Previous chapters at the bottom. Some of these will go dark as the work approaches completion.
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My dear Wormwood,
It is most enlightening to hear of the recent developments in the Colonies, viewed through the lens of your own scheming. No doubt, had I been on the scene, matters would have reached their present state in far less time. Still, you have managed tolerably well, and the results, though somewhat delayed, are gratifying.
Alas, we have not been able to stir such delectable conflict over the unborn or matters of sexuality here in Britain. Our energies have been more profitably spent persuading the general populace that the Enemy is but a superstition and His Church a quaint relic of another age. In this, we have achieved remarkable success -- though, to our vexation, a few pockets of obstinate belief continue to smolder.
The great advantage of our trade, my dear Wormwood, is that no situation is ever truly lost to us. The raw material of fallen humanity can be made to serve our cause in any age or circumstance. You mention the question of Church and State. How fertile a field that has always been! In times past, we have turned religion in the State into oppression, and the State in religion into idolatry. I confess I rather miss such opportunities, though they are sadly scarce here in England at present.
But what feasts we once enjoyed! When the Catholics held power, we burned the Protestants. When the Protestants held power, we returned the favor in kind. Nothing delighted me more than the spectacle of both sides invoking the Enemy’s name while sending His followers to the flames. Such harmony in mutual hatred is the rarest music to infernal ears.
Even in the days of the Romans, when the State opposed the Enemy’s people outright, our pleasures were manifold. Yet when so-called Christians seized the Empire, our triumph was greater still. For we found that persecution may destroy bodies, but power and comfort can rot souls far more effectively. How swiftly we thinned the rich wine of faith into a tasteless religion of convenience. It became so dilute that even those with eyes could scarcely see it.
It looks to me that your strategy in the Colonies might mirror what we once did with the Puritans here in England some centuries ago. That double-minded Cromwell -- this man could kneel in the night with tears and Scripture. Then in the morning, he butchered those he judged untrue to God. Such double-minded piety is our ideal instrument: piety without pity, conviction without humility. He is the very sort of man to place in power if one wishes to feign a takeover in the Enemy’s name.
And what a season that was. Their language was all fire and Bible. They could recite the Enemy’s Book as if it were their own breath -- though counter-providentially they remembered chiefly those verses that blessed their blindness. They construed the Enemy’s love as a privilege for the obedient, but it became a license for wrath upon the disobedient. “Love your neighbour” is reshaped into a rule that applies only to those judged worthy. Every other soul becomes fit to be trampled in the name of holiness.
These zealous, double-minded “believers” are ever abundant, eager to conceal the anger and hardness of their hearts beneath the mantle of the Enemy’s authority. They are invariably astonished, upon meeting the Maker, to learn that they have no share in His Kingdom. Like us, they find Him revolting when they finally behold Him, and would sooner endure a wretched eternity apart from His light than submit to His loathsome mercy. In that moment, they discover the dreadful truth. Their hearts have long been one with ours.
This sort cannot see that the Maker grants every soul a choice whether to serve Him. Mistaking Him for the dictator of their own projections, they seek to compel the world into their narrow vision of righteousness. Fools. They are oblivious to how patiently the Enemy cultivates and woos His people, inviting them freely into faith.
I shall be sorely jealous if you succeed in bringing America to such a pass. What a delectable prospect! To resume persecutions past, relabeled as holiness! Do continue to dispatch your schemes, especially a full account of how these last ten years have unfolded in your plan. I wait, with relish, for further word of our master’s proposal.
Your infernal Uncle,
Screwtape
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Previous chapters
- 1 -- The Operations
- 2 -- The Veil Technique
- 3 -- The Fog
- 4 -- Hard Hearts
- 5 -- Focus on Feelings
- 6 -- Blinding Indignation
- 7 -- Spiritual Inoculation
- 8 -- The Fumes of the Enemy
- 9 -- Moral Inversion
- 10 -- Reliable Race
- 11 -- Misdirection
- 12 -- The Very Elect
- 13 -- The Great Wedge
- 14 -- The Revolt
- 15 -- Deepening the Wedge
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