Comments

• Enoch Shipmate

  February 3

  I use 'moronicity' to describe habits of thought that alas are all too prevalent in public life. Perhaps habitual lack of thought might be a better description.
  
  
• Hedgehog Shipmate

  February 3

  Leaf wrote: »

  Even the salt of the earth can be broken down and become tasteless, crude, foolish. I can't think of a convenient word to translate this, but it's effectively "moronized."

  
  Or "Not Mortonized!
  
  Yes, okay, a silly joke, but used only because my knowledge of Koine Greek is virtually nonexistent.
  
  Still, I get the underlying sense that the salt that loses taste is worthless, and to be thrown away. The "how can the saltiness be restored" is presented as an impossibility. It can't be. Just toss it out.
  
  From that, perspective, though, the analogy does not quite work with human beings: a worthless person can potentially become worthy. It is not an impossibility. St. Paul, for example.
  
  Actually, a LOT of the saints, when I stop to think about it...
  
  Still, I don't think that is what Jesus is aiming for in this sermon. He is not trying to suggest the worthless are irredeemable, but rather he is encouraging the faithful to stay faithful, to remain the light on the hill, etc.
  
  
  
• Nick Tamen Shipmate

  February 3

  Leaf wrote: »

  Even the salt of the earth can be broken down and become tasteless, crude, foolish. I can't think of a convenient word to translate this, but it's effectively "moronized." It seems to me to be the human behaviour equivalent of what Cory Doctorow refers to, when discussing products and services, as "enshittified."

  Insipid? The Etymology Online Dictionary gives this etymology:

  1610s, “without taste or perceptible flavor,” from French insipide “insipid” (16c.), from Late Latin inspidus “tasteless,” from in- “not” (see in- (1)) + Latin sapidus “tasty,” from sapere “have a taste” (also “be wise;” see sapient). Figurative meaning “uninteresting, dull” first recorded in English 1640s, probably from Medieval Latin or the Romance languages, where it was a secondary sense.

  The connection between insipid and sapience is interesting in this context, I think, as it etymologically combines ideas of lack of taste with lack of wisdom or discernment in the word.
  
  
  
• Gramps49 Shipmate

  February 3

  One of my friends shared this with me
  
  Pure salt, sodium chloride, can’t become unsalty; but the sodium chloride of impure salt can be leached out, especially in humid weather, and the remaining substance can be tasteless. This “salt” cannot become salty again. When the purity of our faith is adulterated, the pure “salt” may slowly slip away leaving us with a “tasteless” faith and it may be impossible to restore the pure one.
  
  Salt that isn’t salty is foolish or moronic or useless salt, which could be the similar to saying Christians who aren’t seeking the virtues of the last five beatitudes (or, in other words, “to fulfill all righteousness”) are foolish or moronic or useless Christians. They are good for nothing except being trampled on by others.
  
  Why “salt”? There are numerous references to salt and its different uses in the Old Testament. Beyond these, perhaps like the mustard seed and light, salt, though very small, can be quite powerful. One tiny crystal of salt can be tasted. It doesn’t take too much extra salt to ruin a recipe.
  
  Perhaps, to stretch the salt analogy, as salt can make food taste better, so we are to “add spice to life” – helping others improve their lives; but as too much salt can ruin the good food, sometimes too much help or pushing our faith too much, can destroy the good we are trying to accomplish. Helpers can become enablers. One’s self can be lost in co-dependent relationships.