(A few years ago, I received a "spam" email containing a story about a parrot. It had a dogmatic Christian punchline, which I can no longer remember. I decided to re-write it and turn the theology on its head. I just discovered my version of the story in my files this week, and thought I'd pass it along.)
Once there was a little boy who was walking down the street and came upon a preacher who held a birdcage in his hand. In the cage was a beautiful parrot.
"What are you doing with that parrot?" asked the little boy.
"I'm going to turn it into a Christian preacher," said the preacher.
"I'm going to turn it into a Christian preacher," said the parrot.
"Hmmm," said the boy. "How are you going to do that?"
"I'm going to teach it to say 'Believe in the Lord Jesus as your personal savior and you shall be saved'", said the preacher.
"I'm going to teach it to say 'Believe in the Lord Jesus as your personal savior and you shall be saved'", said the parrot.
The boy thought for a moment and then asked the preacher, "What would you take for that parrot? Five dollars?"
"Make it ten," said the preacher.
"Make it ten," said the parrot.
The boy had just made ten dollars by taking care of his neighbors' pets while they were on vacation. He handed the preacher a ten dollar bill, and picked up the cage with the parrot.
"What are you going to do with the parrot?" asked the preacher.
"Set it free," said the boy as he opened the door of the birdcage.
"Set it free," said the parrot. "Set it free, set it free!" it squawked as it flew, joyfully flapping its wings into the distance. "Set it free, set it free, set it free!"
"Why did you do that?" asked the preacher.
"So that it would go preach the gospel of Jesus everywhere," said the boy, walking away with the empty birdcage.