Are Christians really meant to be good for society?

Last Sunday I preached on “Salt and Light”. I pointed out that the virtue of salt there is that it tastes salty and NOT that it is a preservative. I am sure that the reference is to be being tasty to God - as in Leviticus 2:13

Season all your grain offerings with salt . Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.

and Jesus is not worried about preserving our culture. The context is that of being persecuted for the Gospel’s sake since that is when we are likely to play down our convictions to avoid suffering.

It occurs to me that the persecutors could be right. Loyalty to Jesus could make us a disruptive and divisive element.

The traditional Anglican interpretation of “salt and light” is that we are the preservers of all that is good in our culture and that we must continue to strive for social improvement. As I get older that looks more and more like a red herring. In any case, it isn’t working.