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A review by mattstebbins
The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power by D.L. Mayfield
[This was an ARC via a giveaway Kerr won somewhere and my fourth (?) consecutive DNF...yay, pandemic reading!]
I grew up in the church. I was a preacher for a year. I can sling bible verses with the best of them—or could once upon a time, anyway, before I realized I could let that part of my brain rot—and look, I get it, America would be a better place if more Christians would examine what their bible actually says (and even the historical context in which the gospels were shaped and who made those decisions about which books merited inclusion, how they would be translated, etc, etc!) vs what American Christianity pretends it says. But I just can't respect a book that refuses to recognize that American Christianity is the problem and instead bases its critique on the idea that the church can fix America if they just rededicate themselves, etc, etc.
Look, there was so much potential here. And if even a fraction of her target audience read what she has to say and take tangible lessons about how to live their faith in a way that doesn't perpetuate unjust systems that reward white people (especially those born in certain strata/socioeconomics, etc) above all others, well, that's something good. I think I was just hoping for something a little harder hitting.
I grew up in the church. I was a preacher for a year. I can sling bible verses with the best of them—or could once upon a time, anyway, before I realized I could let that part of my brain rot—and look, I get it, America would be a better place if more Christians would examine what their bible actually says (and even the historical context in which the gospels were shaped and who made those decisions about which books merited inclusion, how they would be translated, etc, etc!) vs what American Christianity pretends it says. But I just can't respect a book that refuses to recognize that American Christianity is the problem and instead bases its critique on the idea that the church can fix America if they just rededicate themselves, etc, etc.
Look, there was so much potential here. And if even a fraction of her target audience read what she has to say and take tangible lessons about how to live their faith in a way that doesn't perpetuate unjust systems that reward white people (especially those born in certain strata/socioeconomics, etc) above all others, well, that's something good. I think I was just hoping for something a little harder hitting.