Colorado Man Getting Table Salt Blessed By Priest

A Colorado entrepreneur has decided that he doesn't like the concept of kosher salt. He sees chefs on the Tee Vee recommend it all the time, and decided to jump on an opportunity to sell Christian salt. He gets sea salt blessed by an Episcopal priest and sells it on the Web.

"I said, 'What the heck's the matter with Christian salt?'" Godlewski said, sipping a beer in the living room of his home in unincorporated Cresaptown, a western Maryland mountain community.

By next week, his trademarked Blessed Christians Salt will be available at http://www.memphi.net, the Web site of Memphis, Tenn.-based seasonings manufacturer Ingredients Corporation of America.

I wasn't aware that my carton of Morton's exalted Jesus in any way, shape or form. That must be where that little altar built out of cinnamon sticks, flour paste, and paprika in my cupboard came from. Thank goodness it wasn't the roaches after all.

Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, kosher administrator for the Chicago Rabbinical Council, said marketing Christian salt as an alternative to kosher salt reflects, at best, ignorance about Jewish dietary laws. He said all salt is inherently kosher because it occurs naturally and requires little or no processing...He said coarse-grained kosher salt is named for the way in which it was traditionally used - to draw blood from freshly butchered meat, because Jewish law prohibits consuming blood. Chefs often favor kosher salt because it's crunchy and easy to pinch.

This guy's name is Fishbane? Okay, whatever. I guess he doesn't swim in the ocean much :)

I was interested to learn that kosher butchers traditionally used salt. Probably they also hung their meat up to drain, as well.

Godlewski said his salt, packaged in containers bearing bright red crosses, has at least as much flavor and beneficial minerals as kosher salt - and it's for a good cause.

"The fact is, it helps Christians and Christian charities," he said. "This is about keeping Christianity in front of the public so that it doesn't die. I want to keep Christianity on the table, in the household, however I can do it."

Sodium chloride is sodium chloride, and nothing is added or subtracted from it when people invoke magic spells over it to make it more acceptable to god.

Mr. Godlewski says this isn't about Judaism, but in fact it is. He sees kosher salt as unacceptable because he thinks it's been blessed by rabbis. He also thinks that kosher salt is helping to drive Christianity out of the public view. That indicates an antagonistic and competitive viewpoint on Mr. Godlewski's part.