The Venetian Mask that adorns the cover is one of those masks worn by Venetians during the Carnevale (Carnival of Venice) as a device for hiding the wearer's identity and social status. The mask would permit the wearer to act more freely in cases where he or she wanted to interact with other members of the society outside the bounds of identity and everyday convention. It was useful for a variety of purposes, some of them illicit or criminal. Social media and the social networking services like facebook, orkut, second life, etc. are in a way being used like the Venetian Mask by those who seek to indulge by posing a different identity believing that they can hide their own self behind the social media mask. The article ‘I am on facebook’ throws enough light on this subject.
The words that C.S. Lewis penned in his masterpiece work Screwtape Letters which he articulates through the Senior Tempter Screwtape in the letters to his nephew Wormwood rightly presents this issue, “All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the Pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula.” And many Christian believers and even ministers having fallen prey to the Devil’s formula live a life with dual identity and as C.S. Lewis says in this book, “feel, instead of shame, a continual undercurrent of self-satisfaction”. We encourage the readers to not only read the article ‘The chronicles of the atheist turned apologist’ but also to seek to live a life with Christ-centred identity. ‘Missionaries of the kingdom below’ is an attempt to present the present deceptions in a lucid manner, in the style of Screwtape Letters and we hope that it would be an engaging experience for our readers leading towards truthful self-introspection, creating a Christian worldview in regards to the presented issues.
But, even as we engage in a self-introspective reading let us not forget our responsibility towards those living in the world and in the womb, which is the theme of ‘Let them LIVE!’ and ‘Why migrate?’
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The Team
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