An eerie mood of pessimism seems to have seized America—right, left, and center; believer and nonbeliever alike. Public opinion polls confirm what everyday conversation suggests. Last October, for example, SurveyUSA conducted 50 surveys—one for each state—and concluded that, nationwide, only 29 percent of Americans thought the nation was headed in the right direction. Sixty-six percent thought the opposite. In no state, red or blue, did a majority of adults believe America was on the right course. Only in five states did as many as four out of ten think so.
True, some surveys (like one in May by Rasmussen) report that most Americans are satisfied with their own lives. But the broader sense of worry lingers and will likely have negative implications for our politics and our culture for years to come. As the late Presbyterian minister Frank Crane once said, "Depression, gloom, pessimism, despair, discouragement, these slay ten human beings to every one murdered by typhoid, influenza, diabetes, or pneumonia."
For Christians, of course, the hope of the gospel should temper our response to a broken world. Still, we are human, and we worry. Some of us are depressed by the war, others by the opposition to the war. Some are worn down by economic news. Some mourn the direction of American culture. Others are exhausted by theological battles within their denominations.
Facing such depressingly persistent battles, we cling to the words of the psalmist, hoping that we have the strength to hang on: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea" (Ps. 46:1-2). Sometimes, however, that is easier said than done.
In an earlier column, I recommended an excellent book, The Progress Paradox by Gregg Easterbrook. Easterbrook argues that the news on nearly every topic is much more positive than most people think. To be sure, the media's relentlessly sour and often silly reporting hardly helps the public attitude. But it is important for Christians not to confuse the existence of bad news with our reaction to the bad news—and here it is useful to look at The Screwtape Letters.
C. S. Lewis's famous novel was conceived and written during World War II, when so much looked bad. One of the most striking moments in the story arrives when the inexperienced junior devil, Wormwood, chortles over the horrors of war. Screwtape sternly admonishes his nephew not "to forget the main point in your immediate enjoyment of human suffering." In war, says the senior devil, people die. But hell gains nothing from mere human misery and death, he warns. It is the state in which people die that matters.
Lewis is not suggesting that we celebrate our suffering or that we stand blind to the suffering of others. His point, rather, is that Christians should not mistakenly think that bad news here on earth means Satan is winning. Men have done terrible things to each other ever since Eden. The horrors of war—like the other pains and scars of life—pose a challenge to faith. Lewis suggests that what truly matters is how we meet that challenge: the battle, that is, in the spiritual realm.
As the writer of Hebrews said to discouraged believers, "[L]et us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart" (Heb. 12:1-3).
Lewis's vision of Satan is far more useful and scary than Hollywood's. The film industry loves making movies about hell. In these high-budget visions of the underworld, demons usually emerge to do bad things to people, causing death and destruction here on earth. The hero either slays them or works some mystic incantation that sends them back, after which life on earth returns to what it was before. The demons are just like other Hollywood bad guys: terrorists, serial killers, the ruthless rich out to rule the world. In these visions, the bad thing about Satan is that he wants to do bad things to us here and now.
C. S. Lewis's marvelous imagination, by contrast, should remind us that this vision is dangerously wrong. The terrible tragedies that befall the world work to Satan's benefit only if we despair. Suffering, as Screwtape reminds his nephew, often strengthens faith. Better to keep people alive, he says, long enough for faith to be worn away. The death of a believer is the last thing the Devil wants.
Stephen Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University. He is the author of The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln (2012), The Violence of Peace, The Emperor of Ocean Park, and many other books. His column, "Civil Reactions," ran from 2001 until 2007.
With corporate consolidation in worship music, more entities are invested in the songs sung on Sunday mornings. How will their financial incentives shape the church?
“We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
With CBN, “The 700 Club,” Regent, the Christian Coalition, and a run for president, he changed evangelicals’ place in public life.FrançaisIndonesianрусскийУкраїнська
With corporate consolidation in worship music, more entities are invested in the songs sung on Sunday mornings. How will their financial incentives shape the church?español
“We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”españolPortuguêsFrançais简体中文한국어Indonesian繁體中文русскийУкраїнська日本語
Presbyterians expect less fight and more fatigue as they gather following the Covenant shooting and the deaths of Harry Reeder and Tim Keller.
