Salt Manifesto

I'm back... for a moment, mostly because I've been stewing about it ever since I posted this on facebook earlier today. What is *this* exactly? Some company in Tennessee is selling Christian salt as an alternative to kosher salt. I didn't mean to start a religious discussion, but I think I did and I'd like to clarify my position. I don't blame the whole of Christianity for this product, but the other sectors of my life tend to not come out with such exploitative products.

I think that this product comes from a place of ignorance. What exactly *is* kosher salt? Well, kosher salt is actually a misnomer. It should really be called "koshering salt" and, really, any salt can be used as koshering salt because it's purpose is to make meat kosher by drawing blood out from animals because blood is not to be consumed under kosher law. Koshering salt is used for this process because the grain size is bigger and irregular. Chefs use it because it's easier to pinch and it tastes better. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself. Table salt tastes metallic, unsurprisingly, because it has iodine additives. This was added because iodine deficiency can lead to goiter and, according to the World Health Organization it is the leading preventable cause of mental retardation. Nevertheless, table salt is hard to pinch and distribute equally over food and dissolves easily due to its small, uniform grain size.

So back to the story... my first problem with this product is that it's using the label of "Christianity" to sell itself and anyone who finds religion and belief in God to be the most important aspect of their life should be up in arms immediately. This is a very cheap and offensive act of commercialism. Something as sacred as one's religious identity should never be used to sell a product, especially not for any amount of profit. Weren't the Apostles the people who gave up everything they had in order to serve Jesus? I'm pretty sure that this doesn't fit the bill.

My second major problem with it is that it's totally a lack of understanding on the part of the company as to what koshering salt really is. Let's pretend that koshering salt really is an affront to all of Christianity and there needs to be a response. The big shortfall in Christian salt is that it will be a koshering salt as well. Oops!

...which brings me to my biggest problem with the whole deal. Let's un-suspend our disbelief and see this for what it really is: complete and total cultural insensitivity. It's disgusting, actually. Why is it that something not Christian must have some sort of "response" from the Christian community? Should everything that isn't specifically Christian be seen as an attack? This response seems to stem from a lack of understanding (which is easily rectified by about two minutes on google) and a greater intolerance that will most likely never go away. There is absolutely no threat from koshering salt to Christianity and to exploit the word and, really, everything that it stands for in order to combat some made up threat is offensive on so many different levels.

Okay, I'm going to crawl back into my hole now. Aside from being outraged, I've aced an exam, started my research project all over again, and have been on a diet. I'd give diet recipes, but it turns out that the food isn't that great because, well, fat and carbohydrates are tasty.