[SCREWTAPE] Sticks & Stones May Break Bones, But Words Waste Your Soul | STR004 CWP044

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Words are no mere breaths of air; they can be as brutal as any fist. In the latest episode/letter Screwtape peels back the curtain on the transformation of violence in the age of the internet, where the battlegrounds aren't just physical spaces but the vast, interconnected realms of social media. With the guidance of our insightful "guest" (Screwtape), we navigate the treacherous waters of Twitter, Facebook, and beyond, where character assassinations are executed in 280 characters or less. These platforms, while designed to bring us together, have also opened the floodgates to a new form of verbal onslaught that targets not just reputations but the very essence of our souls. We scrutinize the ripple effects of these digital assaults, particularly the discord sewn within the Christian Church, and ask ourselves: How far-reaching is the damage wrought by these invisible yet palpable weapons?

A poignant tale unfolds as Screwtape recounts the earnest plea of a tutor to his "nephew" Wormwood, urging the preservation of diabolical "tradition" amid a changing world. This episode takes a hard look at the perils of blind imitation and the disruption of longstanding practices. As we dissect the implications of unthinking adherence, we're reminded of the stark choices before us: evolve or risk succumbing to the subtle yet powerful forces that seek to maintain control. We examine the speaker's urgent call to action, its undertones of personal judgment, and the veiled threats that accompany dissent. Join us as we unleash Screwtape's latest epistle for a compelling exploration of the fine line between upholding values and falling prey to rigidity in a world that demands both reverence for the past and the courage to question it.

We don't know how these letters came to be in our possession, but we'll do our best to make sure they harm as few people as possible.  

Thank you for journeying w/ the Saints with us!

Transcript

Screwtape: 0:00

Okay, guys, I think I got the final touches. Oh guys, are you ready to record? What is that? Did we invite anyone?

Screwtape: 0:16

My dear Wormwood, you quibble in complying that the humans in these more modern times are not as prone to arbitrary acts of violence and blood-curdling brutality as those of the olden days. You tell me you dearly miss and long to return to the glory days of spontaneous raids upon unsuspecting towns, blood feuds, sacking of cities, fighting bits of the most brutish of blood sports, excessively crude methods of open executions, ravaging bonfires and rites of human sacrifice and bone-sattering barbarities of every sort the imagination can produce. You have quite an overactive sense of nostalgia for a junior tempter of your inexperience, my boy. Yes, I can agree with you. Men have grown to become quite distastefully soft-skinned and limp-risted and overly scrupulous, and we can partially pin the blame on the influences of old Christendom and its abolition of the old barbarisms, and in a different and more preferable part we can say that these are but the fruits of excessive comforts and pleasures, which produced such a widespread trend of complacency, sloth and indifference in these modern times. But have you ever known the profound pleasures that come from an exchange of the cruelest words that are spilled so carelessly from the recesses of the human heart. This is one of our most pleasing gifts to our father below. You obviously know not of the sheer cutting potential within the sharpened sword of a slandering tongue. Violence which kills the body, although highly pleasant to behold, lasts for a short while towards the end of it, but a violence which assaults the heart, quenches the spirit and expels the grace of heaven from the perpetrator's very soul. Such is the violence of the tongue that can ensure such fools will be in our clutches forever. It is our favorite violence, for it slays the soul. Tell me, wormwood, what sort of violence between these two options presented would you now prefer, if you still claim to be a lover of proper violence, be it on Twitter, facebook, reddit or any other medium of our communication?

Screwtape: 4:14

We have saturated every feed with endless occasions to sing with the eyes, the mind, the tongue and the fingers. Among our unwitting allies, both the secularists and the religionists, we have planted seeds of division and malcontent and, by means of topics both political and theological, occasioned controversies that are inflamed unto animosity and hateful slander. Have you ever seen a TikTok live? And we've ensured they can record themselves with their cell phones the very sins and scandals and mistakes of friends or family members, and even strangers, and broadcast them to the world for viewers to shame and humiliate with the brutal vitriol of a public execution, left to die as food for the crows. If you so miss the practice of ritual cannibalism the good old days, did not fear you. Feast your eyes upon the cannibalism of the spoken word, where the teeth and tongue sink and bite and rip and tear into the good image of individuals with a violence mob, brutal than an organized massacre, at a speed swifter than the drop of a guillotine. Gaze upon it yourself.

Screwtape: 6:31

I'm sure you remember my last letter I sent to you before the enemy's advent, in which I explicitly instructed you, you imbecile, to steer clear and away from the worldlings and those who exist outside the bounds of the deplorable church of the Christians. I want you now to press your attacks against the church, the very body of the God-man who so long ago undermined the work of our Father and of our infernal empire. If those Christians should hear some hearsts say it, telling them we should humble ourselves. Anger and judgment come from pride. Let them say to themselves no, mine is motivated by love and concern, mine is a righteous anger.

Screwtape: 7:46

I am saying these words for their own good. Behold and marvel before all these illustrious judges of the earth. My dear nephew, if these fools so desperately wish to imitate their Christ, who is the true church, let them do so in a manner most usurping and unlawful. And, wormwood, make sure not a single soul among them ever kills this habit at any point of their pious little lives. The momentum cannot and must not ever be stopped from here or from any point of our struggle. Do not fail me, or you will have only my judgment to fear. It is later than you think. Your eternally un-efectionate, un-car screw-tape.