Fellowship & Fairydust

Part of an ongoing web serial perhaps inspired by The Screwtape Letters. Unless otherwise noted, “the Ex-CEO” refers to God, “the opposition” to the side of the angels, and so on.

Read the previous installment here.

To: Indignation, Overseer of Ekron Initiative (American Evangelical Division)

Date: [Exact Date Redacted, Circa 2003]

From: Malice, VP of 8th Circle of Hell (Global Initiatives Branch)

Subject: Developing Attitudes to Church

Indignation,

I enjoy a mournful, toad-eating apology as much as the next being. The one you gave me in your last missive was exemplary. However, results should be your currency. Prove yourself worthy of the immense trust we’ve given you, and you will have nothing to fear. Even your mind can imagine what will happen otherwise.

Your apology message makes it clear you finally understand my point about evangelical subculture and how it affects your targets’ minds. Having established that, we can move on to how best to exploit this situation.

Your goal here is simple: convince your targets that the shallow creed they’re experiencing in evangelical churches is more than just something created by a misguided subculture. Manipulate them to believe that this shallow creed is actually the ugly truth about what their religion really is.

I assume that even you know how we have convinced atheists, agnostics and other ilk to make this mistake. You simply have to distract them from thoughts like:

• “Maybe what I’m experiencing doesn’t represent the true heart of God.”
• “Perhaps I should look for Christians whose faith seems truly genuine and see how they do it.”
• “Wisdom and guidance could make my church culture better.” 
• “Perhaps I can be a counter-cultural follower, living for God without buying into false teachings.”

Harp on the idea that there is no way to reform evangelical subculture. Convince them there is no way they can follow their master outside it. Fortunately, this subculture, with its various products and institutions, has become second nature to anyone raised in evangelical homes. Therefore, your targets will have a hard time mentally separating it from their religion.

You can accelerate this tendency to lump evangelical sub-culture and religion together by playing on one of their natural weaknesses. Humans, in my professional experience, are brilliant at generalizing. It is rare to find a human with the brains, insight, and nerve to stand out from the herd and say, “Sure, Group X has problems but not all of them are that bad.” Our meaty prey finds it so much easier to lump others in categories and declare that everyone in Group X has the same qualities.¹

Nurture this tendency. Convince them to ignore the occasional Christian publication, school, or artist who has sidestepped our suggestions. Focus all their attention on the main herd’s qualities, and soon they will find it impossible to imagine evangelical followers who don’t believe the ideas we have taught them.

Soon your targets will feel alone and irritated and more than a little angry. It won’t take much nudging and convincing for them to attribute this loneliness and pain to the Company itself, not just their experience with it.

Infernal Regards,

Malice

Vice President of the 8th Circle of Hell

(Global Initiatives Branch)

Editor’s Notes:

1. For more on this, see chapter 3 in Christians in the Age of Outrage by Ed Stetzer.

Cover Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash