29 Sermon Illustrations on Innocence

Concerning being "as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves". The world looks down on meekness and innocence (Nietzsche & Darwin) but Jesus exalts it. But this does not make Christians slaves. Companies and individuals (examples given) can have concern for others and still be "shrewd" or successful. Waste Management Corp. is one such company. Some Chicago woman got prostitutes out of their neighborhood by carrying baseball bats on their shoulders; they told the police they were going to play baseball (at midnight). Ethics requires thought and planning for the long haul.

Dale Galloway tells a story in "Dream a New Dream" about a small boy.

Little Chad was a shy, quiet young fella. One day he came home and told his mother, he'd like to make a valentine for everyone in his class. Her heart sank. She thought, "I wish he wouldn't do that!" because she had watched the children when they walked home from school. Her Chad was always behind them. They laughed and hung on to each other and talked to each other. But Chad was never included. Nevertheless, she decided she would go along with her son. So she purchased the paper and glue and crayons. For three whole weeks, night after night, Chad painstakingly made thirty-five valentines.

Valentine's Day dawned, and Chad was beside himself with excitement! He carefully stacked them up, put them in a bag, and bolted out the door. His mom decided to bake him his favorite cookies and serve them up warm and nice with a cool glass of milk when he came home from school. She just knew he would be disappointed...maybe that would ease the pain a little. It hurt her to think that he wouldn't get many valentines -- maybe none at all.

That afternoon she had the cookies and milk on the table. When she heard the children outside she looked out the window. Sure enough here they came, laughing and having the best time. And, as always, there was Chad in the rear. He walked a little faster than usual. She fully expected him to burst into tears as soon as he got inside. His arms were empty, she noticed, and when the door opened she choked back the tears. "Mommy has some warm cookies and milk for you."

But he hardly heard her words. He just marched right on by, his face aglow, and all he could say was: "Not a one... not a one." Her heart sank.

And then he added, "I didn't forget a one, not a single one!"

Stories For The Heart

Alice Gray, Multnomah, p. 65.

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Also atributed to Dale Galloway

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So it is when God is in control of the servant's mind. We realize as never before that life's greatest joy is to give His love away -- a thought that brings to mind the saying:

It isn't a song until it's sung.

It isn't a bell until it's rung.

It isn't love until it's given away!

For those of us who are parents of children with profound mental disabilities, one nagging question often lingers in our consciousness: What will happen to our child when we die?

We know that so long as we are living, our child will be loved and nurtured with the greatest of care. Once we are gone, however, our child will be dependent on those whose care, while well-intentioned, could never match that of a parent’s love.

So, we do our best not to worry about the future. We make financial plans as best we can, and make sure that our life insurance is current. We remind the siblings that one day they may be called on to be a caregiver to our special needs child. And we pray.

As a Christian and a pastor, another question lingers: What will happen to my profoundly mentally disabled child when she dies?

The question of accountability is one that Christians in general and Baptists in particular have debated for centuries. In recent years the phrase “age of accountability” has given way to the more appropriately termed “state of accountability.” This change makes room for those of all ages with childlike cognitive ability. The truth is that the Bible has very little to say about what becomes of the souls of infants and children who die and even less to say about what becomes of the souls of the mentally disabled.

Some Baptists have appealed to the natural innocence of children and the mentally disabled as grounds for their entrance into heaven. In my opinion, there are two fundamental problems with that view.

First, our experience with even very young children is that they sin. They lie. They steal. They have unjustified anger. In short, they behave like their parents.

The second, and more significant problem with the innocence view, is that it would seem to come in conflict with Scripture. In Romans 5:12 the apostle Paul writes, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

Many Baptists have historically affirmed the concept of imputed sin. The idea is that all humanity is guilty because of our relationship with our federal head, Adam. In fact, some of the oldest Baptist confessions included overt affirmations of this doctrine. The first president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, J.P. Boyce, affirmed the doctrine of imputed sin.

