Screwtape Writes Again

C.S. Lewis discovered a valuable trove of correspondence between Screwtape, a rather important infernal bureaucrat, and Wormwood, his nephew, a junior tempter. These Screwtape Letters provide useful insight into the inner workings of Hell.

I believe I may have found a fragment of another letter of Screwtape's, though to a different tempter. (Wormwood had but one patient, a male, before he failed and was fed to his superiors.) I record it below.

... You complain that your patient is self-aware and dedicated to thwarting her own faults. You complain that this makes it impossible for you to introduce subtle sins of sloth, self-indulgence, etc. You complain, in short, that this self-awareness and dedication render your job impossible.

My only reply is to wonder yet again what Slubgob is teaching you young fiends. How can you fail to notice the delightful possibilities inherent in her trying to thwart her faults? All you need do is bring her faults to her attention, and she will try to thwart. Humans are always worse than they think they are; I am sure that you will be able to surprise her with enough genuine faults (and even flagrant sins) that she will spend the greater part of her day trying to thwart. Her self-awareness simply means that she will do half the work for you. Soon she will become so engrossed with thwarting that you will be free to introduce imaginary sins and failings to the burden as you please. The result is a veritable banquet of misery, self-hatred and doubt.

Now this is a delicate point. You must never allow her to pause and ask herself, "But didn't Christ say that He came not for the righteous, but the sinners? Is not His sacrifice great enough for even my sin?" Our side have lost many to the Enemy in such circumstances, and those who have got past this obstacle can become deadly weapons in His hands. But I think the danger negligible. Any activity which focuses the patient away from the Enemy is to be desired. And if it is disguised in a noble package such as self-examination, so much the better.

It may surprise you to learn that this is one activity where revealing your influence can be helpful. The knowledge that she is (or has been) vulnerable to you may drive your patient into a still-deeper frenzy of negative soul searching. Never allow her to see the difference the Enemy has had in her life in the same time period. If she does ask that very obvious question, ask in return whether she has made as much progress as she ought. Then focus her not on her progress, but on the distance remaining (which, as I have said, is always greater than these humans suppose). Try convincing her that the sin is too great to be forgiven - a nice dash of pride and hubris which increases despair nicely. If all else fails, make her aware of how much time has been spent wrestling with such silly things as self-doubt and despair, and convince her that she must fix herself before anyone discovers how wretched she has permitted herself to be. Then of course you may trot out her failings again for her review, and begin the cycle again.

The great joke, of course, is that humans are always at least as wretched as your patient believes herself to be. The Enemy had taken this into consideration when He made His atrocious offer of amnesty, just as He considered how His people would fail after accepting Him. (Remember Peter's denial?) And yet He still promises that He, "who began a good work" in each of His people, "will be faithful to complete it". This is all part of His mysterious plan, which He calls "unconditional Love". Our top fiends are even now working to unmask this fiction, but until the facts of the matter are revealed, we must content ourselves with the Enemy's term. At any rate, this is the reason why contact with the Enemy is so dangerous. It might begin all sorts of pursuits of His "Love", which are never desirable.

Posted for the benefit of two friends - one literal, one proverbial. I hope it's coherent enough.

Rescue Stations

I saw an entry in Dry Bones Dance today which reminded me of a parable I love.

There was once a treacherous stretch of shore which caused deadly shipwrecks on a regular basis. People drowned almost every day.. Then one day, a group of people decided to build a rescue station on the shore, from which they could go out and save shipwrecked people. The station was small and primitive, but as more and more people were saved from the water, more and more people made contributions to it for the benefit of others. Bedrooms and hospital facilities were added. Comforts were added one by one, such as fine dining and rec centers. Soon, people became more concerned with the station than with rescuing the shipwrecked people. The rescue station became a sort of country club for a very exclusive clientele.
A few people in the group were outraged at the change. They demanded a return to their original mission - people were drowning once more. These few were not heeded, so they went and made a new rescue station next door.
Unfortunately, within a few years the process repeated itself. And repeated itself again. Until now, the beach is famous for its stretch of exclusive country clubs, just in sight of the rocks where people drown almost every day. And no one is left to do anything about it.

Sometimes I feel like the modern Church spends a lot of time worrying about minutia, or disproportionately worrying about certain sins. How many of us beg God to have mercy, dance joyfully in His grace, or lavish His love upon the world He made, upon the people He redeemed with His Son? How many of us act to seek and save the lost, rather than search and destroy?
Love should be the chief hallmark of the Christian. We should in humility consider others better than ourselves. If we are not self-seeking, if we keep no record of wrongs, if we always hope, always trust, and persevere in these traits, we should have no cause for bitter battles with our brethren. Doctrinal issues become a mere question of theory, when the real question is how we can help heal a fallen world.
I'd almost be happier if I saw the church bitterly arguing about which way to help the poor, to feed the hungry, to succor those in misery. Or how to draw all peoples to God. Arguments about which political party to support or how badly we should hate a particular sin seem like a waste of time, and I'm tired of it. It seems like a great many other people are tired, too. I wonder if we're due for an Awakening soon? Only unlike the previous Awakenings, one more interested in the summons of heaven than escape from hell.