Screwtape - Ruining the Race 

The premise of the the book is that Screwtape is an experienced devil. His nephew, Wormwood, has had a bumpy start to his demonic career but has been given a new opportunity with a group of recently retired Christians. Screwtape's advice as to how to plot the ruin of these humans and stop them running the race, is contained in a series of letters.

Steven Lee, the author does not claim to know the Devil's mind, but writes about the temptation, opportunities and challenges that he finds in retirement.

A fresh letter (chapter) will appear each week from May 31st to August 2nd.

Preface
 
Many of you will hopefully have read the far superior Screwtape Letters. My only explanation for the difference in quality is that perhaps even devils slowly degenerate in the sharpness and insight of their thinking. It would seem that their grasp of English grammar and literature also suffers!

Some things however remain constant. “I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.
There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors” (from the preface of The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis)

This is an eminently sensible warning but I would want to add that we need to heed Paul’s concern in his second letter to the Corinthians. Christians should not be “unaware of his schemes,” “in order that Satan might not outwit us”     (2 Corinthians 2:11).

Know your enemy is good advice.

Steven Lee
 
1
 
My dear Wormwood,

Your release and letter took me by surprise. You were very fortunate, after the severe blunders you made, to get away with merely a prolonged stay in the House of Correction for incompetent tempters. The catastrophic loss of your first temptee’s soul is something most junior Devils do not recover from. I am sure that I wrote to you previously that Hell expects and demands that your career should be one of unbroken success.

I was even more taken aback to hear that you have not only been freed but also given a junior administrative post in the Lowerarchy. Whatever clever wheedling you used I cannot imagine. However, do not get too excited; it is only supervising young tempters working amongst the retired humans at a particularly annoying local church. Nevertheless, your new position reflects a growing concern amongst our leaders that the Enemy sees such people as an underused and potentially powerful weapon in his despicable Kingdom building schemes.

Retirement has been one of our greatest successes. The result of decades of hard work by our nefarious influencers. It should have been a disaster for us. Those pesky human vermin, as they have become more virulent, are now enjoying 20 or more active years, with no need to work at all. All that time that could be offered in thankful service to Him – it is enough to bring howls from the throne of Our Father below.

Yet thanks to our graft, retirement has been largely rendered ineffective. The very word ‘retired’ is in itself a major triumph. Thankfully those horrific words "continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant to the end of your life," said in their vile initiation ceremonies are so readily forgotten. Instead through our tireless work we have substituted ideas of: “It’s time to let others take the strain”; “It’s me time now”; “It’s finally time to do the things I want.” They see it as an innocent desire to enjoy more time for family, holiday and hobbies. Sadly, our Enemy does liberally give such pleasures to the underserving creatures. However, His intent, which of course we must pervert, was never for these things to become the central focus of their lives.

Extraordinary as it may seem to us, your patients if handled correctly, will continually imbibe such thoughts as “it’s me time” without it even entering their heads as to how close this is to blatant selfishness and rebellion. What genuine pleasure there is in seeing a time which could have been one of fruitful growth in selflessness actually becoming a snare bringing them closer to our clutches. An extra delight can be gleaned from some who find themselves financially better off in retirement and yet greedily guard their bounty.

However, do not underestimate what dangerous ground we are on. What is blindingly and painfully obvious to us, that all time is His gift, must remain ever obscure to them. Never let them grasp the enormity of the treasure that they have been granted.  If more than a few should truly offer up these hours in service – well, the consequences are too dreadful to consider. Just remember that great nuisance John Stott and his prayer for an additional thirty years of fruitful ministry. I recall our Enemy’s sickening joy at his request.

It is important in all the many and often bewildering adjustments to retirement that affect your group, that you quickly introduce what is one of the greatest triumphs of our propaganda department. You may laugh at how many of them so readily declare ‘I don’t know how I ever found time for work. Life is so busy’. But make sure the message spreads quickly among your recent retirees. We must press home our advantage.

You should not let them get worked up or anxious about where the time is going. Vagueness is key here. Leave them in a fog of wondering where the time goes and a general sense of being as busy as ever. Do not, I repeat do not, let them look closely at what they do all day. And if, despite all your best efforts they do, then steer them to look at a time period when they were unusually active.  

I expect that as you start your new role you will carefully study the dossier entitled ‘Not on my watch’. It points out the dire consequences of allowing certain behaviours to, in any sense, take hold in the life of your retirees. These behaviours have been repeatedly discovered to lead to rapid spiritual growth. Remember the mantra of your training at the College of Young Devils. ‘If we cannot win them back, then we must render them ineffective.’ So be on your guard for: sudden increases in time deliberately spent in the Enemy’s presence; strong Christian friendships with a culture of genuine sharing, encouraging and challenging; ‘Epiphanies’ where a life changing truth suddenly becomes clear and takes a transformative hold on people; deliberate exposure to situations outside their comfort zones – where faith most definitely involves active trust.

I am sorry to use their disgusting terms – it leaves a most unwanted taste in the mouth. But be on your guard.  I am already receiving reports of these being discussed by one or two in your group. This is really most disturbing. You have been warned.

Your affectionate uncle,

SCREWTAPE


2
 
My dear Wormwood,

Some of the flippant comments in your letter betray either a naivety or a deep ignorance. I am not convinced that you appreciate the serious danger retired Christians present. No doubt their outward appearance and behaviour is in many ways derisible. However, as I explained last time, there are huge resources amongst them. Potential that needs to be locked up, misdirected, and unexplored. Thankfully such retirement card sentiments as “Congratulations on your retirement! You've earned every moment,” are all on our side. As a result of years of faithful propaganda many retirees are all set up for taking it easy without demands.

You wonder as to how humans can be so blind to the seemingly obvious extra time and opportunities that retirement brings. However, if you handle your retirees properly, it simply won’t come into their head. It has certainly been no small achievement by our strategic experts. A recent report from Triptweeze contained this master class on how to steal time.  ‘A committed Christian on retirement started setting their alarm 90 minutes later – “I am sure all those forced early starts were no good for my long term physical and mental health”. Breakfast has become a leisurely affair listening to Radio 4. Sadly, she couldn’t be dissuaded her from her regular morning bible reading and prayer but without time pressure the freedom to reply to messages on the phone and distracting updates largely smothered any sense of His presence. You probably cannot remember how tiresome and tedious work it was to distract them in the old days.

By this point a morning coffee was most welcome with a bit of puzzling on the side. It was by now hardly worth attempting anything before lunch. Then a little bit of innocent (how I enjoyed that phrase) afternoon TV, before meeting up with one of their circle of church friends - “How lovely to have the time for doing that.” After that it was back home for the evening meal, and then TV. “Going out again, especially coming home in the dark, is so unappealing.” Inspirational stuff isn’t it? With such a basic structure it is not difficult for someone to feel quite busy when they start to add just a few extra items.

I was pleased to hear that you are rereading our Father Below’s classic ‘My triumph in the Enemy’s garden’. Mark well his heroic challenge to our Adversary; rightly questioning His intent for those repellent bipeds.  Who indeed knows what He is truly up to? – all His talk of truly loving them must surely hide a darker motive we have yet to discover. Our Enemy could not be allowed to simply create these vermin, and then raise them to a status and authority not unlike our own. Our Father has successfully derailed His plans for millennia.

We should all learn from his line of attack and use that oldest weapon of all; questioning the Enemy’s goodness. It is certainly an approach of particular and perhaps unexpected value among the retired. Once again our propagandists have come up trumps with the term, ‘Bucket List’. It seems, and indeed can be, a wonderfully innocuous term. But we can use it to sow thoughts that make people dissatisfied with what the Enemy has given them; and make them feel that they have missed out and are in danger of missing out permanently if they don’t make detailed plans now. Steer them towards a mindset that their lives will be unfulfilled until they have ticked everything off. Done successfully we can purge from their minds any thought that the Enemy has clearly promised His followers pleasures for evermore. You and I know that any idea of people missing out is laughable given all that He has inexplicably planned to give them in His presence. “The best is yet to come” is seen as a palpably false declaration when used by the creatures’ politicians, but it is sadly true in the mouth of our Enemy. Thankfully humans never seem to grasp this for long. They are delightfully earthbound.  

‘Bucket lists’ shows our triumph in making them doubt the Enemy’s goodness and the delights He has stored up for them. But retirement also presents other exquisite possibilities in this area. It is a time when people are off their balance and unsettled. Frequently it can be a period of more self-reflection. This in itself is neither good or bad for us. The challenge is to make the best of the situation for our side. You need to foster a sense of disappointment that life has not turned out the way they hoped it would - dreams for marriage and family; dreams of achievement and making a difference. Play on their frustration that they have not grown more spiritually, seen more miracles, and that so many of their dearest and heartfelt prayers lie unanswered. Keep probing such wounds whenever they are trying to bring their lives before God. Draw their attention away from anything that speaks of persevering. If they do stray into such insights make sure that it is heavy laden with thoughts of a demanding master who gives no help and seems determined to drive them into the ground. What an exquisite distortion of His nature. Expect fierce defensive action if you take this line of attack.

With some it may be possible to build up such a sense of unhappiness that they will be increasingly resistant to coming into HIs presence and exposing themselves to such pain and despair. With our encouragement this can be the spur to doubting God’s goodness and the faith they have previously believed in. Make them feel that their Christian experience has all been empty, fruitless, misguided. Thankfully there are many attractively packaged and well recommended books and online resource you can subtly guide them to. These will promise a new interpretation of their faith, and a fresh Christ. All leading to a less demanding, less personal, less painful relationship with the Enemy. Interest will be lost and it may become so vague as to become nothing at all.

