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The Little Red Hen and Welfare

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BY CONTRIBUTING WRITER, JEANNETTE PAULSON

You can use children’s stories to teach complicated but important truths about welfare. Take, for example, the hard-working Little Red Hen.

The Little Red Hen believes the proverb, “He who does not work shall not eat.” In the story, we see her heroically planting, tending, harvesting and preparing wheat all by herself. At the end, she and her chicks enjoy the warm bread.  The idle dog, cat and turkey  smell the fresh bread, but don’t receive a crumb.

Ask your child what would happen the next spring when it is again time to plow and sow.  Will the dog, cat and turkey sit idle? They will run for their hoe and get busy. The Bible says “The working man’s hunger drives him on.”

As a twist, let’s think of a different plot. Watch the Little Red Hen setting the steaming loaf on the table before her chicks. Suddenly the farmer bursts in.  Seeing the dog, cat and turkey drooling in the corner, he shouts, “Little Red Hen, give them their fair share.”  Reluctantly cutting the loaf in fourths, the Little Red Hen passes it out.

Now what do you think will happen in the spring?  The incentive to work has been destroyed. Soon the farm will be impoverished. When the farmer cannot satisfy everyone, there will be protests.

Now let us say that the Little Red Hen represents the family and the farmer is the government.

R.J. Rushdoony says,

The family is a God-ordained institution and one of its basic functions is welfare.

Scripture teaches this.  Jesus did not want any gifts from people who were neglecting to care for their parents. And Paul says that one who does not provide for his own household is worse than an unbeliever.  To new believers he says they should steal no more but work with their hands to give to those in need.

Further, let us learn from history.   Rushdoony says,

No system devised by man or the state can ever replace the family in its efficiency and success in creating social stability and strength while supporting and educating virtually all the children of the land.  [In contrast, the]  state system of welfare has in every age been productive of social disorder and delinquency.

By providing welfare, the state, God-like, promises to provide for all needs.  But it cannot. Then the disappointed pick up stones. The “welfare mobs” of Rome became increasingly difficult to satisfy. Because of this difficulty, emperors moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople and then split it also to reside in Ravenna.

Do these mobs sound eerily familiar? Holland, Greece, France, and the United States have these welfare mobs too.  

Rushdoony warns,

We are penalizing responsibility and subsidizing irresponsibility, and, in the process, inviting God’s judgment.

Greek demonstrators throw fire bombs at riot police during violent protests in Athens.Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

Use the Little Red Hen to teach your children that God has put the family in charge of welfare. Teach them to be content and hard-working. Teach them to fear God and be generous. You will bless all of society.

It is right that the Little Red Hen enjoy her steaming wheat bread with her chicks.   There are more hoes in the shed, and no reason why the dog, the cat and the turkey shouldn’t enjoy a steaming load of their own.

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