Charity, II. Love by C.S. Lewis Doodle (BBC Talk 16A, Mere Christianity, Bk 3, Chapter 9)

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. This is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.

Lewis wrote a broadcast on Charity which never made it to radio in full – here is the missing section in doodle form. C.S. Lewis wrote a broadcast on Charity for 15 minutes, but the BBC cut his segment to ten minutes, so he could only cover that part of Charity which deals with ‘forgiveness’. Nevertheless, the radio talks ended up being printed & expanded to include his original broadcast notes, & the subject of Charity now became two separate chapters in the book ‘Mere Christianity’ – ‘Forgiveness’ & ‘Charity’.

(5:47) The idea of improving the human population through selective breeding or elimination was initially inspired by Darwinism & its theory of natural selection, & was very popular right across the world in the late 19th & early 20th century. Galton, the father of Eugenics, sought to explain the development of plant & animal species, & desired to apply it to humans. Based on his biographical studies, he believed that desirable human qualities were hereditary traits. With the introduction of genetics, eugenics became associated with genetic determinism, the belief that human character is entirely or in the majority caused by genes, unaffected by knowledge or belief or behaviour. This kind of popular racialism was something “which Christianity (https://biblehub.com/kjv/acts/17-26.htm) and science equally forbid”.

“Once the old Christian idea of a total difference in kind between man and beast has been abandoned, then no argument for experiments on animals can be found which is not also an argument for experiments on inferior men. If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies or capitalists for the same reasons. Indeed, experiments on men have already begun. We all hear that Nazi scientists have done them. We all suspect that our own scientists may begin to do so, in secret, at any moment.” (Vivasection, 1940s)

(6:47) Sedan was the point in the French Ardennes, where the Nazi forces broke through the French defensive lines, and caused the general collapse of French forces in 1940.
Remagen was the famous German bridge across the Rhine, that was detonated by the German defence forces in 1945, but it simply rose into the air and remarkably landed exactly back onto its own foundations. The American army saw the error and rushed more troops across the Rhine river which established the first bridgehead into German heartland, before the bridge could be destroyed by German aircraft. Hitler had the German troops in charge of this bridge executed, but the failure to destroy the bridge began the collapse of the German army in the West.

(8:40) Much more from C.S. Lewis on this kind of tough love of God here: “By the goodness of God we mean nowadays almost exclusively His lovingness; and in this we may be right. And by the Love, in this context, most of us mean kindness — the desire to see others than the self happy; not happy in this way or in that, but just happy. What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, “What does it matter so long as they are contented?” We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven — a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all”.
Not many people, I admit, would formulate a theology in precisely those terms: but a conception not very different lurks at the back of many minds. I do not claim to be an exception: I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed on such lines. But since it is abundantly clear that I don’t, and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless; that God is Love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction..." (The Problem of Pain, Chp 3 - Divine Goodness)

The original broadcast had the following words italicised which add to understanding (shown in CAPS): “Giving to the poor is one of the most OBVIOUS things he does”, ” 'rhyme’ is the most OBVIOUS thing about poetry”, “that state of the will which we have NATURALLY about ourselves and must LEARN to have about other people”, “does not mean we LIKE ourselves”, “act AS IF YOU DID”, “yet it LEADS TO affection”, “increase AT COMPOUND INTEREST”, “act AS IF YOU DID”, “If I WERE sure that I loved God”, “He will give us FEELINGS of love”.

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