Beware the Cluck that Comes with a Waddle

A parable showing how to reconcile the conflict between your identity and your message.

Deceitful Duck Logic

duck or chicken?

There once was a duck who thought ill of chickens.  She gathered all the ducks together and convinced them chickens were indeed very evil – so evil in fact, they may be in danger of being wiped out of existence by the Farmer.  They decided to warn the chickens, and teach them how to be more like ducks.  Many chickens were persuaded to try out of fear.  The ducks convinced them the Farmer really loved ducks more and the only way to avoid being eaten was to become a duck.  Sadly, the truth was much different.  The farmer kept the chickens because they produced eggs, and did not kill and eat them.  There was plenty of evidence to support this, yet the ducks told the chickens their eggs were not important, but the most urgent thing they needed to learn was how to walk like a duck.

Not all the chickens were so easily swayed however, and some tried at times to tell the ducks they were very strange for saying such things.  In fact, most of the chickens did not accept the duck’s ideas and would not invite them to the farm socials.  While the ducks were the first ones to cause the rift in this relationship by accusing chickens of being a lower life form, they simultaneously wanted to be accepted by the chickens in some activities.  Since they knew the chickens had been turned off by their duckness, they began to fluff their feathers more and learned how to cluck like chickens.  Eventually the efforts paid off, and the chickens began to accept them and include them in their chicken parties.  If any chicken pointed to them and cried..”Don’t be tricked!! That is not a chicken, but in fact.. a duck!”  The other chickens would turn on them and peck them until they decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

The disguise worked so well, the ducks decided to use it when inviting the chickens to their own meetings.  After all, if chickens knew they were actually ducks, no one would come to hear what they had to say.  The meetings, designed to illustrate why chickens were evil were ironically presented as meetings by chickens and for chickens.  After being mesmerized by the initial illusion, and believing the accusations against their own kind, many chickens were not at all alarmed when the feathers settled down into an oily matte and the clucking turned back into quacking.  In fact, some never even noticed the transfer from chicken back to duck and came to see themselves as a restored chicken – going back to the way chickens were always meant to be… a duck.

So.. if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.. it must be in reality, the essence of true chicken.

Short Video Question for SDA’s

Interesting set of videos for more information:

John Ankerberg show interviews Walter Martin

(must scroll down page for the series of videos)

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