Ran across this Screwtape quotation today:
"The bad news, my dear Wormwood, is that the Christian leaders have decided to encourage their people to become more familiar with the pestilential Enemy propaganda known as The Bible. But all is not lost ... far from it! Our policy is now to work through the soi disant 'liturgical experts', whom we already have securely under our control. They will be easily persuaded to increase the amount of time reading the Bible in Church, while eviscerating the text of passages and ideas which we will convince them are 'difficult'. Thus any teaching which is not currently popular among a certain narrow portion of the intelligentsia in the 1960s will be carefully concealed. The next stage, which we have scheduled for the beginning of the Third Millennium, will be to use the dominant ideologues to promote the notion that the portions of Scripture which have been censored out of public use contain ideas which it is actually forbidden for Christians accept. We will then stir up particular, easily duped, constituencies (our planning department has the German and English episcopates particularly in mind) to demand peremptorily the elimination of these ideas from any public prayers".
One doubting its authenticity can point to the red-letter text above. Clearly, Screwtape would have told Wormwood that the US episcopate was among the 'easily duped'.
Therefore, Fr. Hunwicke's source should be reprimanded.
Did Screwtape really say this??"
ReplyDeleteNo. Fr. Hunwicke likes to put words in his mouth betimes - and usually he's pretty much on the money. I think CS Lewis would agree.
Uhmmnhhh....I was hoping to fool some of my chilluns with this post.
ReplyDeleteSome. I only count one.
ReplyDelete