Along with many people, I am a fan of C.S. Lewis “Screwtape Letters.” C.S. Lewis was a Christian author who challenged himself to write as a demon giving advice to a younger demon on how to tempt man into damnation. It offers a scathing self-reflection that can humble any Christian. The book was published many decades ago and I wanted to think of a more modern telling of the tale. What would be the demonic advice for this new generation of potential damned? Here is a word from your dear uncle Screwtape.
- Cry out against all of the injustice from the safety of your own home.
- Any sin can be made up with more good.
- Fester scrupulosity and call it penance.
- Isolate yourself in order to preserve right doctrine.
- Virtual world is our greatest invention.
- The Personal Relationship Requires solitude.
- Attraction is the most important factor in a romantic partnership.
- Being free is better than being burdened by obligations.
Cry out against all of the injustices of the world from the safety of your own home.
We have worked hard these centuries to cripple the human creature’s ability to fight our influence. At first, we thought the increase of education and communication would prove our job difficult. Such resources would be a threat if humans coordinated their efforts to irradicate what they call injustices in the world. Lucky for us, humans are all together happy to meet our Lord below. Why the Enemy above places so much faith in these creatures still remain a mystery. The humans are now more than ever aware of our work of corruption and demonic activity.
This greater awareness has proven to be a boon to our work. Before the advent of this new technology, people could only interact with people in their immediate vicinity. If a person were to look upon another person suffering of disease or famine, then it would be with their own eyes in flesh and blood in all of the glory of human mortality. The enemy foolishly does not stop our torment of these invalids for as far back as Job. Every generation, some of the Enemy’s champions would rise up and combat our efforts in the field which was quite bothersome. Each time we were close to a complete collapse of society a “saint” would emerge and our efforts to thwart them seem to only bolster the strength of the Enemy above.
Now, the invention of television and social media has brought greater awareness to these injustices and at the same time greater removal from the injustice. I never thought to see the day that a person in Alabama, United States would care more for a person in Ethiopia than their own neighbor. These humans pile on top of each other in apartments and suburbs. The population density have never been greater in the wretched human cities. Yet, far from being more connected. The humans don’t know anything about their neighbor or the troubles that we torment them with. What a wonderful experience to see tens, if not hundreds, of people being neglected daily by their neighbor who lives in the same building. It never would have been possible even a century ago when communities relied on each other for basic survival. Headline news makes a human know the plight of those thousands of miles away, but they remain ignorant of people who live on the same street as them.
Every human has an innate desire to fight injustices. We’ve tried to change it but the Enemy Above has hardwire these humans to be good. If they must fight injustice, then fight the injustice by raising awareness! Of course, the injustices that humans see on our beloved screens inspires “righteous fury” among our charges. We can give comfort to our charge that by forwarding internet articles and raising awareness that they are solving the problems in some far off land. The pride of being informed provides such a joy to these people who are supposed to be fighting our advances. Instead, they stay on their couch and express outrage on what I am told is the “comment section.” We didn’t even make that one. Humans all too readily offer words without any actions. As long as we convince our charges that being aware of injustices is the same as removing the injustices, then with little trouble we shall welcome fallen souls by the bus load. May the gates of Hell prevent them realizing that helping their neighbor that lives next door would do far more damage to our plan of damnation than any dislike button.
Any sin can be made up with more good. No need to stop sinning.
This next bit of advice requires a little concession on our part. The goal is to have them perform acts of good as a way to compensate for their evil acts. Regretfully, we would be aiding the Enemy Above, but it’s well worth a soul ending up in our clutches. Now, temptation hasn’t changed since our great achievement at the Fall. The big three of lust of eyes, lust of flesh, and pride of self will forever be a way to claim a charge for our Lord Below.
The Enemy knows our methods all too well and will prompt our charges with feelings of guilt and remorse. What the Enemy intends is a repentance and renouncing of sinful ways. The idea of humans repenting is comical, but it has been known to happen albeit rarely. Most humans give faint hearted resolution but shortly return to their sinful ways. Few humans truly repent and change their lives as the Enemy desires them to, but we must not grow lazy in our tempting.
