John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
The SCREWTAPE letters are a fictional account written by C.S. Lewis about senior demon (Screwtape) training a younger tempter (Wormwood). Lewis concluded chapter 23 with a reflection on politics that says much to our contemporary situation.
“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 civilizations”. You see the little rift ? “Believe this, not because it is true, but for some other reason.” That’s the game,
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
You notice that Screwtape tells us clearly that if Christianity were to flow over in political life there would be a just society, which according to him would be a major disaster. He states that he wants Christianity to become a means to anything but what it actually is, which is Jesus Christ, God and our salvation!
The Screwtape quote is relevant to today’s political scene. Lewis, offers a subtler and more important point on the dangers of manipulating faith for our own personal and ideological ends. Many, if not most, forms of popular Christianity (read: Protestantism) are proffered either a) as a means of personal advancement or b) as a means of societal advancement. Both fit demonic desires. Screwtape tells Wormwood they want their victims to “treat Christianity as a means,” preferably to selfish ends but also to more noble ends if necessary. This is a subtle but crucial point – a “little rift” as Screwtape calls it. Christianity turned into a means is thus embraced not because it is true, not because, say, Jesus really is the Messiah of Israel and the world’s true Lord (N.T. Wright’s lovely formulation), but because Christian faith gets you from point A to point B. Even if point B is something desirable like “social justice,” we (Screwtape’s victims) have successfully reduced Christianity from an end to a means, from the truth on which the world turns to just another way of achieving some desired outcome.
On e thing that we must keep in focus is that no matter who is in office, no matter how much money is made, no matter what the outcome of a physical condition, God is and always will be in control, and that all these thing combined have nothing to do with our salvation.
