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katieproctorbooks's review
5.0
I listened the audio of this with my husband on one sitting on a road trip. It is SO good. Mayfield pours so much of her own life experience with refugees and intense research into the history of America to explain how we’ve been mislead about the American Dream and how that dream has not been accessible to many different groups of people. I found it really thought-provoking and from a Christian standpoint, biblically informed and Jesus-centered.
drbobcornwall's review
4.0
For many Americans the American Dream is well beyond reach. Thus, one could call it a myth. That is the premise of this book by D.L. Mayfield, an evangelical committed to social justice. She has a heart for others, though she struggles with her own identity and privilege as an educated, might we say "woke" progressive, white woman. She lives among persons of color, teaches English to immigrant women, and shares life with them. But she knows from whence she comes.
If you're looking for a quick pick me up to read in the midst of a pandemic, this might not be your best choice. This is a very personal narrative of encountering the other and be changed by it. Thus, for the most part, Mayfield struggles to be happy. At least that is the impression she leaves. She worries about her neighbors whom she's encountered in Minneapolis and her homeland of Portland, Oregon. The latter is a predominantly white major city, which has ongoing racial tensions. Portland's infamous weirdness is part of the problem she describes here.
The book will prove challenging but likely will open one's eyes to the other.
If you're looking for a quick pick me up to read in the midst of a pandemic, this might not be your best choice. This is a very personal narrative of encountering the other and be changed by it. Thus, for the most part, Mayfield struggles to be happy. At least that is the impression she leaves. She worries about her neighbors whom she's encountered in Minneapolis and her homeland of Portland, Oregon. The latter is a predominantly white major city, which has ongoing racial tensions. Portland's infamous weirdness is part of the problem she describes here.
The book will prove challenging but likely will open one's eyes to the other.
michael_kelleher's review
5.0
A lament. And a call for hope.
This book touches on the several ways that the ”American Dream” has failed many and the ways that our Christian communities have allowed the promises of that dream to supplant mutual care and human thriving that Jesus calls us to. The lament of this book is built upon the human dignity of every person and the many calls from Scripture to the Believer’s duty to care for the orphan, the widow, the poor, the stranger. This call has gone widely unheeded by American Christians. The “least of these” are pushed to the margins while our culture, even many of our Christian communities, chase the American dream of prosperity.
It is a call for Christians to enter into the suffering of our fellow men and women. It is a call to live out our faith in action, not hold it neatly on Sunday morning and pretend that the gospel makes no demands of us to live in sometimes radically sacrificial ways in order to care for our neighbor. That is not an easy message to bring to people who are happy with being comfortable. Even for one who is willing to challenge myself, it pinches, and I have to ask myself what is God asking of me?
The epilogue that discusses “how to live in empire” offers hope, & the idea of subsidiarity: that we work to see, hear, and love the marginalized in our own local communities and treat them with the dignity God created them.
This book touches on the several ways that the ”American Dream” has failed many and the ways that our Christian communities have allowed the promises of that dream to supplant mutual care and human thriving that Jesus calls us to. The lament of this book is built upon the human dignity of every person and the many calls from Scripture to the Believer’s duty to care for the orphan, the widow, the poor, the stranger. This call has gone widely unheeded by American Christians. The “least of these” are pushed to the margins while our culture, even many of our Christian communities, chase the American dream of prosperity.
It is a call for Christians to enter into the suffering of our fellow men and women. It is a call to live out our faith in action, not hold it neatly on Sunday morning and pretend that the gospel makes no demands of us to live in sometimes radically sacrificial ways in order to care for our neighbor. That is not an easy message to bring to people who are happy with being comfortable. Even for one who is willing to challenge myself, it pinches, and I have to ask myself what is God asking of me?
The epilogue that discusses “how to live in empire” offers hope, & the idea of subsidiarity: that we work to see, hear, and love the marginalized in our own local communities and treat them with the dignity God created them.
marcy_kelleher's review
5.0
A lament. And a call for hope.
This book touches on the several ways that the ”American Dream” has failed many and the ways that our Christian communities have allowed the promises of that dream to supplant mutual care and human thriving that Jesus calls us to. The lament of this book is built upon the human dignity of every person and the many calls from Scripture to the Believer’s duty to care for the orphan, the widow, the poor, the stranger. This call has gone widely unheeded by American Christians. The “least of these” are pushed to the margins while our culture, even many of our Christian communities, chase the American dream of prosperity.
It is a call for Christians to enter into the suffering of our fellow men and women. It is a call to live out our faith in action, not hold it neatly on Sunday morning and pretend that the gospel makes no demands of us to live in sometimes radically sacrificial ways in order to care for our neighbor. That is not an easy message to bring to people who are happy with being comfortable. Even for one who is willing to challenge myself, it pinches, and I have to ask myself what is God asking of me?
The epilogue that discusses “how to live in empire” offers hope, & the idea of subsidiarity: that we work to see, hear, and love the marginalized in our own local communities and treat them with the dignity God created them.
This book touches on the several ways that the ”American Dream” has failed many and the ways that our Christian communities have allowed the promises of that dream to supplant mutual care and human thriving that Jesus calls us to. The lament of this book is built upon the human dignity of every person and the many calls from Scripture to the Believer’s duty to care for the orphan, the widow, the poor, the stranger. This call has gone widely unheeded by American Christians. The “least of these” are pushed to the margins while our culture, even many of our Christian communities, chase the American dream of prosperity.
It is a call for Christians to enter into the suffering of our fellow men and women. It is a call to live out our faith in action, not hold it neatly on Sunday morning and pretend that the gospel makes no demands of us to live in sometimes radically sacrificial ways in order to care for our neighbor. That is not an easy message to bring to people who are happy with being comfortable. Even for one who is willing to challenge myself, it pinches, and I have to ask myself what is God asking of me?
The epilogue that discusses “how to live in empire” offers hope, & the idea of subsidiarity: that we work to see, hear, and love the marginalized in our own local communities and treat them with the dignity God created them.
catcaird's review
3.0
This book wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be clinical and analytical but instead it runs deep with conviction, unveiling the darkness that hides under the guise of the American Dream. It made my heart heavy to read, I felt the weight of injustice that the author encounters every day and I felt the hurt and frustration rolling off each page. She rightly points out that the American dream carries a cost so high it means that those who suffer for it will always be those on the edge of society. It's the same in the UK, although there are some differences. There was a lot in the book that really challenged me, particularly what community looks like & how we truly love our neighbors & neighborhood. But the one thing that it lacked was talking more about how Jesus offers a better dream. This is what I had hoped the book was about, more of a comparison to how the gospel holds out a better hope. The author rightly calls out white evangelical churches & their lack of loving their neighbors & embracing power, but a better hope needs to be held out to people and that hope can only be found in Christ. I felt quite conflicted about this as the challenge of the book struck me hard and there were glimmers of gospel hope scattered here and there but I wanted and needed more.
jkdehaven's review
4.0
The book The Myth of the American Dream is both a memoir of the experiences of the author and a critique of the American Dream. It describes how the author’s life has been impacted by her immigrant and refugee neighbors while she learns to challenge some of the dominant ideas of white American evangelicalism. I thought the book was strongest when Mayfield described her own experiences. It offered a unique perspective that I could relate to. However, I thought that the analysis in the book was repetitive of other sources. Still, I appreciated that the book included the perspectives of a wide variety of voices, especially women and people of color. I would recommend this book to people as an introduction to the idea of a Christian perspective on challenging the American Dream.
emilyreistermorris's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0