This was published in the Houston Chronicle on 16 Sep 01
Jim Shields
In 1939 when all of Europe was threatened by the great evils of Hitler’s Nazis and of fascism, British scholar, C.S. Lewis wrote a fictional letter for the newspaper, The Manchester Guardian. The letter was written by a devil called Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood who was working among the humans to accomplish evil.
Screwtape tells his nephew that, “Our war aim is a world in which Our father below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy (in Lewis’s allegory, this is God) wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.” In the subsequent letters (31 in all), Screwtape carries on a correspondence with Wormwood in which he instructs his nephew in the various ways to accomplish the goal.
In 1941, Lewis collected the letters in one volume and published the now famous Screwtape Letters. The insight into evil that Lewis reveals through this book is profound. This insight can help us as we react to the terrible eruption of evil of September 11, 2001 that has rocked us to our core.
Over and over, Screwtape advised Wormwood to ignore the obvious results of evil – the concentration camps, the gas chambers, and the violence – and instead concentrate on human activities, which would inevitably lead to those results. Evil thrives on greed and fear – especially fear borne of ignorance and hatred and anger and revenge.
When we hear voices calling for massive retaliation and punishment, Screwtape is cheering from the sidelines. Wherever there is violence, evil wins the day. When we resort to violence to combat violence we become what we hate and evil triumphs.
How then are we supposed to react in the light of the explosion of evil in New York Washington
For sure, all perpetrators and accomplices must be brought to justice - but this justice must be measured wherever possible, must be non-violent and consistent with the rules of law – not war. When we resort to revenge and succumb to the notion of “equal violence” we are diminished. We have to reject the idea that somehow the victims of violence will feel better with a violent retribution. Healing can never occur via violence.
In his preface to the Screwtape Letters, Lewis quotes two theologians. Martin Luther who said, “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of scripture, is to jeer him and flout him because he cannot bear scorn.” – and Thomas More who said, “The devil…the prowde spirite…cannot endure to be mocked.”
A modern day “theologian”, Mel Brooks, has done a masterful job of bringing evil to its knees through his Broadway smash The Producers. Brooks’ genius was to subject Hitler and the Nazi’s to mockery.
Many of us believe that the evil of the Vietnam war was exposed by the mocking and jeering which came from Hawkeye and Trapper in the TV series M*A*S*H.
I’m not suggesting that we can now find relief in the wake of this week’s horror by chanting – Hey Osama – Yo Mama!! But I am making the plea that we all work to eliminate evil through non-violent means and not do the devil’s work by killing one another.
When a Hindu man, whose child was brutally murdered by Muslims, asked Ghandi to lead the Hindus in retaliation, Ghandi instead advised the man to find and adopt a Muslim boy whose parents had been murdered by Hindus and raise him as a Muslim.
When we go to our prayer vigils in the coming weeks my prayer is that “we not be overcome by evil ,but overcome evil with good.”
