ROMANIAN PRISONER SUES GOD
ATHENS, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - A prisoner in a Romanian jail is suing God, Greek state television reported from Bucharest Tuesday.
"God received different material valuables from me, as well as prayers in exchange for promises of a better life. In reality, this did not happen - I found myself in the devil's hands," the plaintiff said.
The convict is serving 20 years in the west Romanian city of Timisoara. He apparently blames God for the troubles in his life and wants God brought to account for failing to fulfill the commitments He undertook and for taking bribes.
The plaintiff said that when he had been baptized in childhood, he concluded a contract with God that had legal effect - God was supposed to protect him from evil.
The plaintiff said the Romanian Orthodox Church, which, according to him, directly represents God, should compensate him for the alleged God-inflicted damage.
In line with the law, the lawsuit was submitted to court. However, as the defendant is neither an individual nor a company, and is not subject to a civil court of law's jurisdiction, the case is unlikely to be heard regardless of how justified the plaintiff's demands may be, court officials said.
I love stories like this. I'm not sure why, but they always make me smile. I think of this episode of The Simpsons where Lisa is Joan of Arc and she is leading the French against the British and finally they capture her (Willy captures her declaring "I captured a little girl, I'm the greatest hero in British history!") and make her stand trial. At her trial Lisa (Joan) calls to witness g*d who is represented as a shaft of golden light streaming through a hole in the ceiling. As a disembodied voice g*d declares that he did in fact agree to let Joan (Lisa) triumph and right then Willy stands up and declares that g*d told him the same thing. Of course, the god-beam-disembodied-voice does this little back peddle about "I never thought you two would be in the same room ..." and then quickly the shaft of light disappears out the way it came through the roof.
Ah, if only we could bring omnipotent omnipresent entities to justice in our all too limited world. Wouldn't that be a change? How many suits would be heard? Its a little silly to think about, but I always wondered in the Catholic tradition how St. Peter at the gates could stand to hear so much crap. Think about all the deaths in the world on a daily basis. Now, filter for just Catholics and you've still got a huge number. I'm not even clear on the filtering for Catholics, but I think that g*d would maybe do this to cut down on the bulk. Who knows?
Speaking of death, ever see that Albert Brooks movie Defending Your Life? I liked that movie. I don't remember it so well these days, maybe I should rent it.
