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  %PRODIGAL SON ADDICT FATHER LEGAL LAW EVIL REJECT 930806

     And  when  he  had spent everything,  a  great famine
arose in that country, and he began to be in want.   So he
went  and  joined himself to one of the citizens  of  that
foreign   country,   who sent him into his fields to  feed
swine.   Thus, after joining  himself  to  prostitutes the
prodigal  son  joined  himself to a sinful  foreigner  who
raised pigs,  the source  of  pork which is an abomination
under the Old Testament Law, wherein joining in the latter
abomination requires greater penance than does the  former
abomination!  And the younger son would gladly have fed on
the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything.
But  when  he came to himself he said,  "How  many  of  my
father's  hired  servants have bread enough and to  spare,
but I perish here with hunger!  I  will arise and go to my
father,   and I will say to him,  'Father,  I  have sinned
against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be
called  your  son;  please treat me as one of  your  hired
servants.'"

     And he arose and came to his father's house and found
a  hired  maid in the yard  and  asked  her to inform  his
father  that he was repentant,  had returned and wanted  a
private conference with him.  At first the father refused,
but  on a third request made by the son through  the  maid
the  father  reluctantly consented to meet  in  the  front
yard.

     The father told the son to be quick in explaining why
he  had  come  back,  and that it had  better  be  a  good
explanation.   And the son said to him "Father,   I   have
sinned  against  heaven and before you;  I  am  no  longer
worthy  to  be called your son;  please treat me as one of
your hired servants,  such as the maid who brought you the
news of my return."  But the father said,  "Those are only
cheap words.   I  doubt that you are sincere,  considering
the   many  abominations  you  have  committed  with  many
prostitutes and with many pigs.   I have constantly had my
servants  kept track of you.   I  know all about  what you
thought  were your secret behaviors.   You  have  not  yet
engaged  in the penance required under the Law  of  Moses,
yet  you  come now insisting that I listen to  your  cheap
words!  Be gone!

     The  repentant  son  went away a second  time  to  do
penance under the Law of Moses.  He went to the temple and
asked  the  religious  leaders to supervise his  time  and
program of  penance.  When his time and program of penance
was  completed he returned to his father's house and asked
the  maid  to tell his father that his repentant  prodigal
son had completed his time and program of penance, and now
begged  humbly to have a conference with him  about  being
accepted as a lowly hired hand.  He gave the maid a letter
from   the  religious  leaders  certifying  that  he   had
completed his  time and program of penance,  and asked her
to show the certification to his father.

     Only  after  a third request by the  son  transmitted
through  the hired maid did the father relent and called a
family business conference to examine his son to determine
whether he was truly repentant and worthy of acceptance as
a hired hand.  The father chaired the conference and after
extensive  questioning and discussion  the vote was  seven
to six  to give the son a chance to prove himself during a
seven year period of probation as a most menial hired hand
with the associated symbolic  bare essentials of clothing,
shelter  and  food.  The elder son and father  both  voted
against giving the prodigal son a chance to prove himself.

     During  the  last  day of the  seventh  year  of  the
probationary period,  the prodigal son failed to carry out
fully one unusually burdensome task to the satisfaction of
the elder son who was the Vice President,  and the younger
son was immediately, unceremoniously  and permanently sent
away   from  the  family  for  failing  to  complete   his
probationary  period  as a menial hired hand  in  a  fully
satisfactory way.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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