Do you remember the times when too much salt was promoted by medical authorities to be a corrupting agent for the heart and ones health? No salt diets ensued for awhile before the CDC announced later that the body does need 2,300 milligrams daily. Since then more health professionals have weighed in on that recommendation, providing information that contradicts and in other cases supports the idea that salt, otherwise known as sodium as absorbed by the body is a health issue either for good or for bad. What I have found through life is that most people have minimal health information, and typically “contract out” that knowledge to the most convenient source that they have been accustomed to trusting. With our busy lives at this time in our world’s history, who can blame them?! But what if that information is dishonest, whether intentionally or not? If intentional, we have a word for the effect: corruption. If not intentional we might relegate the misinformation to ignorance on the part of the authority. In either case, a person is acting on information that can be harmful to them in some manner; in the worst case, lethal.

But what is the definition of corruption I am using here? The definition typically is in reference to a politician. When their behavior is corrupt, it usually means that they have a direct benefit by the behavior or action, while harm comes to individuals or society as a result of that behavior or action. Here’s a practical example – suppose we live in a place and time where there is no electricity, and we have an oil lamp to provide light for us in a room when it is dark. As long as the glass, wick and oil function according to their purpose when a fire is added to the wick, the benefit of light is realized. But suppose a crack in the glass is unnoticed, and oil begins to seep out unnoticed on the table where the lamp rests. If the oil in unnoticed when the lamp is lit by a match, the oil on the table may catch fire and quickly surpass the benefit of the oil lamp. That would be a definition of corruption – the glass has become compromised and no longer can be trusted to perform its service safely. Taking this a step further, suppose the glass does not have a leak, but is tipped over so that the oil flows out on the table while the lamp is lit. The potential exists for another disaster, but in this case, the lamp was not compromised, but used in a way that was unintended. It’s purpose in this case was corrupted, and the result again quickly surpasses the benefit of the oil lamp.

I give this illustration as a means of understanding that corruption of an idea, a practice, a habit, in short, just about anything, can have serious effects on our lives. Take for instance, the medical recommendations regarding salt. The medical industry would have you believe that no one knew the “dangers” of salt until they had the chance to study its effects. That can be debated, because it is an assertion, a “hasty generalization” logical fallacy that has an associated underlying premise. The unspoken premise is that only the “official” medical industry is qualified to determine whether salt is good for you or not. Most people accept this underlying premise because they would rather contract out thinking like this to “professionals” – and there is often good reason for this assumption. But what happens when the “professionals” become corrupted in how they study and disseminate information? To go there is to open a “can of worms” that will not fit back in that bottle once they have left that sealed bottle. But through diligence of learning and testing, one could determine for oneself whether salt is good or not for them in quantities. The problem is not that we want to have good information from qualified professionals, the problem is that corruption can quietly introduce us to bad information that in time results in choices that have the capacity to cause us harm.

Some have learned through the COVID era that was promoted by Dr. Fauci and his compliant subordinates that the information shared was potentially lethal, and certainly debilitating to many people. To say otherwise is to be ignorant of the many people that have written, and doctors recorded, and coroners documented the toxic effects of the promoted vaccines on the human body. Information was corrupt by ommission, but because most people had contracted out their desire to investigate their own health issues to a medical industry that they chose to trust, corruption occurred, just like what happens when an oil lamp becomes cracked and can no longer safely hold the oil, or is manipulated in a manner that is not compatible with its designed purpose.

All of our lives are impacted by corruption of one type or another. At the heart of this matter is what we trust through not exercising the desire to pursue truth. For convenience we contract understanding out to a government, a health industry, or even a church. Obviously the times as they are make it difficult to absorb the incredible amounts of knowledge that have made life “easier” and navigable. For instance, before the internet, telephones, mass transportation and many other technological advancements we experience and enjoy today, people used their time doing the more “mundane” things in life – planting, harvesting, building and relating to their community in practical ways. The corruption of the tools and equipment, such as an oil lamp that were used were easily detected. The ideas that were tossed around were not as easily detected as they can be today, due mainly to the lack of information sources. People didn’t contract out as much as we do today in regards to their knowledge, because they didn’t typically contract out the necessities of life such as food and shelter as much as we do today. That was both good and bad depending on the premises that were believed by the individual.

It seems that today with the emergence of specialized knowledge that supports the world we live in, we are forced to contract out that knowledge just to own a cell phone. How many people know how to build a cell phone from scratch? That underlying tendency has too often caused most people to contract out their ideas about health, spiritual matters and recreational activities to convenience and authority figures, which include popular culture, or what some refer to as “the media”.

I have mentioned spiritual knowledge since that is the deeper issue I see in our culture that is attempting to drive this nation to a point of no return in regards to its foundational principles. The idea that we are endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights, versus the government is an idea that has been corrupted by the influence of people like Karl Marx, and in Texas recently by James Talarico. But if people do not begin to take back their right to think from their “contractors”, be they whoever they are, and seek truth that is eternal and non-negotiable, we may learn the hard truth that corrupt ideas have consequences that can damage more than a log cabin table if not opposed vigorously.

Salt can lose its flavor, which Scripture tells us that it becomes useless at that point. Salt is something good and preservative for our health and in another sense our society, but when it has been corrupted from its purpose, the message from Scripture is clear. May God save this nation and exonerate the people that sacrificed so much for the freedom to worship and serve God during our time on earth, and provide for a civil society that recognizes God’s authority over mankind.