Salt and Light - It Is The Hope for 2013

Last night I watched 40 best feuds or some such ridiculous entertainment show about celebrities.  Reality shows received a lot of coverage and I hadn't watched any of those particular shows.  Women pulling each other's hair and showing their hiney as they wrestled on the floor in short dresses, couples shouting the most hurtful things at each other - completely abusing the trusting moments where they were trusted with that knowledge of their partner's vulnerabilities.  It was sickening. 

I can't understand the "entertainment" value of watching people be treated cruelly or exposing their cruelty toward others. 

I can't understand how anyone harms a child or their wife.  No compassion, empathy, moral compunction.

It twists me up inside when I become immobilized by that hopeless feeling that I can't change this... and then I get mad, and I read something like the quoted passage below and I feel energized.  I want to energize you.  I want us to go do this thing together...

"Our Christian habit is to bewail the world's deteriorating standards with an air of rather self-righteous dismay.  We criticize its violence, dishonesty, immorality, disregard for human life, and materialistic greed.  "The world is going down the drain," we say with a shrug.  But whose fault is it?  Who is to blame?  Let me put it like this.  If the house is dark when nightfall comes, there is no sense in blaming the house, that is what happens when the sun goes down.  The question to ask is "Where is the light?"  Similarly, if the meat goes bad and becomes inedible, there is no sense in blaming the meat; that is what happens when bacteria are left alone to breed.  The question to ask is "Where is the salt?"  Just so, if society deteriorates and its standards decline until it becomes like a dark night or a stinking fish, there is no sense in blaming society; that is what happens when fallen men and women are left to themselves, and human selfishness is unchecked.  The question to ask is "Where is the Church?  Why are the salt and light of Jesus Christ not permeating and changing our society?"  It is sheer hypocrisy on our part to raise our eyebrows, shrug our shoulders, or wring our hands.  The Lord Jesus told us to be the world's salt and light.  If therefore darkness and rottenness abound, it is largely our fault and we must accept the blame. - John Stott  "Human Rights and Human Wrongs"