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Writer's pictureblackchristiansfor7

It Doesn't Matter To Me

Matthew 5:13b ...if the salt has lost its saltiness (its qualities and potential), how will it be salted?

We say this about so many things. Relationship, politics, mistakes, miscalculations and a host of other things are dismissed by individuals with the simple phrase, "It Doesn't Matter To Me." It is a powerful statement for a number of reasons. First, it either strips people of their capacity and will. Secondly, it fosters a sense of hopelessness or resignation that we should allow things to remain as they are, as though by doing so, we escape the consequences of our sameness and inaction. This is called apathy. The philosopher Plato, once said, "The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." It MATTERS when IT DOESN'T MATTER!


At the dinner table or out on the farm, unsalted salt is both distasteful and unproductive. Jesus Christ in one of his earliest sermons addressed the issue of a people empowered to do something, resigning themselves to do nothing. The passage reveals that it is not the oppressive thing that causes destruction, but the indecisiveness and inaction of those who decide that they no longer care enough to engage in making a difference, who have both been destroyed and opened the door for more social erosion. Apathy is more sinister than hatred, because hatred at least, indicates feeling, while apathy is the loss of the willingness to feel, alongside a denial of the personal consciousness of the apathetic. When a person has checked out emotionally and mentally regarding the state of social and spiritual affairs, it hurts, and it hinders good possibilities for the future of our children.


I give thanks for all of the ancestors who saw no immediate path of social, economic and political progress for themselves, but continued to care and continued to believe that they could--even from their status of oppression--make the future better for their children and children's children. Hope and faith are better springboards for social progress than apathy (both in the now and in the future). I encourage Christians to "be." Be the salt that preserves the good values and behaviors, and "be" the salt that positively changes the distasteful moral and social conditions that assign men and women to the bondage of sameness or to the mindless consent to change, simply for change sake. You are the salt of the earth; if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will it be salted? God wants you and your Community needs YOU to CARE.

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