Do not let such golden opportunities slip through your fingers.

Your affectionate uncle,

SCREWTAPE


3
 
My dear Wormwood,

You rightly point out that many of your patients cannot be as easily deceived as Triptweeze’s report might suggest. There are several different strategies that can prove effective.
It is perhaps inevitable that your retirees will be attracted towards some sort of voluntary service. By and large it is better if this will involve them working with other Christians. As you know, unless we think the human can be easily led astray, we do not encourage contact with non-Christians. A similar logic applies to hobbies. Solitary interests are best; those enjoyed with other Christians not so good; and if they involve being alongside non-Christians, then these are worst of all. One of our greatest pleasures is when we hear them being encouraged by their Minister to invite people to a guest event and they are left thinking “but I don’t know anyone to invite.”

Joining some voluntary service is of course not ideal as it encourages helping others and provides important structure to their lives, but it may be a necessary evil.  If it gives them a good excuse for not considering other areas of service and stops them praying more seriously about what the Enemy wants them to do with their lives then it is a price worth paying. Do try and steer them away from those people who love to ask “What do you do?” as the answer, “I help out one afternoon a week at a local charity shop” may seem rather inadequate and lead to some unhelpful soul searching. 

I should scarcely need to add that you should try to make this voluntary service as unrewarding as possible. Encourage cynicism about the effectiveness of the work undertaken. Make sure the human finds their fellow workers irritating. And try to distract them away from any sense of this providing opportunities for caring, encouraging, and growing in grace and mercy.

For others you will not even need to offer some voluntary opportunity, for their time will have been snatched away by outside demands. Do foster that sense of resentment that the promises of a relaxed retirement have been cruelly stolen. Instead of having time to do the things they want they seem at the beck and call of increasingly frail parents or grandchildren or sometimes endless church rotas. Some of those things might in themselves be fulfilling and indeed part of the Enemy’s plan for them, but if you can encourage the sense that it has not been something they chose for themselves then you are on a rich seam of misery. This will rob what they do of any joy or witness. This is a particularly effective strategy for those who find it hard to say ‘No’ whether it be to parents, children or church leaders. Such people lay themselves wonderfully open to exploitation, resulting in not only underlying resentment in key relationships but also a self-pitying martyrdom and disappointment with the life the Enemy has given them.

Looking though the dossiers on your group of retirees I see that there are a couple who are almost the exact opposite of the person Triptweeze described in his case study. They hit their retirement running. They are determined not to slacken their pace. They see the need for routine and have ruthlessly set about filling their weekly schedules with all sort of serving both in the church and the community. Even in their leisure activities they are incredibly driven. Such people are not good news for us but before you become dead set on wanting some disaster to put them out of action, I suggest you consider some other alternatives.

These people are replacing the busyness of their previous working life with a similar pattern as it provides them security, a sense of purpose and affirmation. They feel good about helping out in so many different ways. However, their busyness can make it harder for the Enemy to get their attention. They often become hardened to His promptings. Not being in a rush would bring great opportunities because there are so many people who feel that no one has time for them. People, both inside and outside the church. go uncared for and unheard. Countless numbers could be swayed into the Enemy’s camp if only His followers would not be too busy to show a genuine interest in the people they come across. Keeping people in a sense of hurrying from one thing to the next seems so right to them, yet brings enormous benefits to our cause.

I remember one of my patients, a Vicar, was feeling he was too busy and he went to speak to his Bishop about it. The bishop, having listened, responded “Well I’m even busier than you” and proceeded to rattle off all that he was doing. It was one of my proudest moments, that over-busyness should be a badge of achievement in our Enemy’s kingdom.

Encouraging busyness has other spin offs. Often such people are not totally happy with their busyness and especially not happy that other people seem to be so lazy. They find it hard not to be envious of the leisure activities of others. And those who come across the busy ones do not see life in all its fullness, as the Enemy so despicably promises, but instead it all seems to be rush, pressure and duty. The people caught up in busyness often seem judgemental, intolerant, over prescriptive and generally bruising to be around. You need to learn to treasure such people as they can be powerful warnings against becoming a Christian. And their fellow worshippers will avoid them as they make them feel guilty about not doing more. They will decide it does not pay to get too keen – a veritable triumph for tepid Christianity.

These very busy souls often do not devote the time needed to developing human interactions and the life of prayer. It means that when periods of inactivity come later to them it will be all the harder for them to bear and all the more exquisite for us.