Boyce wrote: “ ... at the very moment of birth, the presence and possession of such a nature shows that even the infant sons of Adam are born under all the penalties which befell their ancestor in the day of his sin. Actual transgression subsequently adds new guilt to guilt already existing, but does not substitute a state of guilt for one of innocence.”

So, if children and the mentally disabled are not naturally innocent but go to heaven when they die -- and every Baptist I know believes that they do -- what is the basis for such salvation? Many Baptists throughout our history have based the belief in the salvation of children and the mentally disabled on the mercy of God.

As Charles Spurgeon wrote, any other belief would be “utterly inconsistent with the known character of the Lord Jesus Christ.” We know that it was the Lord who said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven.”

The answer that has been most satisfactory to me, the father of a profoundly mentally disabled child, is that those who die outside of the state of accountability go to heaven based on the election, redemption, regeneration and mercy provided by God in the saving work of Jesus Christ.

In short, I am much more confident of God’s mercy than I am of my children’s innocence. I know this because I know their dad, and he is a sinner in need of grace.

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Keith Sanders is pastor of First Baptist Church in Keller, Texas. This article first appeared in the Southern Baptist TEXAN (www.texanonline.net), newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Los Angeles County (California) deputies mistook Ray Nugent, for his fraternal twin brother, Jay, a federal fugitive wanted on bank robbery charges.

County supervisors are expected to approve a $150,000 settlement for Nugent, who spent 13 days in jail after being mistakenly identified as his fraternal twin brother, a federal fugitive suspected and bank robber.

"It was an unfortunate mistake," principal Deputy County Counsel Roger Granbo told a local newspaper. "This was a very unusual case in which the FBI was looking for this guy, and we had his twin brother in custody." Granbo said that "once the Sheriff's Department confirmed he was not the person wanted in the warrant, it took them four days to release him, and that's why we settled the case."

"I never really got upset with my brother," Nugent said. "Anybody can see that we don't look alike. What really got me upset was that they made me a criminal because of what my twin brother did. They said, if I have a twin brother who did that, I must be like him too. It's that mentality that disturbs me." ["Good, evil twin: jail mix-up"; MSNBC/KNBC Channel 4 Los Angeles, November 30, 1999 at http://www.msnbc.com/local/knbc/275230.asp on the Internet.]

Comments: When we come before the Judge of judges none of God's deputies will mistake the sheep from the goats.

No one will stand in the wrong line due to a bureaucratic error; no representative of heaven will appear before reporters to say, "It was an unfortunate mistake."

And, praise be to God, no one will ever find us guilty by association. Just because we have brothers and sisters who've never been bathed in the precious blood of the Lamb, no will ever say to those who have, "If they aren't then must not be either."

We are in the hands of Almighty God whose Book of Life is written without error and whose Book of the Dead will clearly separate all goats from every sheep.

Source/Attribution: John Gillmartin

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A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the Doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."

Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctors described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.

"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away. Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live - and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.

David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements. Diana remembers, "I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn't listen, I couldn't listen." I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"

As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure. But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw,' the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.

There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later -- though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero -- Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted. Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She shows no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more -- but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.

One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?" Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."

Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?" Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet, it smells like rain." Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."

Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children. Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

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Q: I grew up hearing about the "age of accountability." What is the biblical basis for that principle?

- Randy Bishop, Lombard, Illinois

A: This term refers to the time when individuals become mature enough to be morally responsible for their acts and consciously responsive to God's grace. The term is not found in the Bible, but (like worshiping on Sunday) it is inferred from various Scriptures that seem to speak to the early spiritual consciousness of children and their accountability before God.

Deuteronomy 1:37-40 speaks of God's judgment on the children of Israel who were excluded from the Promised Land because of their rebellion. In this context the Lord says: "And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad - they will enter the land" (NIV). This does not mean that these children were innocent; they were included in the provision God made for the Day of Atonement. But their level of accountability was directly related to their moral awareness. We gain further insight into how God deals with children through the example of the young boy Samuel. When the Lord first speaks to him, he mistakes the voice of God for that of Eli for, we are told, "Samuel did not yet know the Lord" (1 Sam. 3:7). With Jeremiah, God's call came even before he was born, but his response was after he had grown to become an understanding child (Jer. 1:4-7). In the New Testament, we are told that Jesus himself "grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52).

Some Christians have based their teaching about the age of accountability on Jesus' encounter with the teachers of the Law when he was 12 years old. Doubtless, this was an important moment in Jesus' development, perhaps his bar mitzvah when, as a Jewish young man, he would be recognized as fully responsible to participate in the worship of the community. But there is no reason to assume that 12 is the proper age of accountability for all young people any more than we should think that 30 is the requisite age for baptism.

Given the paucity of biblical references on the matter, Christians have differed on the fitting age for full initiation into the life of the church. For those who practice infant baptism, this is a question of when confirmation and first Communion should be received. Thomas Aquinas thought that this experience should be postponed until "the age of discretion," which the Council of Trent located between the ages of 7 and 12. Puritans required children baptized in infancy to "own the covenant" at an "accountable age" and generally forbade admitting children to Communion before the age of 14. The Book of Common Prayer requires baptized infants to be instructed in the Christian faith as soon as they "shall be able to learn."

For those who hold that baptism should be reserved for believers only, the "age of accountability" is important for determining when one is capable of truly repenting and embracing Christ in wholehearted discipleship. Historically, most churches that practice believers' baptism have emphasized the adult character of this decision, making baptism a postpuberty rite. In some baptistic circles, however, the age for baptism has steadily declined so that many churches are practicing a kind of "toddler baptism" with little theological or biblical warrant.

The "age of accountability" raises several important spiritual and pastoral concerns: First, we should not impose an arbitrary "age of accountability." God works sovereignly in the lives of all persons made in his image. Parents and pastors should be sensitive and prayerful in dealing with each child individually, encouraging every evident "step toward Jesus," while never manipulating for premature decisions.

Second, children, no less than adults, are sinners in need of a Savior. The orthodox doctrine of original sin cannot be squared with the modern myth of infant innocence. While it is right to call children to faith and repentance in Christ, we should respect the mystery of how the Holy Spirit draws each child of God to the Father. Infants who die before the age of accountability are in the hands of a holy and loving God. The Bible nowhere teaches infant damnation, and we can believe that God's election of grace extends to those "who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word" (Westminster Confession, 10.3).

Third, we need to develop a proper theology of children. Regardless of the debate over infant baptism, the Bible teaches that the children of believing parents do stand in a special providential relationship to the people and promises of God (1 Cor. 7:14). John Tombes, a seventeenth-century Baptist, spoke of the privileged status of such children who are "born in the bosom of the church, of godly parents, who by prayers, instruction, and example, will undoubtedly educate them in the true faith of Christ."

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Timothy George is dean of Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, and senior adviser at Christianity Today.

Copyright © 1999 Christianity Today.

March 1, 1999 Vol. 43, No. 3, Page 62

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #3094]

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The following true story appears to be a remarkable instance in

which God miraculously preserved an innocent man.--D.V.M.:

The miracle occurred at Columbia, Miss., on February 7, 1894, when

Will Purvis, a 21-year-old farmer, was hanged. In Marion County in

1893, a secret band was terrorizing planters and Negroes. The men

called themselves White Caps and their latest crime was to horsewhip a

Negro who had left a widow's farm to work for Jim and Will Buckley for

more money than the widow could afford to pay. The Negro recognized

some of his torturers, and the Buckleys announced that they would

report the names to the grand jury.

The White Caps threatened the Buckleys with death if they did, but

Jim and Will were brave and angry men. Unarmed, they went to town and

testified before the grand jury. The White Caps ambushed them on the

way home. Will Buckley dropped from his horse, shot to death; Jim

escaped. He said that two men had hidden behind a clump of bushes, and

that the one who fired the fatal shot was Will Purvis.

Will Purvis was from an old family for whom the nearby town of

Purvis was named. Three relatives and two neighbors testified that he

was at home when the murder was committed. His shotgun hadn't been

fired for months. But the jury doubted the testimony of relatives and

friends, and the verdict was "Guilty." Purvis was sentenced to be

hanged.

On the day of the hanging, 3000 men, women and children thronged

the scene at Court House Square. The Sheriff and his deputies,

experienced in their duties, had seen to it that the trap door and the

rope were carefully tested with sandbags, and the hangman's knot

expertly tied. Everything was ready. Will Purvis was led up the steps.

Deputy sheriffs tied his hands behind him, tied his ankles together.

One held the black hood ready. The Sheriff, who had arrested Will and

believed firmly in his guilt, asked grimly, "Would you like to say

anything?" In a clear, cool voice, Will declared, "I didn't do it.

There are men out there who could save me if they would."

Later he declared, "I heard the door creak, my body plunged down

and all went black. When I regained consciousness I heard somebody

say, 'Well, Bill, we've got to do it all over again.'" And the two

deputies dragged him like a sack of potatoes back up the steps to be

hanged again. As they reached for the rope, Rev. Sibley leaped to the

scaffold and cried to the crowd, "People of Marion County, the hand of

Providence has slipped the noose. Heaven has heard our prayers. What

do you say, friends? Shall Will Purvis be hanged again?" "No! No!"

they shouted. The miracle had changed their minds. They began to sing,

to shout, to praise the Lord.

Undoubtedly they would have rescued Will Purvis had the

executioners tried to go on with their work. So the bewildered and

frightened Sheriff took Will Purvis back to jail. The Governor, no

believer in miracles, ordered an inquiry. The investigators exonerated

the Sheriff; the preparations for the hanging, they reported, had been

thorough. They couldn't explain why it wasn't successful. But Will

Purvis had been sentenced to hang until dead, and the Governor,

believing him guilty, refused to commute the sentence.

Will's attorneys pleaded that he had been hanged once and that he

could not be hanged again until he was convicted in another trial.

However, three appeals were rejected by the State Supreme Court and

Will was sentenced to be hanged again on December 12, 1895, nearly two

years after his life had been spared. Most men would have lost their

minds under month after month of such torture. Will Purvis, praying

constantly, was sure that the Lord would save him again.

No new evidence was discovered, but public opinion turned. The

God-fearing citizens of the community were convinced that a sign from

Heaven had declared Will Purvis' innocence. And now the hand of man

took hold. Will was granted an extraordinary favor by officials of

Marion County. He was transferred from the strong Columbia jail to the

shabby little prison in his home town of Purvis, "so he could be near

his friends for the last weeks of his life. " Probably the officials

were not surprised when, a few days before Will's sentence was to be

carried out, a mob overpowered the guards at midnight and rescued him.

Not long ago, The Reader's Digest published an account of how a man

was hanged and didn't die. Incredible as it sounds, a similar

miscarriage of a death sentence occurred in England. John Lee, of the

village of Babbacombe, in Devon, was accused of the murder of a Mrs.

Keyes, who was found hacked to death in her bed. The evidence against

Lee was damning, but the prisoner repeatedly said to his guards, "I

did not do it. And they can never hang me for it." When the court

sentenced him to be strung up, Lee said: "The Lord knows I am

innocent. He will never permit me to be executed. He has told me not

to be afraid."

On the day of execution, crowds pressed against the fence that

enclosed the gallows. A dummy was hanged to test the rope. Judge

Marcus Kavanagh of Chicago, who published his investigation of the

case in 1932, says witnesses testified to him that the gallows worked

perfectly with the dummy. But when guards put the cap on Lee's head

and pulled the lever, the trap failed to fall. A warden took the

condemned man's place on the trap door. When the lever was pulled, the

warden fell through and broke his leg.

Lee was returned to his cell. They tried the dummy again, and it

obediently fell through the trap. Then Lee was brought back for a

second attempt to hang him. Again the trap door wouldn't work. Now the

frightened sheriff telegraphed the Home Secretary for instructions.

The reply came: "Proceed with the execution." By this time, the mob

outside the jail was indignant. They thought the whole thing should be

called off. But the Home Secretary's orders must be obeyed.

Four successful trials were made with the dummy. Then Lee was put

on the trap once more, and the sheriff himself pulled the lever. He

pulled it again and again. Lee fainted and was carried back to his

cell--still unhanged. On the following day, a telegram came from the

Home Secretary: "The death sentence of John Lee is commuted."

And Lee? Later, his life sentence was also commuted. He came out of

prison, married, and turned evangelist, preaching faith in God for the

rest of his days. --Anthony Abbott, Reader's Digest, December, 1945

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and

lets the future in.

- Graham Greene, { The Power and the Glory}

A defendant was on trial for murder in Philadelphia. There was strong evidence indicating guilt, but there was no corpse.

In the defense's closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all," the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. "Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom."

He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked on eagerly. A minute passed. Nothing happened.

Finally the lawyer said, "Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all looked on with anticipation. I, therefore, put it to you that there is reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty."

The jury, clearly confused, retired to deliberate. A few minutes later, the jury returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty.

"But how?" inquired the lawyer. "You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door."

Answered the jury foreman: "Oh, we did look. But your client didn't."

A man was beaten to death by an undetermined number of people after the car he had been riding in hit and injured a 2-year-old. According to reports, the June 19 attack on David Morales in Austin, Texas, occurred when he went to check on the child. Ironically, the child was not seriously injured.

More than a year ago, police arrested three members of the Duke University lacrosse team after they were accused of raping an exotic dancer at a fraternity party. Many members of the Duke faculty circulated a letter condemning the accused students and asked that they be suspended. Ironically, all charges against the players were eventually dropped because there was no evidence that a sexual assault ever took place. The accuser, it seems, was less than truthful.

What do the recent beating in Austin and the Duke rape case have in common? In both cases individuals jumped to conclusions and hurdled over the concept of presumed innocent until proven guilty -- a concept that is foundational to our legal system.

Jumping to a conclusion is an emotional reaction to a presumed reality. It does not take into account facts and ignores context. Both of which are critical if one is interested in arriving at the truth of any given situation.

The people who beat David Morales to death in Austin reacted emotionally, irrationally and immediately to a tragic accident. In their rage, they not only failed to check on the child’s condition but they also attacked and killed an innocent man.

The professors at Duke who circulated the condemning letter were certain of the lacrosse players’ guilt. Their politically correct rage made them deaf and blind to any evidence that might contradict their conclusion. The result: These learned individuals were ready to throw innocent individuals under the jail.

The Duke case proves that education does not render one immune from the propensity of jumping to a conclusion. Every time we are exposed to information, the temptation to draw a conclusion without considering facts and context is ever present.

Jumping to conclusions seems to have become a national pastime. News organizations routinely publish polls based on what people “think” or “feel” about certain events or situations. The flaw in these surveys is that too many people participating simply have no idea what they are talking about. They are only reacting, usually emotionally, without the benefit of a full range of facts or context.

While innocent until proven guilty is a legal maxim that is applied to a court of law, it would a wise standard to adopt for life. The next time you are privy to a bit of negative gossip about someone, don’t just jump to any old conclusion. Take some time to examine the broader context of the situation and see if any other facts emerge.

Here is an example. Jesus told the story of a widow who gave two cents to the temple treasury. Hearing the first part of the story, you might think: “The widow who lives down the street only gave two cents to the treasury today.” You can jump to the conclusion that the widow is stingy and cheap or you can wait until you have more facts and some context.

If you withhold judgment and are patient, you eventually would learn that the widow gave all the money that she had to live on. In fact, some of the biggest contributors to the temple treasury are the stingiest because they give on a tiny portion of their wealth. In comparison, the widow is probably the most significant contributor.

To avoid the temptation of jumping to a conclusion, remember that a person should be presumed innocent until he or she has been proven guilty. Additionally, nothing is meaningful without a context and all the facts are needed in order to have a complete picture of reality.

If the aforementioned had been applied in Austin, Texas, and Durham, North Carolina, the outcomes could have been so different. Instead, people jumped to conclusions based on emotion and bias. As a result one man is dead and the reputations of many are in tatters.

Jumping to conclusions has consequences, sometimes life-altering ones. “For lack of wood the fire goes out,” Solomon wrote. “And where there is no whisperer (gossiper) contention quiets down.” Wise words to remember the next time you are tempted to jump to a conclusion.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #21059]

Humorous story on death and funerals:

Alexander M. Sanders, Jr., is the Chief Judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals. He told this story to the Graduating Class of the Univ. of South Carolina on May 8, 1992. His daughter Zoe was a member of the class.

When his daughter Zoe was three years old, Sanders came home from work to find a crisis in his household. Zoe's pet turtle had died, and she was crying as if her heart would break. Her mother, having coped with the problems of the home all day, turned that one over to the father to solve. At the time, he was practicing law and serving in the Legislature. Frankly, he felt it was a problem a lawyer politician was not up to solving.

The mysteries of life and death are difficult, if not impossible for the mature mind to fathom. The task of explaining them to a three-year-old was completely beyond either his confidence or experience. But he tried.

First, he made the obvious argument that they would get another turtle to replace the one that died. They would go down to the pet store and buy another one just like the one who was gone.

He got nowhere with that argument. Even at three years old, Zoe was smart enough to know that there is a certain non-transferability about living things. A turtle is not a toy. There's really no such thing as getting another one just like the one who died. Zoe's tears continued.

Finally, in desperation, he said, "I tell you what, we'll have a funeral for the turtle." Being three years old, she didn't know what a funeral was. So, he quickly proceeded to expand on the theme. He was employing the typical lawyer's tactic of diversion. If you can't win on the issue at hand, take off on something completely beside the point.

"A funeral," he explained, "is a great festival in honor of the turtle." Well, she didn't know what a festival was either. So he quickly proceeded to explain further. And, as he did so, he began to depart from the lawyer's tactic of diversion and engage in the politician's prerogative of outright lying. "Actually," he said, "a funeral is like a birthday party. We'll have ice cream and cake and lemonade and balloons, and all the children in the neighborhood will come over to our house to play." "All because the turtle has died."

Success at last! Zoe's tears began to dry, and she quickly returned to her happy, smiling self again. Now, happy. Then joyous at the prospect of all that was going to happen. All because the turtle had died.

Then, an utterly unforeseen thing happened. They looked down, and lo and behold, the turtle began to move. He was not dead after all. In a matter of seconds, he was crawling away as lively as ever. For once, a politician was struck dumb for words. He just didn't know what to say. But Zoe appraised the situation perfectly. With all the innocence of her tender years, she looked up at her father and said,

"Daddy, LET'S KILL IT."

Death need not be employed to assure an Easter party. For today, at this springtime of the year....

"The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing is come,

and the voice of the turtle [dove] is heard in our land"

(Song of Solomon 2:12, KJV)

________

[Printed in "Vital Speeches," October 1992]

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it - his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toy, his uncle's watch. Deny him these once, and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He is, in fact, dirty. He has no morals, no knowledge, no skills. This means that all children - not just certain children - are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free reign to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal - a thief, a killer, or a rapist.

______________

R. Scott Richards, Myths the World Taught Me, pp. 38-39

Contributed by: Joel Smith

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