One of my favorite Christian fiction books is Lord Foulgrin’s Letters, which is a modern day take on The Screwtape Letters. Both of these are about a head demon writing to a lower demon with advice on how to minimize the effectiveness of a Christian. With both of these books in mind, I have written some new advice from Foulbreath, a head demon, to the lowly demon, Littlesnake.
Dear Littlesnake,
I want to continue to give you some foolproof methods to easily minimize those despicable Christians. Today I will talk a little about parenting.
Parents have enormous influence over the development of their children. As a general rule, good parenting results in children who turn into good adults (good from their perspective, not ours). Bad parenting generally results in children who are less likely to be good. The key then is to do everything you can to prevent the parents from being good parents.
Here are some easy ways we can prevent those Christians from being good parents:
1) Keep them from their master. I cannot emphasize this first point enough. A parent will be far less effective if he is not constantly communing with our enemy. Keep them from praying, keep them from reading their wretched Bible’s, and keep them from being involved in church. Parents who don’t commune with their master cannot easily show their children how to commune with him. It is like a domino effect. Stop one and the rest of the line will probably stop as well.
Remember how well we did with the enemy’s nation, the Israelites? We were able to destroy multiple generations at one time simply because we prevented one generation from being devoted to God. Keep the parents spiritually dry and it will be far more likely the children will be spiritually dry as well.
2) Distract the parents. Parents will be far less likely to parent well if they are distracted. What should you distract them with? The answer is simple: ANYTHING! Anything that will keep them from doing their duties as parents.
Let me let you in on a little secret: Some of the best distractions are not things the enemy considers evil. No, the best distractions are things they consider good. Think of how many children of pastors we have messed up because their daddy was always busy at church. While they “worked for the lord” we got their kids! Find something that seems good and get the parent overly involved in it.
Whether it be something they consider good (Christian activities), something neutral (like facebook or television), or something bad (drugs), find a way to keep the parents’ minds off of raising their children.
3) Addicts Breed Addicts. Parents who are addicted are far less effective at raising children. In fact, the addiction either leads them to 1) an inability to feel competent to parent, or 2) being viewed as a hypocrite by the children. Either way is good for us.
Addictions mess up a person’s spiritual walk and in turn mess up their children’s spiritual walk as well. Do what you can to get a parent involved in an activity that will lead to addiction. Drugs, alcohol, porn, eating disorder. The specifics are not as important. If parents are addicted to something other than their master, they will be poorer parents.
4) Make them soft parents. One last strategy is to make the parents feel like discipline is old-fashion. Instill in the parent the idea that kids should be free to do what they want. Never mind the fact that a fifteen year old has very poor judgment. Just get the parents to think that kids need their space. The more space the child has, the most possibilities there are for us to influence them.
I am counting on you, Littlesnake. Keep parents from parenting. Use whatever method you can. Once the parent is out of the way, we are free to do as we wish with the children.
Foulbreath