Janie B. Cheaney
Janie B. Cheaney is the author of the Wordsmith creative writing series. In addition to magazine articles, she writes novels for young adults, including "The Playmaker," "The True Prince," "My Friend the Enemy," and "In the Middle of Somewhere." Click here to visit her blog, The Uncommon Place.

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The salt and light company

Conforming to our Savior, Christians will have some kind of effect on the world | by Janie B. Cheaney

If I'm supposed to be the light of the world, why do I feel like a dim bulb? If I'm supposed to be the salt of the earth, why do I taste like cream of wheat? Since the 1970s Christians have been deploring the state of the culture and solutions, but the culture keeps getting worse. Does anyone have a clue how salt and light works?

Three models within living memory are the Godly Voters, the Culture Warriors, and the Christian Incubators. The first of those developed in the mid-70s and flowered with Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and the election of Ronald Reagan. Reagan was the Christian Conservative's dream: articulate, winsome, focused. And he wrested America back from the brink of socialism and set us on a steady course for the future ... not.

The Culture Warriors surged in the 1980s, with organizations like the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and CLEAR-TV. They called for boycotts and protests and better alternatives to the mass-media rot, and their efforts ushered in a new era of good role models and decent, family entertainment ... ahem.

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