands about the moral decay in our legal and entertainment industries. We withhold the salt and act shocked by the rot in Hollywood, newspapers, and the courts.
We may do this because the work of salt doesn’t fit the evangelical paradigm. Salt preserves and flavors meat, but it doesn’t turn the meat into salt. Salt makes the world less corrupt, more virtuous; it draws the world nearer the kingdom of God. But too often “nearer” is not good enough for evangelicals. We believe people are either in or out of the kingdom. Yet Jesus said to a scribe who had answered well, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mark 12:34) And Paul spoke of those in Berea as “more noble-minded” and therefore received “the word with great eagerness.”
Artists and story-tellers can weave nobility and virtue into their stories and into their culture. Yet in the evangelical world artists have often felt like strangers unless they could sing a hymn beautifully. J. R. R. Tolkien has probably not been the direct cause of anyone’s conversion, but probably few Christians have done more to ennoble our culture with the traditional Christian virtues of loyalty, faithfulness, and the beauty of goodness. Few Christians have touched as many children as C. S. Lewis has in his Chronicles of Narnia. We can call this work pre-evangelism if we must, but being salt prevents rot and it diminishes the meanness and emptiness of our culture.
I work hard putting a dry rub on meat I am going to barbecue. I heap on the salt and spices and work it into all sides of the meat. I look carefully for any area I may have missed. It is messy work, but worth it. The church and Christian colleges need to be as intentional and strategic when fulfilling Christ’s call to be salt. We have not looked carefully at the world to see where the rot is starting and the salt is needed.
Although evangelicals have tried to stay salty, biblical and distinct from the world, they have often been content to stay in the shaker. Churches can easily become lumps of salt that leave their communities unseasoned. Merely drifting into worldliness is not the cure for our lumpiness. We are called to disciple our culture by bringing Christian values to every academic discipline, every form of entertainment, and every kind of art.
God has the grace, wisdom, and resources to meet every genuine need for salt we might discover in the world if we are willing to take seriously our call to be both salt, as well as light.
