A TV Panel of Caterpillars

“So, let me add that Christianity is, and always has been, and always will be, not just essentially a religion of hope, but in itself, the most stupendous hope the world has ever known. Only Incarnate god would have dared to hold out to us all, mere men and women of every sort and condition, sweet Mongols and pundits and professors and beauty queens, the sick and the well, the stupid and the clever, those who stumble equally with those who lend an arm, whoever and whatever we may be, a hope of being involved in a destiny set in eternity and encompassing the universe. Imagine telling caterpillars that they are destined to become butterflies . . . Carrying the image further, I imagine a TV panel of caterpillars discussing the implications of the prophecy that they were destined to become butterflies, with one of them, the genus Popilio Soperino, insisting that what the prophecy really signifies is that all caterpillars should join the Labour Party” (Malcolm Muggeridge, Christ and the Media, pp. 44-45).