Your affectionate uncle,

SCREWTAPE


4
 
My dear Wormwood,

I wonder, given some of the questions in your last letter, as to whether you may be in danger of losing sight of the bigger issues. Of these, one of the most important, is how your pathetic two-legged creatures see themselves. We previously touched on this when reflecting on the need to encourage in them a sense that their time, money, talents are somehow theirs rather than His. Although they irritatingly and incessantly call him Lord, Lord, it is gratifying how frequently they act as though they are the master and He is the servant.

Identity is of course a valuable weapon, especially amongst the young, in the wonderfully confused landscape our loyal forces have helped to cultivate. However, it can be an equally useful tool with the retired. Over many years we have engrained in them the idea that their sense of worth comes from what they do. It has become an integral part of identity. The frequency of “What do you do?” as a question shows the breadth of our success.

For years many of your current retirees have had an easy answer to this and have not really had to think much about their identity. But now that they are no longer in paid employment that easy answer has been removed and they are delightfully vulnerable to attack. As they grapple with their identity they may try out witty ripostes, such a “I am working on my handicap”. However, underneath this you may be able to teach them, with a growing sense of desperation, to hunt for meaning and significance in the activities that now fill their weekly schedules. All those years of linking identity and worth can now potentially reap sweet rewards for us in terms of depression, with people giving up and trying to deaden their thoughts.

The Enemy, however, is not weaponless in this particular battlefield skirmish. As you well know that most dangerous of books has a radical valuation of these hairless bipeds that is capable of totally transforming this war. It is shameful the way He wastefully bestows on them title after title even though they are surely the most underserving. Image of God, children of God, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession and on and on such titles go. It is sickening, and an affront to our Infernal Majesty. Due to our strenuous efforts, they hear these words but the implications rarely sink in. They must not realise that their value and identity is a gift from God and not something they must achieve by their labours.  We must constantly reassert that they are human doings not human beings. For if we triumph, we can look forward to rejoicing in their sense of utter despair and worthlessness when they become housebound.

We often boast of our propaganda achievements but once again the other side has not been without its tawdry efforts. Particularly annoying to our cause has been the term ‘Frontline’. It has proved remarkably infectious and most unhelpful. I would not have you underestimate its potential implication should it gain a strong foothold in your particular group of retirees. It reminds people that they are involved in spiritual warfare, something we have been tasked to painstakingly avoid. Not only that, it immediately suggests that they have a vital, active role in this warfare requiring that they be on high alert and in constant touch with Enemy command. It gives an important role and purpose to every one of these insignificant ants and their pathetic struggles. Even the housebound receiving carers at home has a clear place among the ranks. It would be a severe threat to our cause to have so many focused on their daily opportunities to infect others with their vile beliefs. Thankfully very few of them are even near their Master’s expectation that their lives will bear much fruit with a harvest of thirty, sixty or a hundred souls. Strive to keep their expectation and achievements in this area to a minimum.

At the moment our propaganda team has yet to come up with something that would negate ‘Frontline’, though do not doubt that they will. Just remember some of their past successes. Think of how for many centuries we were tormented by that term witnesses but then came the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the exquisite turn off of their doorstep activities. Until we have successfully negated it as a term you need to be on maximum alert to distract people away from ‘Frontline’ both in conversations and personal reflections.

Thankfully our propaganda department is enjoying much greater success with a recent offering from the Enemy’s propaganda - the idea of pilgrims and pilgrimage. Yet, reading through the files on your group, I notice one enthusiast. It is of course not a new idea and can usefully be tarnished as ‘worthy’ or relegated to mere historical relevance. Our own side have also managed to foster a form of pilgrimage that although still having echoes of spirituality has almost nothing to do with the Enemy. It has become a journey about discovering yourself, and encounters with others. Sadly, there is nothing wrong with these things; they just require careful monitoring in case things get out of hand.  Yet, as we know, such activities lack any real power if not centred on Him.

However, I am sure you are aware of that annoying so called pilgrim’s charter with its trite statements of ‘I am not in control’, ‘I am not in a hurry’, ‘I walk in faith and hope’ and so on. Such statements in the hands of those retired can be incendiary. Particularly concerning is that Latin word, they love to bandy about, ‘peregrinatio’ – which they define as ‘wandering or adventuring with and for the love of God.’ Such foul thoughts need to be carefully contained. We have of course the great advantage that such ideas can seem so vague and disconnected with your patients’ daily lives. But have you seen their prayer:

Holy Spirit, I yield to your pace and your purpose for my life today.
I hoist my sails and surrender: blow me wherever you will.
I open my schedule and surrender: interrupt my carefully laid plans.
I yield my heart and surrender: surprise me today I pray.

Just imagine what might happen if your patients started regularly saying that and meaning in it. I have made myself ill by writing such profanities and need to retire to my chamber.

Yours disgusted,

SCREWTAPE