distract him with real people (screwtape #2)

If you aren't familiar with The Screwtape Letters its a book by C.S. Lewis which he compiled from some short stories and other literary excerpts he wrote using a sort of sarcasm and irony to present tenets of Christianity and the logic of a spiritual world of demons.

In the second Screwtape Letter, C.S. Lewis talks about a young man who just became a Christian. If you read The Screwtape Letters through the lens of today's church and not just another C.S. Lewis book, there are subtle indictments of trendy church ideals.

Screwtape, the Uncle of Wormwood, is an experienced tempter of humans, mentoring his nephew, who is a sophomoric demon who falls into the "traps" of obvious temptation like lust and greed. Screwtape occupies his letters with wisdom on creating more delusions in the mind of the subject than the simple temptations so obvious to the world. Screwtape suggests Wormwood distract his man with the appearances and personalities of the people he frequents church with.

The point of the letter is to suggest an unrealistic ideal for the young man. Convince him all Christians are supposed to be in "togas and sandals" and some sort of simplistic but ultimate spirituality and he will have a paralyzed faith. The idea is to create an arrogance in the young man for him to waste his time contemplating why these people look like modern westerners. Screwtape suggests not to ever let the young man ask the question, "what did he expect Christians to be like?" And also avoid the reality that his ideal is largely pictorial.

Here's the relevance of the letter. Christians are running around these days talking about being "progressive,relevant, post-modern." Young people sit around "discussing" how to recapture the ancient ways of Jesus and his disciples, but the image they have is largely pictorial. The Bible is pretty vague considering how much history it contains. It certainly focuses on how Jesus lived, not the means to that end.

Being aware of post-modernism, relevance, etc., is not a bad thing, but it dominates so much conversation and we miss the only place we can experience God, which is in the present. God is timeless, so whenever we spend time looking at the past or future ways of faith and when we look at the people around us and assume their faith is a bath of mediocrity, we are swimming in a vat of religion. Any formation of models, trends, eras, periods...function to further religion, and Screwtape knows its the perfect way to create a fractured, requisite conduit to God, which is so hopeless that the beauty of spiritual love will eventually be lost to reality.

"Don't ever let your man ask the question, 'what did he expect Christians to look like?'"