A Touch of Humor - Lewis

(Screwtape, an experienced demon, instructing a demon in training.)

About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is more delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything - even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice.

C. S. Lewis, 1896-1963, The Screwtape Letters, 23, (HarperCollins, 2001, pp. 126,127).

How do we avoid using God as a means to our end? How can we recognize we are doing so?