Esler.org

My Dearest Wormwood:

I understand that you’ve allowed the Enemy’s soldiers to live amongst the people you’ve been set to guard. No doubt it’s nothing at this point and there is time to countermand this advance, but I am truly sorry for it on your behalf.

They look like nothing to fear right now: a husband, wife, two small children and a couple of single adults. They can’t speak the tongue of your witless charges and they know nothing of the deep seated hatred we’ve instilled into native hearts. I warn you, though, my dear Wormwood, that this is not the beginning, but the continuance of the Enemy’s plans.

These interlopers were most likely trained by special forces the Enemy has put together, called missionary agencies. They prepare them for their singular task of establishing a beachhead amongst people that belong to us! Imagine the arrogance. We have owned these creatures for hundreds of years and have tread thousands of miles over their souls. It takes an admirable fearlessness to think that this can be easily overturned. We have attacked these agencies’ leaders and their families. We are working to set their own government against them. They struggle to finance their work, act like beggars for prayer, and we seek to discourage them at every juncture. Yet they continue on. It’s a horrible business but now you must deal with the fall out.

So what to do? There are number of strategies that have worked well. I suggest you start by focusing on the family. Attack their children. Make them homesick, lonely, and generally unruly for the hapless mother. Use the Internet against them if at all possible and destroy their moral purity. Distract their language learning. Most devils are trying a new strategy to sideline the single adults. They will gladly spend hour upon hour watching Netflix movies and surfing for potential romances on dating websites. It’s like they never moved overseas. This little group has no idea yet how difficult we can make the relationships between them be – pitting them against each other is something delightful for any young under-demon.

Alas, all of these approaches have yielded limited success. These people are usually backed by a powerful army of prayer warriors. This must be your most important point of attack. Go after their ability to directly beseech the Enemy for reinforcements. Build strong alliances with your colleagues “back home” to ensure that their little missionary newsletters are unsubscribed from, their appeals are trite, non-specific and ignored, such that their daily struggles are never highlighted to the Enemy. Prayer is, above all else, the thing to be feared.

Wormwood, all is not lost. But you had better get out in front of this before they establish a community of people worshipping the Enemy. Once that starts you will be dealing with it forever and you will have to answer to me.

Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape