Being a SF reader (Science Fiction for those not in the know) I especially enjoy books that are full of quick, thought provoking short stories of what if? As many of you can attest, I've incorporated the ideas from some of these in bulletins. and truth be told many of them (Why Johnny Can't Speed for instance) I read as a very young kid and still recommend to my friends now and then.

I remembered one in particular this past week. We are being barraged with election sound bites, and one candidate was accused of supporting the death penalty. I think this was supposed to be a bad thing, but for those who also support it that message intention backfires. Kind of like saying "Why, my opponent would actually cut your taxes!" Not the kind of thing you expect.

In any case I once read a story about a man, a biochemist, who discovered a way to stop the aging process. He had, in effect, invented immortality. Without anyone to test it on. he tested it on himself- and it worked. Rather than tell others about it, he decided to wait and see how things turned out. After all, if it worked he had plenty of time.

As he stayed young. His friends got older and older. And with each passing day he became very smug. Eventually he decided he wanted a younger wife, because he couldn't reverse aging he could only stop it. His wife was now old and he thought he'd go get a new one, and give her the treatment. So he bumped off his wife. And like many criminals, he got caught. But he wasn't worried. What would he get. 40 years? He would just wait it out and then go back and start again. Since time was no longer his enemy, such a sentence couldn't touch him.

And this is what he told the judge, as he sat there smiling. Everyone thought he was quite clever and couldn't imagine how the judge could punish him. In the place he lived in. there was no death penalty, so what did he have to worry about? They would all be dead and dust and he would live on and on. So do your worst, he challenged the judge.

In truth, many folks live this very way. They don't care about others and they hay e pretty good lives. Day by day, as they build up fortune and fame, they become very smug. Bad things don't happen to them and they don't worry about any old God who might someday call them into judgment. They sometimes delight in mocking God, and revel in doing things they know would anger him. As the prophet says, they call good evil and evil good. They almost seem to put the challenge to God - do your worst. You can't stop me. Some people admire them and think they are quite clever.

The judge did the right thing, of course. The sentence wasn't 40 years. Because the man was selfish, because the man was unrepentant, because the man cared nothing for others, the sentence was life in prison, without chance of parole.

The funny thing is, when I stand before God I'm HOPING for a life sentence! It's the death penalty (which God supports!) we ought to worry about.

Randy