The "affectionate uncle Screwtape" writes to his "dear Wormwood":
"...the best point of attack would be the borderline between theology and politics," Screwtape begins. After a discussion about the value of promoting the construction of varied historical Jesus figures "every thirty years or so... thus [distracting] men's minds from who He is, and what He did," Screwtape continues:
"About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is more delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything - even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist's shop. Fortunately it is quite easy to coax humans round this little corner. Only today I have found a passage in a Christian writer where he recommends his own version of Christianity on the ground that 'only such a faith can outlast the death of old cultures and the birth of new civilisations'. You see the little rift? 'Believe this, not because it is true, but for some other reason.' That's the game."
As I read these words from the pages of C.S. Lewis' enduring work this morning, I felt compelled to share them. For one, the satire by Lewis is nothing short of brilliant, but more so, particularly poignant. I thought to myself that we are overly content with reading soundbites and snippets and blogs (!), and that too few are sitting down to read a good book (that you hold in your hands that has paper pages that cannot be edited from the version you hold unless you write in the margins or something like that - kind of book) every now and then - or ever. And the problem with that is words like the ones above need to be read, and heard, and read again, over and over and over, by a lot of people - so that we hear things that are important and we understand them and value them and they inform the way we live. Lest we forget - or think we are too intellectual to fall into the trap - that things like soundbites and snippets and blog articles and so forth actually form [at least some] part of our thoughts, which inform our speech (written and spoken), actions and behavior - TODAY, Tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that...
I challenge you, as we react to the ways we are divided because of X, Y, or Z, to think deliberately about how the gobs of information and dialogue and smack talk and all else that we ingest... inform our thoughts, which in turn inform our speech, actions, and behaviors (...gulp (the onomatopoeia kind of gulp)).
Sidenote so you know I am as much of a hypocrite as anyone - immediately after I read my last page for this morning, I picked up my phone without thinking and opened the Facebook app. I realized what I did (after having the thoughts I captured above about the value of non-social media stimulation), laughed at myself... and... wait for it... scrolled! Then I made myself stop scrolling after [only about] 60 seconds of feeding the addiction (not 'my addiction' - that would make it too personal). All things are OK in moderation, right?
I don't know, you tell me...
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