Pastors

Editor's note: In C.S. Lewis's classic The Screwtape Letters, a senior devil mentors Wormwood, a junior devil, on leading people astray. Writer Calvin Miller "found" on his desk the following, which suggests that Screwtape is setting pastors in his sights.

My Dear Wormwood:

Concerning your correspondence about your new assignment, you are correct: preachers must never do anything they can get caught at.

The old list of seven has proven deadly to many and those sins certainly further our cause. But taken to their logical conclusions, they put our targets out of business. I won't recite our victories; you know their names. Their demise is often well publicized, but then we must begin the long and tedious process of wooing another.

There is a more excellent way to disable the servants of our Enemy. Why it is not one of the "deadlies" I'm not sure, but it is very effective. It hobbles our prey without disqualifying them. It's the only way I know ...

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