The lure of deception

C.S. Lewis wrote this after listening to a speech by Adolf Hitler over the radio on the Friday evening of July 19th, 1940, this would become the inspiration for Screwtape Letters:

“I don’t know if I’m weaker than other people, but it is a positive revelation to me how while the speech lasts it is impossible not to waiver just a little… Statements which I know to be untrue all but convince me, at any rate for the moment, if only the man says them unflinchingly.”

We are easily deceived. Do not think that you are above the many Germans enraptured by the speeches of Hitler? They were people just like us. We are people just like them.

And it happens, today, perhaps in more subtle mediums, but the lure of deception and evil is real. Like the foolish woman of Proverbs, it entices, and it attracts with a false beauty. But in the end, there is death and stench. It is alive and well in our own culture, promoting murder, hate, and a many other evils, bring destruction to lives and families.

But the voice of evil is familiar, we barely notice . . .