Did you know that Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis and one of the most important figures of the early 20th century was a teller of jokes? He was. In fact, way back in 1915 he told a joke about a minister who was summoned by a group of anxious relatives. They wanted him to extract a deathbed conversion from an atheistic and unrepentant insurance salesman.

The meeting between the minister and the insurance salesman took place, and the longer the meeting continued behind the hospital's closed doors, the more the family members took hope. When the door finally opened, however, the salesman had not been converted. However, the pastor went away with ample insurance to cover any eventuality. (1)

There was a time when so-called deathbed conversions were taken quite seriously. It was …