It is the utmost importance that we convince them repentance is death! Were they to stop sinning it would require them to die as the person they are now. Most respond well for us in this approach, but a few recognize it as a way to join the Enemy Above. We must place a fear in their hearts to avoid repenting, but also offer them a way to perform good deeds to make them complacent. It’s a bothersome quirk of humans to always want to do good. Whenever we realize our charge is having qualms with their demon approved lifestyle, we must offer them a vent for their desire to do good.
Our job then is to prompt them to do some action of good that will ease their remorse yet keep them preserved for our Lord Below. A liar could be a great volunteer at a soup kitchen. An adulterer can coach a little league team. A murderer can be kind to animals. A thief can visit the sick. There is no greater pleasure in this line of work than watching a soul be denied entry above after proclaiming themselves a champion of good; all the while, they have been labeled for our Lord Below for decades. Without sincerely recanting our demonic influence they can never be far from our reach.
Our burden is far less than the Enemy’s. We must only have our charge be attached to one mortal sin to win them. The Enemy must shield them from all of our temptations and further still must have the charge be considered a true follower of the Enemy. As bitter of a pill it may be, convincing our charge to do good as a salve for their guilt is a viable way to damn souls. They can be righteous in all aspects except for where our influence resides in their soul. Some of the humans almost welcome us as friends after years of attachment to our ways. The charge may go and be good as much as they want, but, do not mistake it, they belong to us as long as they are attached to their favorite mortal sin.
Fester scrupulosity and call it penance.
This approach is one of my favorites. As you know, we are quite powerless to create. Creation resides solely in the domain of the Enemy. We can only pervert and twist what has already been created. This leaves us in a reactive position, but it shall be sufficient to combat the Enemy. The Enemy has this dreadful notion of forgiveness. Despite all of our work, the charge can always ask for forgiveness and be restored to the good graces of the Enemy.
This phenomena of forgiveness alone is enough to justify all of our activity while our charge lives. Once the charge has ceased living no further work can be done. We can’t tempt dead bodies no matter how much we have tried. The enemy designed humans as a body/soul composite. At death, the body and soul is separated. We can only change the soul through the body, because only the body is able to change. Enviable as it is that humans can change their eternal souls, our side uses this feature to damn humans to hell. It seems to be a grave mistake on the Enemy’s part to design humans with such a flaw. We shall exploit this body/soul composite to the fullest extent.
Our research team warns us that the same mechanism we use to damn souls can be used to further deify humans. There is a possibility the bodies will once again be reunited to the human souls in such a way that they resemble the spiritual beings like ourselves. I never wish to see the day filthy humans become anything more than dust. Death and decay is the natural way of things since our major victory in the Garden. Any rumors of a resurrection of the body must be false. Of course, the Son of the Enemy has already succeeded, but that’s an outlier… I hope. Worrying about the future is what our charges must do. We must press on to damn all souls!
The body is where we have the most control. The mind we have a little control. Afterall, we can put in some thoughts here and there. But the Enemy is in the mind as well. The body interacts with the external world. Smells, heat, noise, light, and sensation all of these we can adjust as easily as the humans change the temperature on one of those AC units. Early on, we realize humans require discipline to resist us. We also noticed that this discipline is easily eroded away with a series of discomforts. It is through the body that we are able to endanger the soul. The humans must be marinated and tenderize before they are easily swayed by our influence. A human well rested in the daylight is not the same as a human tired in the dark.
Our temptations work best when humans neglect their bodily health. We must use this to our advantage to fight against forgiveness. Now, when a human is forgiven the Enemy knows a mere vocal expression of their forgiveness is not enough to escape our clutches. The body must also be restored to the Enemy. This is often accomplish through what is known as penance. Penance has devolved into a few spoken prayers, but is meant to provide satisfaction to the charge’s forgiveness. We must not let our charge experience that satisfaction.
