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"What is the American Dream?"

This question was presented to a number of well known people in our American media by a Forbes magazine column. Before I post any further on that article I would like to ask some of you to post what you think the American dream means to you.

Pastor Roger - That is a tough question to ask.  I want "One Nation under God".  Sad to say that this nation is not like that. Our nation was founded on Trusting in God and the nation now trust more in the material things than in God.

That's my take on it.

An excellent answer sister. Thank you for taking the time to answer.

Yesterday...I received a phone call and was told "Your dream has come true"...Telemarketers can be so enthusiastic and often if they get the right person...'SOLD'..Anyway...the telemarker told me I was on "the List" for a $25,000.
Sweepstakes...I asked the telemarketer what he thought a dream come true is..and he told me..to get a better job...I laughed...I told him my dream has come true and he asked me if I had won money...I told him the greatest dream to come true is to know where you are going...and to know you are booked to go there with no cancelation...and he asked me where was I going and I told him...I am heaven bound...this world does not have anything that can keep me from heaven because of what Jesus did for me...and the telemarketer asked me if there really is a heaven...a God who would put people in hell...So...I told him it is true and God will do as He will with creation as everything is His..everything that has breathe..life..all the lands of this earth are His...That God once walked with Adam on this earth and because of sin..God turned from Adam and cast Him out of Eden...but...God has mercy on His creation and with great love...sent His Son, Jesus to die for our sin that we could be reconcilled with the father...The telemarketer told me he had heard this and it was too simple to be true...can you imagine...too simple to be true...There was once an american dream..that led to Eternal reality...and that being a country founded on people who loved God and honored Him....who bravely told of their faith in God and would not tolerate evil...this was the American dream...Now...the American dream has become a living nightmare...and the nation that was once founded on God cast His very word out of the sight of those who are offended...One nation under God is becoming one nation falling without God...

Anyway..as I hung up the phone...IIprayed this telemarketer would accept  the truth that is simple and with power that will set all men free and give not the American dream but eternal reality...

Amen and Amen!

It is evident that those who know Jesus as our Saviour definitely understand ... that they know ... what the true hope and dream is. Both answers so far are excellent answers and I believe are right on the mark.

Let me post the article now before anymore is said.

Thomas Jefferson's nightmare


With Independence Day fast approaching, I was reflecting upon a Forbes magazine column, in which many of us celebrities and other notables were asked to answer the question, "What is the American Dream?"

How would you answer the question?

How some others answered

Tom Brokaw replied, "To me, the American Dream is the freedom to choose to live how and where you want, to determine how you'll be governed and to provide your children with even more choices than you had."

Kurt Russell believes, "…the American Dream has changed – now I believe it's a wish for freedom at no cost, an existence devoid of scarcity and free from judgment of any kind."

Condoleezza Rice, said, "The American Dream is being dealt with and considered on your own merits."

Oliver Stone threw in his thoughts, "The American Dream is a rigged, corporate-controlled monetary system, which encourages just enough market force and cash liquidity for a newcomer to achieve his vision of the American Dream – despite our Soviet-style corruption at the top, our maze of regulatory behaviors and the onerous dislocations of the military-industrial complex." What?!

Ted Turner said, "The American Dream is very similar to the dream of people all over the world who dare to dream of prosperity and a high-consumption lifestyle, a dream which has become very difficult if not impossible to sustain."

Donald Trump responded, "The American Dream is freedom, prosperity, peace – and liberty and justice for all."

In summary, for most responders, the American Dream is to get what you want, to be who you want to be or to do what you want to do. In almost every case, the dream is a selfish ambition intended for our personal benefit, but not necessarily given to us to help others.

Personally, I think it's much more meaningful than that – something I wanted to comment more about than Forbes allowed us the space.

Our founders' dream – the American dream

I believe the American dream is not something we've invented but inherited.

When our Founding Fathers created our country, Thomas Jefferson penned that dream in The Declaration of Independence,

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is so much more than fulfilling our own dreams, doing what we want and feeling good. It's about using our God-given potential to make a positive difference on this planet.

I used to think the American dream could be obtained through the accumulation of possessions, positions and prestige. The "truths self evident" to our founding fathers alluded me for too long.

Notice in the Declaration that life and liberty are coupled with happiness, not money, status or materialism. Why not the latter? Because they are fleeting and fluctuate, just like the stock market.

Thomas Jefferson's fear

Our founders didn't put their dreams or security in material abundance. George Washington had to borrow money to get to his own inauguration. Thomas Jefferson died $100,000 in debt. Some dream of material prosperity! Most of our founders lived modestly, were willing to share what they had and even contributed to government to build up other Americans.

In response to our founders' creation of America and their patriotic dream, Thomas Jefferson was concerned for future generations' preservation of it, "Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction." Wow – what a statement and warning!

Jefferson, as well as the other fathers, feared that we would forget what freedom was all about and stray toward selfish greed without morality and integrity. Has their fear not materialized in our day?

