Land of the Salt-Free God

Well, here it is, the first real Spring day for the year in Portland, and I, sitting on the front patio in an adirondack that has finally dried out after (it seems) weeks of mist and rain, am reading an ‘other book’ cover to cover (it's a short one, 119 pages without the appendix and index), with almost as much joy as I felt taking my daily dose of peppermint-flavoured cod-liver oil as a 6 year old child growing up in Chicago. Yes, I sometimes do read books other than the Bible, but not many.

This is a book I have been meaning to buy and read for maybe a year, One Flew Over the Onion Dome, by Fr. Joseph Huneycutt. The book is about American converts to Orthodox Christianity. While it's an easy read, there's much in it I don't agree with, don't understand, or don't find applicable to Orthodoxy where I live, but this one passage, I think, is worthy, and I'd like to share it. It's from Chapter 12, Land of the Salt-Free God.

The media is constantly bombarding us with a low salt version of God. This god requires nothing of followers and is not offended by any lack of morality. This god preserves nothing—not the faith, nor the faithful. This god is not the God of Revelation. Rather, this salt-free god is the god of human secularism. There is no Hell; Heaven is for everyone. All you have to do to be glorified by the salt-free god is to live and die. This is the god that the Culture of Death serves.

The salt-free god, who stands for nothing holy and heavenly, encourages you to live life as if there were no tomorrow. When, however, tomorrow arrives and you are in pain, this god will painlessly help you to end it all. Thus, having served this god fully all your days, spending your time in a stupor full of all the comforts of modern life, you pass quietly into the salt-free heaven (which is non-judgmental) full of even more joys than you saturated yourself with while on earth. All of this is painless, sacrifice-less, and salt-free. (It can even be seen in some churches where the culture—Greek, Russian, Arab, etc.—is preserved while the Orthodox Faith is sacrificed.)

The seduction of the false god is everywhere, as it has been since the Fall of Adam and Eve. Yet, this is not the God whom we serve. Rather, at the end of Vespers and Matins services, Orthodox Christians sing:

Preserve, O God, the Holy Orthodox Faith,
and all Orthodox Christians, unto ages of ages!

We are singing about salt. We are singing to the Almighty God and King who gives salt and light and all good things to preserve the hearts and minds of His most precious creation: you, me, all mankind. Preserve, preserve, preserve! God, how we need salt in America! Though it stings our wounds, it heals our infirmities. Though it restricts our hedonism, it preserves our godliness. It sweetens our speech and limits our gossip. It gladdens the heart of man and is pleasing to God. Without it we become lifeless, faithless—godless.

Americans are so concerned about physical diets. What about spiritual nutrients?

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

(Matthew 10:28)

No, it is not the salt-free god that we should fear. Rather, with fear of God and faith and love let us draw near to the God of salt. Let us cling to Him Who preserves us as His own. Let us live our lives as the salt of the earth—to the Glory of God—for our salvation and the sake of all mankind.

Fr. Joseph David Huneycutt