Do you know the political zealot, whose faith in Christ has taken a back seat to faith in “the Cause?” The one who’s love for Him who is “the Name above all names,” now only gets excited for the Nation?

It starts subtly. Disappointment over the pandemic. Distrust in our institutions. A compromised church. Illegal actions in law enforcement. The faith delivered once for all helps you see political connections, and partisan challenges. After all, you think, its important to live out your faith in every sphere of life, including partisan politics, right?

But soon the political inferences that came from your faith take the driver’s seat, and the daily devotional or private worship is replaced with the daily rally cry and public call to action.

In his fictional The Screwtape Letters (1942), C.S. Lewis literally plays devil’s advocate, penning fictive letters from a senior demon (“Screwtape”) to his junior colleague of evil (“Wormwood”). The goal of these letters is to undermine a Christian individual that Wormwood is hopelessly attempting to lead astray. The “Enemy” is God, according to these demons, “the patient” is the teetering Christian, and making the patient “ours” is tantamount to bringing him to hell. The following letter on politics, extreme factions, and letting faith become a means to a political end, are right on point. “My dearest Wormwood…”

I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them…