For too many, the American dream has indeed turned into Thomas Jefferson's nightmare, "material abundance without character," which he also warns, "is the path of destruction." If we are to avoid such an end, we need to reawaken our country from its slumber and its delusion that a surplus of stuff can purchase us life, liberty and happiness. If I can learn it, so can others.

Our national treasure

The one constant in life was our founders' security and is also the source of all things in the Declaration: "their Creator." Our founders trusted not in the supply but the Supplier to acquire life, liberty and happiness and encouraged us to do the same.

There's a verse in the Bible that summarizes it for me, "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy." God is our national treasure, buried in the sands of history and believed in universally by all America's founding fathers. And He can be our treasure too, if we only rediscover that He is still at the heart of our founders dream for this country.

When you've got God, you've got the gold – and all you need to achieve and experience the American Dream.

I read this commentary on July 2nd and decided to take my own oral "survey". Although it was far from being anything that would be considered an officially acceptable survey I received the results that I personally wanted, to see just how people viewed this subject. I took it a bit further and asked a few more questions. I asked people that I know from various churches and a number that do not go to any church at all. Other than the answers received here on the forum, I was really disappointed in the results I received and I'm positive that God would be also. Most people gave similar answers that were given in the article. Material things rated high in almost all answers. Second was the desire to do whatever they wanted to do and those things consisted of worldly things many of which are not fit to post or even to be repeated.

Yes, this nation was founded on Christian principles, Christian hopes and dreams. The dream of freedom to worship, the freedom to speak (including to be able to witness when and where ever we may be), the hope that this would be a nation that would continue in recognizing God as the most sovereign over all and a place for our children and children's children to be able to live a Godly life.

And ultimately to have eternal life.

Of all the countries in the world, we and we only have any need to create artificially the patriotism which is the birthright of other nations. Into the hearts of six millions of foreign-born men less than half of them naturalized we must infuse that quality of devotion which will make them place the good of the state above their personal good.

America is a permanent protest against the rest of the world, and particularly against Europe. This faith, like all faiths, does not engender a passive attitude toward the rest of the world. Americans are tolerant of all creeds and to all convictions, but few people express their distrust and indignation with more vigor whenever some of their beliefs are offended. Few people are more conscious that ideas may be more destructive than guns.

Curiously enough, in a country where material changes are extraordinarily rapid, this moral and political frame has the stability of dogma. For instance, America is the only country in the world which pretends to listen to the teaching of its founders as if they were still alive. Political battles of today are fought with arguments based on the speeches of writings of men dead over a century ago. Most Americans behave, in fact, as if men like Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and many others could be called up on the phone for advice. Their wisdom is considered as eternal as that of the Biblical prophets. :'(

If America continues the path she has chosen. I fear destruction of the America, and the American Dream isn't far away.

Excellent quotes, brother and very fitting of this subject. They were fitting in 1916 and they are even more appropriate now.

One nation under God...not above God..How I pray our nation would come to learn this...

Amen!

Are you asking what my dream is, or what I believe most Americans dreams are? I believe that most Americans dream of winning the lottery. My dream is that Jesus will come soon. If not then my second dream is that I will become more like Him and that others will see Jesus in me. God said not to seek riches so I don't think winning the lottery is part of His plan for me.

Yes, winning the lottery, becoming rich, has become the American Dream for many. It was not "The American Dream" that this nation was founded on and I agree with you that it is not the dream that God would have us to have. As Christians our riches are not of this world. Our riches are those that we lay up in heaven ... the crowns that are spoken of in the Bible, our own soul given to Him freely, other souls that are led to Him  ...  these are the things that we should be concerned with.

I have been thinking about this topic ever since it was posted and I agree in some fashion it is a hard question to answer and in other ways it is very simply put, in my living "The America Dream", is freedom in believing and trusting in God.  We have harder times coming in the United States, as many have put material things____having it all and living the good life without regard for anyone else, before God. Few real Christians are left among the many, few that humble themselves before the Lord. While for a time yet we will have choices in the religion we practice the time is coming when here in the US, preachers will be risking and losing their lives over preaching the words of the Bible, and the wonderful news of our dear Lord and Savior.
I treasure my belief and faith in God. That above all. Although, I would like to have money to pay my own bills and small house of my own, but even if I had it I would trade it all back in a moments notice to be with God.

This is a very thought-provoking topic.  I believe the American Dream for most in this country is based on that which is superficial and monetary.  I will not pretend to have never desired wealth and worldly prosperity.  I thank the Lord He changed me and showed me what is truly important.  I now realize the most important aspects of life are intangible and priceless.   Family, love and health are much more important than material possessions. 

What good are millions if one's body is riddled with pain?  What good are millions in a life devoid of love of family and friends?  Most importantly, what good are millions without the love and the gift of salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

As Pastor Rogers said....our riches are in heaven.  When I see a beautiful mansion, I may briefly experience desire.  Then, I think of what awaits me in heaven, and I realize there is nothing here on earth that could even remotely compare.

This topic brings to mind one of my favorite scriptures.

Psa 84:10
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

The American dream is not being in therapy for stess or depression....where the inner child is grown up..