“In an earlier day, as we have seen, the American Dream stood for visions of a civil, just, religious, and generous American community. Katharine Lee Bates caught the vision in her lines:
America! America! May God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness and every gain divine!
Some Americans still think that such a world is possible, but in recent years the American Dream more often stands for certain symbols if personal prosperity. Today the magnetic “good life,” out there in the future, includes a four-bedroom house in suburbia, at least two-late model cars, four weeks vacation, the toys to go with it, and an income adequate for the payments…
Life isn’t found in posessions? Can we imagine a more revolutionary outlook for an American?”
Bruce L. Shelley in The Gospel and the American Dream (Portland: Multnomah, 1989) 121, 124.
“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus in Luke 12:15