It wouldn’t be helpful to anyone involved to go into all the details of where the content of these posts originated and how they came to us.  In rough sketch, they were intercepted on the dark web.  If it wasn’t for a friend who works in cyber security, we probably would’ve never stumbled upon them.

Our friend felt that these posts were important enough, even potentially helpful, for us to be aware of that he passed them on…

If you’d like to talk more about disciple making that multiplies, reach out to us...

Roy Moran
roymoran.com

Marcus Constantine
livingtruth2.wordpress.com

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. The sort of script which is used in this book can be very easily obtained by anyone who has once learned the knack; but ill-disposed or excitable people who might make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me.”

~Clive Staples Lewis, Screwtape Letters

To Whom It May Concern:

As I currently find myself on a leave of absence of unspecified length, I have chosen to make the most productive use of my time by typing and circulating my thoughts.  

I post this open letter in hopes that I will increase the girth of not just my waistline but my influence, during this strategic season of my career.  

Through many decades of practicing my profession, I have learned quite a few tips and tricks of the trade.  I trust these principles will prove invaluable to those less experienced and less effective than I at shepherding souls toward the greater light—which some have so ignorantly called the darkness. 

Out with the old in with the new

An important update that I feel impressed to announce is that our organization has ceased use of the term “patient” and instead has replaced it with the more desirable designation “client.”  

After all, who would feel honored to know she is referred to as a patient?

It brings to mind the poking, prodding, and all manner of procedures that often accompany unpleasant medical tests.  Of course, while you and I may think fondly of such torturous treatments, most of our clients do not.

In a very real sense, we are here to please.  And so we must update our language as the higher-ups deem compulsory.  This serves both to address the changing tide of societal norms and to shift the sands of popular opinion in our favor.  

We do have a responsibility to do both after all.

We influence environmental conditions, inspire value systems, and establish human partners, which will instigate people movements toward our liking.  We also respond gleefully at times to the downward trends that the mass of humanity chooses entirely for themselves.

People do so often make deliciously destructive choices that propel them in our direction like swine over a cliff.

Tangentially, another deterrent of the word “patient” is its similarity to the term “patience.”  Though for different reasons, “patience” too is quite loathsome—both by virtue of its inherent power and how often it is asked of our Enemy, as in:

“I pray for more patience…”

How perverse!

Instead, our organization has wisely opted for the term “client.”  A memo has gone out to all high-ranking supervisors, which prominent department heads like myself had clearance to access.  And we have been charged to instruct our subordinates—those of lower rank such as I assume yourself—to amend our language immediately.

Lest you stumble over our specific choice of words, you will do well to observe that our work is as much art as it is science.

We do tend to deal in extremes.  Here is what I mean in 4 bite-sized points…

Lest you stumble over our specific choice of words, you will do well to observe that our work is as much art as it is science.

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1. Of course, it is useful to encourage a client toward viewing the world amorphously (think: The Blob).  

The less aware they are of a grander story, purpose, and connection in their lives, the more likely they will tend toward hopelessness, depression, and the insatiable pursuit of that which temporarily quiets their inner pangs for greater meaning.

2. If you cannot inspire a client toward viewing the world in extreme shades of gray, absolute black-and-white thinking can serve our purposes just as well.

Ensure your client is unable to see from another’s point of view and is fully entrenched in opinions he has held for as long as he can remember.  This will near guarantee his inability to learn, grow, or discover so-called truths that might pull him toward maturity and out of your tender, loving grasp.

3. Whether a client has an excessively fluid or intensely rigid view of the world, their denial of the tensions between most truths in life will lead them to a discomfort with themselves, others, and ultimately with the Enemy.

This will leave them no choice but to pursue numbing activities to lessen their perception of pain and the inevitable approach of their impending death—which cannot come soon enough from our perspective.

Sometimes their self-medicating will take the form of addictive behaviors that you are well aware of, such as substance abuse, sexual extremes, or overeating—to name a few.  However, equally powerful can be more subtle workaholic tendencies, religious extremism, or compulsion toward a certain brand of do-gooding.

4. If there is a road to be driven on, ensure your client falls into the ditch on one side or the other.  

This will keep her from safely arriving at a destination dangerously nearer the Enemy and the values of his realm.

Ensure your client either is so busy with what he deems important pursuits that he has no time for rest and quickly wears out like a threadbare garment.  Or conversely, that he so gives himself to leisurely pursuits that he slowly eats, drinks, amuses, and sleeps himself to an early death.

If there is a road to be driven on, ensure your client falls into the ditch on one side or the other. 

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For those already given to religion…

Now, I will address those working with clients who are already religious.  

Ensure traditional and sacramental types are so off put by the evangelical claim to have a personal knowledge of God that they give themselves all the more fully to the ornamental and superficial.  

Ensure the self-proclaimed evangelical so emphasizes his “personal relationship” with the Enemy that he neglects meaningful connection with others and becomes all but deaf to the cries of the world around him.

Keep them all focused on buildings and budgets, dollars and donors, nickels and noses.

Ensure neither camp opens the Enemy’s dastardly Book.

If by chance you fail in this regard, and they are somehow exposed to its words, ensure they glance at it only ritually or out of obligation.  Discourage any sense of expectation to hear from the Enemy, or perhaps worse, to apply what is read in their daily lives.

The more lifeless the Book can appear to them the better.  The collection of copies upon copies in various versions and styles will be just fine, as long as they all remain largely untouched, unread, and dusty on some high, hard-to-reach shelf.  Even an occasional display copy on the coffee table is just fine, as long as it goes unnoticed like a forgotten carving in the woodwork.

Discourage any sense of expectation to hear from the Enemy, or perhaps worse, to apply what is read in their daily lives.

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The dustier this Book remains the better.

It goes without saying that electronic versions are permissible, as long as they remain unread and forgotten once downloaded.  Ensure they don’t discover the ease of accessing the Book on mobile devices.  If by chance they do, ensure alerts pull their attention to other pursuits, which I like to call delectable distractions.

Abounding busyness is sure to set in again soon.

In short, keep your clients blissfully unaware, as they slowly lull themselves to sleep with the hum and whir of their many machines.

Ever Yours, a True Expert,

(Currently furloughed. Seeking contract work. References available upon request.)

Keep your clients blissfully unaware, as they slowly lull themselves to sleep with the hum and whir of their many machines.

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