“Hardtack, I have not meant to ignore you. Our leader, Screwtape, demanded my presence for an update on an overall change in strategy regarding our humans. My absence should not be taken as a withdrawal from my interest in your development. I remain wholly committed to your progress.”
“I would like to pick up from our last conversation regarding the human’s tug and pull he experiences in daily life. All of the Enemy’s children possess the silly gift of free will He gave them. He called it love, but we know better it was a strategic mistake. Had we been in charge, we would have had them totally committed to our father. By giving them this gift, He knew they would choose more than not to follow their own desire. He hoped they would return to Him in devotion. Of course, this became the fertile ground into which we plant our seeds. Think of it as job security.”
“You see, Hardtack, the tug and pull of which we last spoke means the human becomes both his enemy and friend within. He is always vacillating between self-adulation and self-loathing. He loves to give himself permission to do the very thing he knows he will regret. Let nothing restrain you in leading him toward this end, and you have a chance nothing will restrain him.”
“There are two great advantages to our cause in this tug and pull. When one of them yields to their passions either for good or bad and another does the same for an opposing passion raging within, we have succeeded in pitting them against each other. It matters not if their passions are both good or both bad or opposed as one good and the other bad. If we succeed in pitting them against each other, we pull them away from acting in love, or minimally, thinking critically about their passions dividing them from their Lord’s will.”
“Hardtack, the other distinct advantage is of a more insidious nature. I am sure even you in your young career have noticed how at times humans will process their thinking not on moral grounds but on a more civic foundation. Because the culture and the media permeate every sense they possess, humans will reason their argument on this basis. You and I know this is shifting sand, but they will believe it to be firm and sure. Because they find agreement in the crowd, being wrong never occurs to them. Our job is to never allow them awareness moral standards exist outside of them. Once they completely process on shifting sand, we have them.”
“Wormwood, what of their free will?”
“Yes, this remains a challenge for us. Choice is always before them. We must work hard to disguise it. Most do not realize what the Enemy calls repentance is always available and is a constant part of what they call the new life. Make them think they deserve nothing or deserve themselves altogether. Either way, they are ours.”