Where will the charge ask for forgiveness? It would be better if the charge ask for forgiveness in the privacy of their own room. At least then, we can still have influence over their perception of forgiveness. It is a simple task to convince the target that what they did was too great to be forgiven. Or better still they may as well sin some more before they resolve to never sin again even if that day of true repentance never comes. I have won several souls because I convinced my charge that just vocal admission of guilt is sufficient. Yet, they never left our clutches because they never changed their behaviors. However, we are at a significant disadvantage when the charge has access to Confession. There the Enemy Himself proclaims the charge is forgiven. We can offer doubts to our charge, but cannot change the objective proclamation of forgiveness. In this situation, we may be vulnerable but hope is not lost. We can still prevent the satisfaction of being forgiven.
After the alleged forgiveness, we must create scrupulosity in our charge. A delightful gambit where we have them over analyze all of their thoughts and feelings. But most importantly, tell them that whatever penance they do is not sufficient enough to be forgiven. This is non-sense if they truly believe the enemy’s proclamation, but doubting the words of the enemy has been our oldest tactic. We must have the charge become obsess with performing the penance perfectly without flaw. Let any imperfection be a reason to do the penance ten-fold.
The enemy wishes to give them forgiveness and penance. It is our highest delight to corrupt those gifts of the Enemy to our advantage. The charge does not need to be told the value of the forgiveness, for they already know intuitively. We must convince them that they have not done enough to earn it. Therefore, they must perform penance if they wish to be truly forgiven by God. The true success of this tactic is when the charge begins to actually damage the body in the name of penance.
What are they looking for? A sense of peace? Joy? Love? Whatever the charge is expecting we will be there to ruin whatever image they are seeking. We can tighten their stomach, stiffen their muscles, have them feel heat under their their collar, or get their heart racing. We can manipulate the environment to forever make their bodies uncomfortable. We convince them that the satisfaction that they are seeking would never have their body feeling this uncomfortable.
Once the charge is maniacally obsessed about achieving satisfaction of forgiveness, then no thought can enter their mind. The Enemy is shut out. Even we demons cannot influence their mind. They attempt to fight their past as a way to have the sin never be committed. Their present is consumed by their desire for forgiveness. The whole time they are imploding we are poking and prodding their body as further confirmation that forgiveness is far from them. The charge is frantically searching for forgiveness and cannot find it because it has already been given. It is incredibly entertaining to watch.
Isolate yourself in order to preserve right doctrine.
These humans are at their strongest united together. Our most successful approaches almost always leads to the humans isolated and alone. There is something about a community of humans that makes them resistant to our temptations. We may make progress on a particular human, but someone in their community would unravel our web of temptations. It is to our advantage to keep humans separated and isolated from each other.
The Enemy has given the humans a Commission to spread the message of His Son throughout the whole world. We are constantly thwarting these efforts. Fortunately for us, recent technological advances has made humans more disconnected than ever. We tell the human that they are doing all they can be by going to work, going home, and repeating that endless cycle. Once they get home, they have earned an evening of watching tv or scrolling on their phone. This blatant sloth is considered the height of luxury. How wonderful that comfort is our greatest tool to numb our charges from the influences of the Enemy. Whenever the Enemy attempts to make progress against our charge we simply need to remind them that changing what they are doing now is uncomfortable. All too eager they come to us in order to preserve their comforts.
There are still some humans that are not swayed by comforts and even rebuke them at times. These particular humans are enamored with liturgy and doctrine. They spend their free time in study and worship. Worse of all is when they organize social groups to volunteer or praise the Enemy. They indeed pose a threat to us. They know our tricks and recognize that all of our offerings are false promises and the beginning of eternal punishment. These so called Traditionalist are hard headed and determined to pursue what they deem right and true regardless of our temptations.
The Traditionalists would pose a more serious threat if they had a more amiable discourse with their fellow Christians. The traditionalists have a vulnerability that allows us to influence their mind. We whisper that what they believe is false or that a person who disagree with them is trying to corrupt what they believe is true. This places the traditionalist on the defensive due to their own insecurities. They must strive all the harder in word and deed to prove that they are indeed a traditionalist. Our Lord below is very please that their insecurity leads to causing harm (either verbal or physical) to less convicted Christians. Quite the tasty soul that fails to please the Enemy by trying to please the Enemy.
