A Baptist pastor, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi got together once a week
for coffee. One day, they were chatting and griping about their tough audiences
and one of them said: "If you think people are tough, you should try to preach to
bears." "What? Bears?" "Yes. Bears are really tough." One thing led to another and
the conversation came to a point where they made a bet to see who could convert
a bear to his own religion.
The first week, the Baptist pastor went out and when he came back, he had a big
claw mark across his face. The others asked: "How did it go?" "I saw the bear and
started to preach the Gospel to him. He didn't like it and took a wipe across my
face with his paw. But I quickly took out my holy water and sprayed on him. He
was thus baptized and he's now a deacon in our church."
The second week, the Catholic priest went out and when he came back he was on
crutches. "How did it go?" the others asked. "Well. I saw the bear and I started to
recite the catechism to him. He didn't like it and we started to wrestle. And we
were wrestling and, to tell you the truth, the bear was winning. Then I tripped
and fell backward. He was first on top of me, then both of us were rolling downhill
all the way to the bottom river and he ended up being baptized by immersion.
And he is now a member of our church."
The third week, the Jewish rabbi went out and he thought he would give it a go.
When he came back, he was in an ambulance. He was bruised all over, had every
bone broken in his body, and he was on life-support. The others asked "What
happened? How did it go?" "Do you have any idea what it is like to try to
circumcise one of those hairy beasts?"
