I emailed the story of the prodigal son to a non-Christian friend once because it was relevant to an earlier conversation we had. I must admit, I was not fully ready for his response:
Sounds like if there was a living wage standard in place – for struggling farm workers – there would be no need to return to the father, who feasts on fattened calves during a “severe famine.” That’s rather poor taste. Really, the system is designed to keep the prodigal son poor, underpaid, hungry while flaunting the fattened calf in his face.
I couldn’t leave it at that. I wrote back:
Besides being mistaken about the facts of the story itself (the famine was in a “far country”), I’m not sure a living wage standard is the answer for this guy. His character flaws are glaring, most notably his desire for his dad to just hurry up and die already so he can have the inheritance, and his “reckless living.” I’m just not sure if $15/hr is what he really needs. Thank God he has a gracious father who doesn’t hold these types of things against him.
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