The Smudgefutt Letters 1

I have always respected C.S. Lewis and his masterpiece, The Screwtape Letters, letters from a chief demon to his nephew, a demon in training. I love the creative ideas surrounding the letters and the honest attempt to dig into the enemy’s brain. They are are once hilarious, and terrifying. Even though they were written on the stage of World War II they are still just as applicable and stirring today as they were then.

But still, seventy years later, things have changed, and there is a new generation much different from Lewis’s readers dealing (or not dealing) with a whopping fresh set of arsenal from the Enemy Below.

Dear Pigmud,

I am honored and thrilled that you are ready to begin your training. I am, however, disappointed that it took you so long to be approved by our Beloved Father Bellow. I was beginning to wonder how utterly worthless you really are, much like those creatures the Enemy created for Himself. 

But you must remember this. Though they were all created by Him, they don’t all belong to Him. Many are willing to be cut off from Him, and others still are stupid enough to believe they belong to Him, even though there is nothing in their existence that would support that lie. Actually, it is mostly due to us that those foolish people believe such things. 

There are countless people who say they belong to God (may He be defeated) or other gods whom they think are just as sufficient for their idea of salvation or will point to God. I have chosen such a person for your first project. He is what Christians (may they be severed from the Enemy) call an agnostic. 

What he really calls himself is an atheist, because he’s uneducated enough not to know that there truly can be no such thing as an atheist, since his god is physics and other types of sciences – he does believe in a “higher” being. He has complete faith that his life will be directed and, in essence, continue to run its course because of the sciences that surround him and uphold him. 

But be aware, Pigmud! Don’t let his carelessness against the Enemy allow you to slip into a casual, halfhearted fight against him. You must always remember that no matter how far away from the Enemy it seems he is, the Enemy is always just one thought or breath away – or at least the iota of a curiosity about the existence of God. As soon as he starts dabbling with the first hint of a curiosity, then you’re in trouble, and you’ve got to go into overtime. (I’m sure this will happen, so more on that later.)

Your mission then, which you have no choice but to accept, is to keep your patient content with his faith in the sciences and the physical space around him. Allow him to continue to be in awe with the world and the multitudes of innovations that continually appear. On the off chance that he sees a sunset or a mountain view, bend his heart so that it bows down and thanks science for giving him such “gifts” to behold.

Yours Truly, Smudgefutt

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