Dennis Kinlaw, former Asbury Seminary professor and Asbury College president, tells a story about growing up in rural Lumberton, North Carolina, during the depression. It was Dennis’ job, as a young boy, to rub salt into the meat his father brought home from hunting. He would rub salt into the meat until his young muscles were sore. Finally, when it was thoroughly salted, he would hang it up in the storehouse.
One day company arrived, so Dennis’ mother asked him to get some pork out of the storehouse. Dennis ran out, got a big piece of pork off of a hook, and brought it into the kitchen. He laid it on his mother‘s cutting board and left. He was just about out the front door when heard his mother yell, “Dennis!”
Young Dennis knew from experience that whenever his mother screamed his name like that he was in trouble, so he slunk his way to the kitchen and stood in the doorway, afraid to go in.
Looking up at his mother from the doorway, he noticed she was not glaring at him but rather staring down at the meat. Dennis looked and noticed something unusual. He would say that it was the first time in his life he ever saw meat move. Stepping closer, he noticed maggots pouring out of the slice his mother had made into the pork.
Dennis thought for sure he was going to get it. But all Mom said was, “Not enough salt, Dennis. Not enough salt.”
Now it's easy to want to blame Hollywood, or TV, or liberal schooling, or the government for the decay of our culture. But maybe, just maybe, the real problem is “not enough salt.” If we feel the world is decaying around us, the problem may very well be “not enough salt.”