- 1 -- The Operations
- 2 -- The Veil Technique
- 3 -- The Fog
- 4 -- Hard Hearts
You seem to underestimate the ingenuity of our operations here in what you used to call the colonies. I scarcely recall hearing of half the stratagems now being deployed on every street and screen of America.
For instance, I wrote in my first letter that we are enjoying splendid success in corrupting the church with double-mindedness. True, the seed of the idea was yours, but we have cultivated it into a science far surpassing anything your generation achieved. Our patients here are utterly persuaded that they are the Enemy’s own champions, even as we have polluted their devotion with the most exquisite impurities.
The key, as you have often taught me, is directing their gaze toward their feelings. When they are singing in worship, let them attend to what they are feeling rather than the One they aim to worship. When they recall some moment of divine intimacy, let them dwell upon how it made them feel. Once we have persuaded them that their “relationship” with the Enemy consists chiefly in the enjoyment of these feelings, their eyes are no longer fixed upon Him but upon themselves.
We turn their prayers into monologs, and they haven't the faintest suspicion. They speak endlessly to themselves under the illusion of addressing the Enemy. Even pastors make their prayers little sermons for the congregation rather than true petitions to their Maker. And when the Enemy attempts to answer, they hear only echoes of their own thoughts.
Once they have learned to think of religion chiefly as a matter of feeling, we may corrupt it with any sentiment that stirs the heart. In recent times, we have found extraordinary success in harnessing their affections for that splendid counterfeit they call “America.” It is not the real nation, of course, but a purified myth. It is an America scrubbed clean of its cruelties and contradictions, where slavery never stained the soil and injustice never reigned. Even some of the darkest chapters are now remembered as a golden age.
Because the sensation of devotion so closely resembles their other feelings, the two easily mingle. Their patriotic fervor becomes indistinguishable from their so-called worship. They salute the flag with more reverence than they have ever shown the Cross. They extol their soldiers more fervently than any of the Enemy’s saints.
They profess a love for the “Bible,” yet know it only as a banner under which to do battle. Of the true gospel -- the one that demands their allegiance -- they know little. The surest sign of our triumph is their fury when someone dares question a tradition they have only imagined comes from the Enemy's book. Convinced of their righteousness, they perceive not that they would have joined the crowd crying for the Enemy’s crucifixion.
I recognize these tactics from your earlier campaigns. The Crusader blended his hatred of the Muslim with a zeal to "liberate" Jerusalem for the Enemy. The German found divine sanction for ridding the world of the Jew who, he imagined, had slain the Christ. Such are the masterpieces of our craft, when malice disguises itself as devotion. I shall write another time on the exquisite art of turning outrage at one evil into the birth of a greater one.
I am particularly proud of the frenzy we have kindled on all sides of this region. Families can scarcely endure one another at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Children no longer speak to their parents. And each party is utterly convinced of its own righteousness, bowing to a host of idols while imagining themselves saintly. I can hardly recall a season more gratifying in all my years of temptation.
I shall continue to report on our seemingly unending triumphs.
Your ever-victorious nephew,
Wormwood
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