Eliminating Shame ~ A Complete Re-Write
In recent years it’s become increasingly difficult to find anything to watch on TV let alone go to the movies. We were considering getting Downton Abbey from the library, but have heard some not so good things about it. I am reading “Lord Foulgrin’s Letters’ by Randy Alcorn. It is written in the style of C.S. Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters”. By the authors own admission, it is not on the same literary level as Lewis, but I think the relevance for where we find ourselves today is very useful. As I read the following portion of Alcorn’s book, I was cut to the quick. Through the characters he makes the point that whatever we partake of, doesn’t have to be “bad” for it to have a damaging affect. If whatever we’re doing takes us away from or distracts us from God and His word, then our enemy has won.
In this excerpt from “Lord Foulgrin’s Letters”, you will find the following characters:
Lord Foulgrin: A high ranking senior demon, he is the first person in the narrative
Squaltaint: A junior demon who answers to Foulgrin
Vermin: Humans
Fletcher: A human target Squaltaint is responsible for destroying.
Enemy: God
Forbidden Squadron: Church, believers
The Enemy’s scheme is to use the vermin’s conscience against us. This is why we’ve been unrelenting in our campaign to eliminate shame. While we’ve not been successful in Asia or much of the third world, in Europe and America we’ve prevailed.
The Enemy dictates that those who do wrong should feel bad about themselves, since the trouble is with them, not the standards they fall short of . Our strategy is to make them feel good about themselves and bad about the standards.
By eroding their sense of shame we’ve made immorality normal, not only in the world, but in the forbidden squadron.
Fletcher’s conscience has already caused him to question his attraction to his secretary and what he watches on television. When I heard he and his wife spent an evening with Christian vermin from Ryan’s forbidden squadron, I was disappointed. But it wasn’t a complete loss, since their new Christian friends recommended some of the movies Fletcher had been wondering if he should now avoid. I was delighted one of them said, “This is a great movie—only one sex scene, and the F-word’s only used a few times.”
Titanic is one of my favorites. How many Christian young people have watched it in their own homes? Think of it, Squaltaint. Suppose someone in the youth group said to the boys, “There’s an attractive girl down the street. Let’s get together and go look through her window and watch her undress and lie back on a couch and pose naked from the waist up. then this girl and her boyfriend will get in a car and have sex—let’s get as close as we can and listen to them and watch the windows steam up.”
The strategy would never work. They’d know immediately it was wrong. But you can get them to do exactly the same thing by using a television instead of a window. That’s all it takes! Think of it, Squaltaint. Every day Christians across the country, including many squadron leaders, watch women and men undress and commit acts of fornication, and adultery the Enemy calls an abomination.
We’ve made them a bunch of voyeurs! Churches full of peeping toms. The Enemy commands them to hate sin, but they watch it for entertainment. What He grieves at, they laugh at. and we laugh.
Christian parents are shocked when their daughter conceives or their son gets a girl pregnant. We’ve done our job so well they see no cause and effect connection to the fact these teenagers have watched hundreds of acts of sexual immorality on television and heard thousands of jokes about it.
Many of them complain about these programs, Fortunately, it doesn’t keep them from watching them.
The Enemy warns them, “Guard you minds.” We say, “Open your minds to everything.” We poison the stream at its source. We contaminate their lives by contaminating their minds. “But that movie has only one bad part in it,” they say. Yes, and if someone placed just one small piece of excrement in a cookie, would they still eat it? Fortunately, they’re more concerned about their bodies than their minds.
It’s a marvel, Squaltaint. Parents who wouldn’t dream of letting filthy-mouthed adults alone with their children do it every time they let their kids surf channels. Christians who wouldn’t consider going to a strip club watch strippers on videos and TV shows. Then there’s the Internet. Don’t get me going on what that’s done for us! [-]
Children are being raised to know no shame, Squaltaint, because we’ve so blinded their parents and stripped them of common sense. Since it’s built into their consciences we can’t eliminate shame, but we can misdirect it to make the big moral issues wearing fur, eating meat, and failing to recycle.[-] We have our endless parade of celebrities who outdo one another in raunchiness. We’ve planted their music, movies, magazines, and posters in homes across the country, even Christian homes.
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‘Lord Foulgrin’s Letters |
| by Randy Alcorn | |
| Year Written: 2012 | |
| Random House LLC | |
| ISBN – 1576738612 |
I believe we are living in perilous times. We are constantly being bombarded–mentally, visually, auditorally, by forces determined to chip away at our defenses, leaving us wide open to the lies and deception of the father of all lies. I would encourage you to read “Lord Foulgrin’s Letters”. Randy Alcorn has done a terrific job of revealing the strategy of the enemy—so that we might be able to “destroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God…taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…” 2 Corinthians 10:5
I felt like I needed to re-write this post. This post in it’s original form was mean-spirited and judgmental. I have spent the last week asking for the Father’s wisdom and guidance. Jesus said:
I very much hope that the people I offended will accept my apology and will forgive me. Please pray for me—I have a terrible critical monster that sits on my shoulder, and he loves it when he can he use me to hurt everyone around me, especially when I do it in my sweet Lord’s name. I look forward to having you reprove me, I promise to listen…and you will have won me! |
Yes, the bombardment is exhausting. Where is the line between sheltering and protecting?
These letters look interesting though, I so wish I was more of a reader. I suppose it could be something you could train yourself to do?
I don’t think there is a line between the two, it seems to me that the idea of, “to shelter” has taken on a bad connotation in the last hundred years. I think that’s why the Pilgrims came to America in the first place, to shelter and protect themselves and their families from a world they saw as evil. It’s like the words judgment and discernment, they mean the same thing, but judgment has taken on a bad connotation.
I really like the way Randy Alcorn writes–I just started his book ‘Heaven’. When the kids were young almost all my reading was done in the powder room! I think you’re doing tons of reading…aren’t you taking classes? I’ve always thought of you as a reader, I think when you have more time–say 20 years from now, you’ll have the freedom to read books that interest you. LoL