We do not want their influence to spread to the rest of the human population. All of our work to sow apathy and indolence would be directly challenged by these traditionalist. Our greatest weapon, tolerance of sin, is in direct contradiction to these traditionalist. We excel at manipulating our charges to give themselves time before they surrender their sins. We whisper promises of tomorrow they may turn to The Enemy above, but not today for today is for them; our charges. We have lulled many militants into inaction in the name of patience and false mercy. Humans in authority that ought to enforce the moral code of the enemy abstain from their duties in order to avoid confrontation. Afterall, we have convinced them confrontation is unpleasant and anything unpleasant can’t be good.
The traditionalist is not tolerant of ways that is not inspired by the Enemy. Their opposition to our tolerance is great for us when they are an immature traditionalist and do not fear being perceived as unpleasant. The immature Traditionalist is loud and blustering and are as musical as a gong. It is always the recent converts that need something to prove. These converts believe that they have escaped our influence, but in truth they serve us even better as belligerent followers of the Enemy. Our best men are able to keep some traditionalist immature for decades. Something about being a part of a crusade keeps these immature traditionalist content like a dog with a chew bone.
If the Enemy is able to console any insecurities, then these humans develop into a more difficult conquest for us. These more mature traditionalist has all of the knowledge and discipline needed to rebuke our advances. Our advances would be impotent if the mature traditionalist is able to incorporate other world views without losing the essence of the Enemy. Our common approach is to have various traditionalist battle against each other about what is truly traditional. These self-inflicted civil wars help prevent new comers to their ranks.
Suppose we encounter a traditionalist that is both orthodox and charitable. At this point, our only hope is to implement a containment strategy. Any attempt to lure them towards our Father Below will be immediately denied. We must use their strengths against them. They are not tolerant with any heresy and they desire greatly to grow in virtue. Therefore, we must convince them that in order to perfect their virtue and be free from corruption, then they must escape society itself. This flight from the battle front is considered the highest challenge for the traditionalist. We promise them a utopia of orthodoxy and worship to the Enemy free from the corruption of those who are less zealous than their traditionalist community. They get to pursue ghastly practices such as ascetism, prayer, and community life. While we wait for them to arrive at our doorsteps, because they simply abandoned the Enemy’s command of evangelization in order to preserve their prideful ways. It would cause us great harm if the traditionalist synthesize their lifestyles with others. Our influence would surely be scrubbed away over time.
The brilliant benefit to us, in regards to this self-isolation approach, is that they are no longer evangelizing as the Enemy wishes. This removal from society and self-impose exile is a great boon for us! To think of the devastation to our work if they were to provide an alternative to our temptations. Of course, when humans succumb to our temptations, then they become empty husk of their full potential. It is an achievement to reduce humans to the filthy mortal creatures that we know them to be. The traditionalist will constantly proclaim our ways as contradictory to the flourishing of the human person. We cannot have the traditionalist not only rebuke our demonic ways but also demonstrate the ways of the Enemy are indeed possible. Some of our most successful work is to convince humans the life of virtue and prayer is simply impossible to the average person.
The traditionalist has the potential to show it is indeed possible to live a life of prayer and virtue. That is why we must constantly fight to portray them as hypocrites. We cannot convince them to stop their religious practices. But we are able to make them uncharitable towards those who do not share their lifestyle. We cannot convince them that they should abandon the Enemy. But we can convince them to abandon anyone and anything that hints at rebellion towards the enemy.
If we are successful, then their influence will always be relegated to a small portion of the population. Despite their best attempts to make their population larger with children… disgusting… the traditionalist’s reach can be limited. As you know, humans love their comforts. As long as humans seek novelty and ease, then the traditionalist can never be a true threat. Let them have their little pockets of “true religion” free from our influence or other humans. This self-isolation can only benefit our goals.
Click here for part 2: https://theaveragecatholic.blog/2025/09/18/from-your-uncle-screwtape-2-2/
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