By TIM MCDONALD
“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”
— C. S. Lewis
Over the weekend, two events I attended had the effect of making each the more powerful and meaningful.
On Saturday morning, I drove, with a friend, to a Cross Cultural Christian Men’s breakfast in Columbus. The event is held about four times per year with guest speakers emphasizing that no matter what culture Christian men come from, we all face the same challenges.
My friend John Rajanayakam — born and raised in India and now an American citizen — coordinates the events.
The speaker on this morning was a mutual friend of John and mine from our doctoral program, Doug Brattain. In late 2006, Doug was dealt a tragedy when his 19-year-old son Kurt committed suicide. The unspeakable pain and agony of this tragedy was nearly too much for Doug, his wife Lisa and four daughters. Doug’s Christian faith was shattered and challenged as never before.
As the family went to bed that evening, Doug relayed that his daughter Amber, home from college, prayed to God to show her a sign that her brother was OK. Kurt loved to snowboard and she prayed for God to make it snow.
The next morning, she awoke and looked at the blanket she had used that night and it was covered in a snowflake pattern. She ran to her sister’s room and told her of the prayer. The sister replied, “have you looked outside?”
Sure enough, there was a fresh covering of snow on the ground. Doug said the whole family went outside and gathered snow into Tupperware containers and put them in the freezer, as it was Kurt’s snow.
Let me stop the story at this point and shift to this past Saturday evening when I attended a stage adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ book, “The Screwtape Letters.” It was written in 1942 by Lewis.
The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as “the Patient.”
Screwtape — along with his trusted scribe, Toadpipe — holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy (Lowerarchy) of Hell, and acts more as a mentor than a supervisor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter; almost every letter ends with the signature, “Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.”
In the body of the 31 letters which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in his Patient, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine.
In “The Screwtape Letters,” Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in living out Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, as seen from the demon/devil’s viewpoint.
Wormwood and Screwtape live in a peculiarly morally reversed world, where individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon is capable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.
I have read “The Screwtape Letters” about five times. The first time it was difficult to wrap my head around the point of view of gaining souls for the devil and keeping them from Christian faith. However, I re-read it now when my Christian faith is shaken and I am in doubt to snap me back.
My friend, Doug, and his family could easily have turned their back on God and Christianity. However, they chose to make something positive come from their son’s death.
A couple of months after the tragedy, they saw the “Out of the Darkness” walk advertised in the Indianapolis newspaper. They put together a team of 40 friends and family to walk in Kurt’s name. Including their 40 people, there were a total of 200 walkers raising money.
Doug and his wife, Lisa, contacted the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to start a chapter in Indiana. Doug and Lisa put together a board and gained members from Eli Lilly — manufacturer of Prozac — psychiatrists and health care professionals.
The first year after they started the Central Indiana Chapter, 600 people walked and last year, more than 2,000 walked and more than $60,000 was raised in the Indianapolis walk alone.
Daily things nag at all of us who are Christians and make us question our faith or even become passive Christians. Watching Doug tell his story to the men’s group, the pain was still raw, yet his faith remains strong.
If my friend can come through that kind of pain and find a positive way to carry something through to honor his son, then I can surely strengthen my daily walk.
The AFSP funds research and provides information and support to families who have suffered such a loss. Nearly 75 percent of those who commit suicide give some indication to a family member or friend of their intent. For more information, contact: AFSP-Central Indiana, Lisa Brattain, chairwoman; 317-774-1377; lbrattain4afsp@aol.com
Tim McDonald can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu
