Shaking Faith like Screwtape
9:46 PM
I just finished reading about Sherem, the anti-Christ in the Book of Mormon, who is the first among many in the narrative to seek to stir up doubt, steer belief away from Christ and steal trust away from Christ's prophets. It's sometimes baffling that these ancient critics were often so successful in their efforts and I'm sure many today wonder why so many modern critics seem to be likewise successful at turning hearts away from belief, trust, and obedience. There must be some common tactics, phrases, or logical lines that have worked in the past and still work in the present.
In C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters Lewis gives
voice to a fictional master devil training another apprentice devil about the fine art of
temptation and deception. I am by no means a C. S. Lewis, but I do wonder what
that genre of book would look like if written relative to the modern struggle
between faith and doubt. Often the best tactic in battle is to know you enemy
as well as you know yourself. So in an attempt to recreate, not Lewis's style,
but his idea in the current environment, I propose here a few Screwtape-ish
thoughts, written as if from a master doubt-inducer to an inexperienced
apprentice.
Darken his mind and heart
My apprentice, yours
is a difficult task. To wrestle a mind and heart from a faith that has so long
been lodged there requires the utmost skill and deception. Quite unfortunately
for our cause, it is almost impossible to darken a mind that spends its days
basking in the sun. Indeed, a mind in light will hardly ever want to leave the
light. Thus, the following steps can help cover the sun so that you may have
occasion to lead your target away, for the farther back the experience with the
light is, the more buried by "life" the memory of enlightenment is,
the colder a life gets as it moves further from the warmth the easier it
becomes to freeze a heart and chill a mind.
Tie him with flaxen cords
A strong and
stubborn mind and heart will reject any attempt at control, especially if the
tempter comes with strong cords in hand. Therefore, in whatever you do or say
use small strings. Do not try to tempt him from regular Church attendance with
complete inactivity; do not try to rip away his scriptures with complete
rejection. Instead, get him to miss one hour of Church or one day of study. The
target will think, "It's just a small thing, I can return to my standards
tomorrow; I can break these strings easy enough" which is, of course,
true. However, little by little, as you wrap the strings continually around the
target you and he will find that, while escaping one small string is possible,
escaping multiple strings is not.
Distract him with small things
An effective way to
wrap the target with cords it to distract him while you are tying him up. These
distractions need not be big or blazing; indeed, simple, good-but-not-great
distractions often work the best. Point out how easy it would be to check the notifications
on his phone before he reads scriptures. Remind him of the TV show, football
game, or movie that he's been waiting to watch. Fill his mind with things that
are good so that he has no time left for things that are essential. And to the
degree which you can draw his eyes and heart downward and inward you can
distract him from the call to look outward and upward.
Entangle him in large things
Once the smaller
distractions work he will be more willing for larger, more time-consuming
distractions. Again, these need not be completely evil but must simply be
something other. Find for him something he can become passionate about that
draws his heart away from God. We have done this successfully in almost every
age of the world. The goal here is one of priority; you must get him to love
and hold to something else so that learning and living from Heaven drops lower
and lower down his priority list.
Compliment his reasoning
An empty cup can
accept water, thus the other side speaks so repeatedly about humility and
openness to revelation. To stop this process you need only compliment his own
intellect and get him to spend more time inside his own mind than he does
trying to commune with the minds on the other side. Fill his cup with
philosophical, psychological, sociological, historical, or political answers to
his questions and he will never hold his cup up high enough to answers from
Heaven.
Speak to him of fairness
We both know that
the other side operates on justice and mercy; you need to sway him towards the
world fairness. Help him to belittle justice and to scoff at the idea of
"right" and "wrong." Instead, speak to him of morally
relative values and place the quest for equality and fairness at the tip of his
priorities so that the quest for rightness and righteousness takes, at least,
second place. Help him believe that the protection of "rights" and
the pursuit of "fairness" for those who suffer consequences from
disobedience is a far nobler calling than simply doing what's right and obeying
the commandments issued by the other side.
Give him imitations
We have always
utilized imitations, but our game now must be subtler than ever before. In the
past a target could be tricked into coarse imitations--crude, molten idols and
basic imitations. Today, the imitations must be so similar to the presentation
from the other side that even some of the most cautious participants can be
fooled. For example, trying to substitute lust for love might be too crude of
an imitation for a savvy, modern target. However, that target may fall prey to
the imitation of love-by-language instead of love-by-action. Similarly, you
might be able to lessen him Sabbath worship by suggesting to him that he simply
rest, rather than (as the other side commands) "rest from [his]
labors" and be about the business of serving and sustaining.
Appeal to his independence
We welcome the ideal
of independence. The other side stands willing to imbue the target with
immeasurable power contingent upon the target's willingness to yield his will.
This allows us to opportunity to champion the freedom of will and virtues of an
independent, self-sustained life so that when the final day comes the target
must nakedly face us with nothing but his own strength.
Strand him on an island
The mainland of the
other side is filled with feasts that make it almost impossible for us to lure
targets away. However, if you can entice the target to swim a short ways off
the mainland to a closely-connected but unimportant island of historical inquiry
or tertiary theology he will begin to forget the feast. For example, if you can
pull him away from reading the prophets to an island where he reads about the
prophets he will eventually forget what a prophet sounds like in the first
place.
Paint in gray
Likewise, the other
side paints its picture of life in black-and-white terms of righteousness and
wickedness. This forces the target to pick a side. You must paint in gray so
that the target can avoid the choice towards righteousness and sit comfortably in
what he thinks it the middle. Never mind the actuality of the choices; if you
can keep him from choosing, you can keep him choosing us.
Conceal yourself
In everything you
do, conceal your own involvement. An amateur might make the mistake of trying
to impress or intimidate the target into following our way. This may work on
the weak-minded or the hard-hearted. However, your target is intelligent and
mature and will not be interested. Do not give him someone to fight against,
for he surely will. Instead, tie your teachings to someone or something else;
cloak your comments in the myriad of voices available in the world. It might
seem contrary to lie to him thus, but if he doesn't believe you exist than he
will have no problem following you
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