The 32nd Screwtape Letter

Italicized sentences are direct quotes from C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, published in 1942. Lewis prefaces the book with this warning:

“Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle.”

My Dear Wormwood,

I was gravely displeased to hear that your patient is still professing to be a Christian. I trust you understand that this does not mean your efforts are in vain, nor those of Our Father Below. After all, your patient is living in the perfect time and place for your most effective work—you must now make haste.

One of our greatest allies at present is the Church itself. Take care, I do not mean the Church of which the Enemy calls Himself Head, but the one your patient has unabashedly been courting. I have had the privilege of seeing it forsake the sure words of the Enemy for those of dead men, or better still, those within their “body” who disregard them altogether! So, you see, my nephew, you must not overwork yourself with presenting them fodder for half-truth. They are perfectly capable of doing this on their own. It is funny how mortals always picture us putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.

As of late, your man has been tempted to discern through these truths with prayer. The fool has been told the Enemy listens to these pitiful petitions. Or are you the fool, to even allow him to consider for a moment the wretched thing! Regardless, I have known the Enemy to act upon such pleas—He will not in the meantime be idle—even when your patient is foolish, but He only acts according to what is good for His name and His followers. Therefore, you must remind your patient that he knows better than the Enemy Himself. When he means to pray for His will, make him pray for his own: what would make his life easier, more comfortable, or inconvenience those he dislikes (after all, the proof of a good standing before the Enemy is one’s happiness). Take every opportunity to steer him away from the ritual, particularly in relation to praying for the Church, his country, and those who do not follow the Enemy. But if he must indulge in the practice, center his mind its ritualism—what is this prayer, but yet another task on the Enemy’s extensive burdensome list?

As always, I am glad to hear your man is increasingly surrounded by what he calls “worldly” folk. He seems to be timidly walking the line between caring for them in way of the Enemy, and excusing everything they do for the sake of what his Church calls “love.” It would not be difficult, Wormwood, to push him onto one side or the other; you must simply let him believe idleness is allowing the Enemy to work. Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct his malice to his immediate neighbors whom he meets every day and his benevolence to those who are outside his circumference altogether. If such is not feasible, know that Our Father Below has done a most splendid job of assuring your man that the Enemy only requires benevolence to those who resemble him in physical appearance, background, tradition, and even nation of birth. I was delighted by your news that his newest neighbor is a Muslim immigrant. He must not even meet this person. Rather, let his presuppositions and prejudices stew in his mind until this neighbor becomes nothing more than a victim of your man’s indifference. And, as always, continue to encourage him that anyone unlike himself is esteemed less by the Enemy.

Forgive me, for this letter has become longer than I anticipated, but this is of utmost importance. You must remember, Wormwood, to be on your guard: the Enemy is in all places and in all times at once, but Our Father, our roaring and prowling lion, is still actively searching for unmarked territory. Thankfully your man is easily persuaded and distracted, and thus the best way to cripple him is through misdirection. Seize every opportunity to dazzle and overwhelm him with things of the world. When he is focused on these things first—those who stand and those who kneel, those who are dark and those who are light, those who share his tradition and those who do not, those with much and those with little, and those of a similar family or country—he will not heed the promises and commands of the Enemy, let alone spread His Message. You will swiftly have him worshiping not this supposed Creator, but the created.

Finally, you must let him justify his reasons for souls not being worth his or the Enemy’s love. He will begin to see these excuses in every area and every person, and in so doing, take the gifts of the Enemy and turn them into excellent tools for Our Father. For what permanent good do unity, music, diversity, liberty, patriotism or even football games have unless we make use of them to bring souls to Our Father Below?

I will expect a full report of your work shortly. Yours is a delicate case, Wormwood, but Our Father Below does love an American patient.

Your affectionate uncle,

Screwtape

Come on, boys, won't you shake a poor sinner's hand?...I've got friends on the other side.

- The Shadowman, The Princess and the Frog

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places...be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Ephesians 6:12; I Peter 5:8

#CSLewis #Church #America