Screwtape's Second Letter to Wormwood Jr.on Love

In the previous letter, long as it was, I gave you a formula or plan, my dear Wormwood, Jr., for neutralizing the ministry of a "big" or "celeb" Christian. I want to acknowledge receipt of your letter in which you worriedly say that the Enemy seems to have put a message in the celeb's heart that may work against us. She is now preaching "love," that "love is the central purpose of life," that "love is the basic message of the Gospel," that "love will solve the ills of the world," etc. People are flocking to the celeb believer in droves, seemingly touched by her proclamation of love.

It makes me quite ill, really, but it is something that must be neutralized. If she is allowed to go on preaching the concept of love, people might think that love is the most powerful force in the universe, a way to reconcile people to each other and to build community. In short, if the message of love really gets out there, we are cooked. I mean, we will be cooked even worse than we are. This letter is to give you a three-fold strategy to undermine her preaching on love--or, in other words, to use it to our advantage rather than hers.

But before I get to that strategy, permit me to vent for a minute.. I am so sick of that little word "love!" Young girls, with a star-struck look in their eyes, say they are "in love." Men and women solemnly declare it for each other. Preachers regularly read from I Cor. 13 or other Biblical passages and then preach on how learning to love is really the central lesson of life. I hate all this talk of love! I won't take any more of it! I will tell you a secret, my little minion. Love is the only power that can undo our power. Thus, we need to convince people, above all, that the three most powerful motivators for human action are fear, lust and pride, and we need them to act on it! THAT needs to be our focus. We need to develop role models which so exemplify the notion of lust, for example, that people who are confused about life (and that is most people, my dear Wormwood Jr.) will become taken up by lust instead of love. Since our ministry is one of confusion, we will do best to confuse people when they hear that little word "love."

Strategy to Counteract Love Preaching

But I am getting ahead of myself now. Here is my strategy for you to undermine her proclamation of love.

I. First you must get everyone hyped on the concept of love. This may seem counter-intuitive advice to you, but bear with me and you will understand why I suggest this. You are to spare no effort in providing occasions for the Chrisitan celeb to speak on love. In fact, the most effective thing you can do is to make sure that her speeches make it into the press so that other preachers pick up on her message and begin to preach it. These other preachers will have "mini-celeb" status, but they should also be allowed to proclaim the message of love. Don't worry if the whole world speaks of it. In fact, it will be good if they do. Help people come up with some tear-jerker stories about love--such as little Jimmy who is dying of cancer and learns that the Enemy loves him after all, or teen-age Rosy who is so in love with her military guy Joel, who never returns from Iraq, that she sets up a sort of mini-shrine to him in her bedroom. Let the stories gush. Pour all the syrup out. Let the whole world be supping at the love trough.

II. Then, once you have everyone stoked on love, have some of the mini-celebs "fall" because of love. Be clear on what I am asking you to do, my pigsney. When I say "fall" because of love, I don't mean have them fall "in love." Have them use "love" as an excuse to commit acts of immorality with people they shouldn't be connecting with. That is, have preachers of some reputation, or especially eager Christian politicians, link up with prostitutes or with young women in their congregations with illicit affairs. I actually love the word illicit. It is my second favorite word in the English language. My favorite? Well, lubricious. Even writing it on the paper gives me a sort of jolt, Wormwood, Jr.

Back to my thought. We need to develop a means that will cause some of these preachers of love to direct their "love" to people whom society disapproves of. Let's make most of this love to be man-women relationships, but then, for some real headline-grabbers, let's throw in some same sex unions. There is nothing like a same-sex union to drive people up a wall. Just think, Wormwood, Jr. I can utter one word in many Christian churches and it divides the church! What is that word? It isn't Arianism (no one knows what that is!). It isn't Arminianism (no one has heard of that!). All I need to do is to say the word "gay" in the corridors of many American Churches, and they go bonkers! How easy is that! Thus, when the mini-celeb Christian leaders, those who preached on the idea of love, fall into lust (my area), they not only bring themselves into disrepute, but they begin to make some people question the concept of love itself. And that is my third point...

III. By causing the "fall" of mini-celebs--i.e., believers who commit acts which to me are quite delightful--we will confuse the normal person about what love truly is. Oh, it will have to be more subtle than that. They will not start to look at each other and say, "I don't know what love is," but they will become confused about the solidity of their own commitment to the Enemy. They will wonder about their capacity to be deceived; they will not trust people as easily anymore; they will shut themselves off gradually from encounters that may lead them to true love; they will begin to be so concerned about personal safety and security that they will pass up legitimate opportunities to secure love. Then, they will become lonely. And confused. And they will long for the thing that they have denied themselves because they were betrayed by the leaders. They will become more and more open, then, to our machinations, dearest Wormwood, as we begin to fill their thoughts with lust and call it love, with longings that can't be fulfilled. They will sink into depression, begin to eat too much to fill unfillable voids, and generally become people who have given up on life.

And that, my friend, is just what we want to happen. It will give us a victory. All in the name of love.

So, carry out your mission as I have outlined it above. Let me know how it progresses. I am feeling optimistic already,

Your Dear Relative,

Screwtape

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