The World Owes Me a Living?

The other day I saw on the screen one of Walt Disney’s comic cartoons. It was based on the old fable of the diligent ant and the slothful grasshopper. The grasshopper sang, “Oh, the world owes me a living!” Christianity would emphatically deny that the world owes anybody a living, but it would with equal emphasis avow that every man has a right to the opportunity of earning a living.

An economic or social order that denies this right is far from being Christian. As a son of the living God who owns all things every man is entitled to earn the use of a reasonable portion of his Father’s estate. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness promised by the American Constitution are not more than Christianity would seek for every man. Some say in these days that this hallowed document is being undermined.

But more truly might it be said that every act that seeks for our people security in the making of a living is in keeping with the spirit that produced the glorious promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”