SCREWTAPE RIDES AGAIN

Dearest Wormwood,

I would like to personally thank you for your most excellent coup for the forces of Hell in Alabama. What victory! What gusto! I am most impressed, and don’t think for a moment that His Dark Majesty did not notice! He has most certainly got his evil eye on you (and Alabama!).
In your defeat of Amendment 2, you cleverly appealed not only to their prejudices, but also to their pocketbooks! Very evil! Splendid! Conservatives will protect their pocketbooks before even their “values”…very clever of you! Afterall, didn’t their “Messiah” say “You’ll always have the poor”? Of course! And they certainly always will at this rate, won’t they, dearest Minion?
Amendment 2, as you know, would have not only removed racist language and segregation-era rules from the Alabama constitution, but it also would have guaranteed a right to a public education. Alabama’s schools have always been the poorest because the state legislature doesn’t guarantee that they even exist in the first place. Taxes are low, as are the regional IQ levels. It’s really quite good for us—they’ll not only look like racists, but they’ll also appear greedy (since this was about a fear of taxation), and the children will still remain blissfully “stoopid” to the outside world. I couldn’t have worked this better myself!
This is almost as delightful as when we struck down science and sex education in Texas schools this year—now “His” children will be so verifiably ignorant, that—when they reach adulthood—they’ll be bona fide embarrassments to “His” cause! Wasn’t that striking?
That does remind me, however—we must remember to step up our “True Love Waits” and other abstinence campaigns among the “religious right.” You and I both know that teaching abstinence in place of sexual education and responsibility does not work, and that people—especially hormonal young people—will have sex regardless of what they are taught. And the Christians will gleefully accept the brunt of the backlash! They’ll actually lie for God about the statistics, or alter them in some fashion to show it “works”! It’s just like heaven in Hell! His children will be removed from the scientific community, and they’ll be swamped with STD’s and teen pregnancies (since, again, you and I both know that “real” statistics show that teen pregnancies actually increase as abstinence is taught!) What wonder! What Satanic prowess! We must keep up this fine campaign! Hail the Dark Majesty!
Oh Wormwood, the times are so exciting now! Under Clinton, the Christians were so united and so studious—they wanted victory so badly, that they often put aside their differences to fight us. Imagine—they actually united for a common cause. Fortunately, with our boy in office now, they’ll never stop to make that mistake again! It’s so easy to triumph over those who think they’ve won! You are correct in surmising that they will be arrogant and smug in the face of unbelievers now. And of course, these unbelievers will remember this unto their very graves! (I ran into a couple just last night!) It’s brilliant, I tell you! They’ll behave as imperialistic conquerors, while the lost stay lost, and the unloved grow that much more so! Parents will turn on their children, and brother will alienate brother. My oh my, how love can make such splendid hatred!
Your concern about the Supreme Court is touching, but reveals your ignorance of war tactics—it will be far easier to control Christendom once it believes itself undefeatable, and it will be doubly simpler to garner the proper opposition to it once it becomes enforced (Judge Scalia opposes the separation of Church & State, and this is a very, very good thing for us!). But I digress—we don’t want to destroy Christiendom—where would we be without them? We merely seek control of it. Which brings me to your interesting comment of earlier.
I will take your suggestion to heart about our Intolerance Campaign, and pass it on—it certainly seems in keeping with the infernal philosophy (and certainly our corporate culture!). You have argued that by only moderately tempting them with the traditional sins (lust, greed, etc.), they are reminded of their existence, and thus driven to the greater sin of hatred against those that deal such things…but truly, I think it’s a bit unnecessary; the Intolerance Campaign is moving on quite fine without adjustment. When that amendment barring gay marriage passes, there should be enough hatred and intolerance to fuel another civil war! It should be an utter delight! .
I know you wish we’d fought for the North last time, but Wormwood, hear me out:
The South’s gonna rise again!

Yours infernally,

Screwtape