You see, I grew up with grand visions of the American Dream dancing in my head. I learned about different people throughout history, and I wanted to be them. I was especially enthralled with two specific time periods. The first was that of the pioneers who moved out west to start a new life with the promise of opportunity. I loved their bravery and creativity. I was also enthralled with 1950's America. I loved watching scenes in movies where the ladies in the skirts that flared out at the waist danced to big band music. I loved watching shows like Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy. I wanted to pursue the white picket fence life as I baked cinnamon rolls in my kitchen and my family sat around the television set talking and laughing. I grew up wanting to become some combination of Laura Ingalls and Lucille Ball. That was the goal. The American dream was my dream.
This dream began to shatter when I left the country for the first time and was immersed in Central America for a week. This was the first time when I truly realized what it might feel like to be a minority as I walked through the streets and the sun beat down on my glaringly white skin. The first time I was dropped off at my host home, I realized the frustration of a language barrier, and the insufficiency of my very broken Spanish.
I had always thought of other places in the world as entirely different entities than my home in the United States. In my mind, they were entirely other. I was shocked when I first heard American pop music playing on the radio station, or was invited to watch a movie with the youth group who explained, "Don't worry, it's in English, so you can understand it. Just the subtitles are in Spanish."
At the same time, I started to become enthralled with an entirely different culture. I saw the beauty, richness and vibrancy of Latin America for the first time and I fell in love. It was so different from the culture I grew up in, but it had so much to offer to narrow-minded people like me who thought the U.S. was the best the world had to offer. I was amazed by the beauty of the art and music and legacy of these Latin American people. The America Dream began to pale in comparison to the vibrancy and relationality that I saw here. As I traveled to other Latin American countries, I noticed the same things, but it started to weigh heavy on my heart that these beautiful people didn't see their culture and heritage the same way. They were also chasing the American dream to some extent.
Let's take a moment to define what we're talking about. Dictionary.com defines the American Dream as, "a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S." Basically this is saying that the goal in life is to be as happy as you can by working to obtain material
belongings and live a comfortable life. This is traditionally seen as a happy family that lives in a big house, has nice cars, wears nice clothes, etc. This dream was perpetuated by media in 1950's America, but continues to be perpetuated today in IKEA ads with marble counter tops in the kitchen and a flat screen TV with a leather recliner in the family room. Maybe we don't always admit to chasing the American dream, but we want those marble counter-tops, don't we?
Apart from materialism generally not being a great quality to have, this pursuit of the American dream becomes dangerous when we begin to think of America as the greatest nation in the world, or the 'Land of Opportunity'. Is the United States more developed than many other countries in the world? Yes. But does that mean it is more valuable? No. This is where we run into problems.
This is why the campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again" was so powerful. That small phrase contains so many connotations promising what we all chase. It brings our minds back to 1950s America where the American dream seemed alive and well. It brings our minds back to a time when America was creating and inventing and flourishing. It brings our minds back to a time when we were free from war and when life was much simpler and happiness permeated every home. It makes us think back to a time when America truly was the greatest nation in the world.
But....was it? The American dream has always been a lie. This 'dream' was not the story of every household in America. The American Dream excluded every person of color, as they were forced to sit at the back of buses and drink from different water fountains. Behind every white picket fence was a story that looked much different from the story told by advertisers, as they counted on this dream to bring them profits. Behind those white picket fences was brokenness. As 1950's White America chased the dream perpetuated by ads and television shows, their real life stories included things like alcoholism, abuse, debt, adultery, and the devaluing of people whose skin tones didn't match their whitewashed fences. This should not be news to us. The story of humanity has always been one of sin and brokenness.
It is time that the body of Christ repents for our pursuit of the American Dream. The American Dream is a destructive form of idolatry that the devil has been using to ingrain lies into our lifestyles. Material comfort has never been what we are called to pursue as believers. And when we view America as this great nation, we center our lives around ethnocentrism. The American Dream has never been about opportunity for all; it has always been based on premises that only white America has access to. By proclaiming America as the greatest nation and the American dream as the goal in life, we are essentially devaluing every other country and ethnicity in the world.
The U.S. is a country that is more developed and wealthy than most, this is true. But as believers, we have to be very careful that this fact does not lead to an arrogance that causes us to view others as lesser. Ethnocentrism is really a problem with perceived value. And this was what broke my heart when visiting other countries and seeing our ethnocentrism impact their cultures. Why should other countries try so hard to Americanize themselves, when they have such a rich culture and heritage within their own homes?
As believers, we are called to find unity in the worldwide body of Christ. And we need to start realizing that this unity can be made so much richer through diversity! It's so easy to go to other countries on missions trips thinking of all we have to offer them, but how often do we ask what we could learn from our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world? When we do not join with the worldwide church in its mission to obey the commands of Christ, we are missing out on a very valuable part of the full story of what God is doing in our world. When we do not ask how the African church worships God or how the Asian church approaches missions, or how the Hispanic church serves the oppressed, we are missing out on something that we should consider essential.
A few weeks ago, I stopped at a stoplight behind a car that had a bumper sticker that saddened me. The sticker read, "You're in America. Speak English." This attitude breaks my heart, because I see it put up so many walls, even in our churches. My home church shares it's building with a Spanish church and I often cross paths with people from the Spanish congregation. One day, I was walking through the church with my friend, who used to attend the Spanish church. People were surprised to see her there and greeted her warmly, asking her how her family had been. When they turned to me, their warm greetings were silenced. They forced out an awkward "hello", but then went on their way. What they didn't realize is that I also speak Spanish and understood all of their conversations with my friend. They assumed a language barrier, and that is normal. But the problem is bigger than that. The problem is that so much in our society communicates that there is a shame attached to not speaking English fluently. When these people say hello to me, they do it knowing that their broken English is considered disgraceful by many. And yes, I understand that the language barrier can make life difficult in a country where English is the predominant language spoken. However, it breaks my heart to see the damage that has been done by devaluing the heart language of our brothers and sisters who come from different backgrounds than us. When I hear people speaking a different language in the grocery store or the post office, I get excited because I know that there is an entire culture and heritage that they get to take part in that is different than mine.
The fact that America is a melting pot of cultures and ethnicity used to be something we celebrated, and now it is something we shame. We can NOT do this within the church. We need to start asking ourselves a lot of questions about how we live out our Western Christianity. We need to start checking our lifestyles and goals against the Scriptures themselves, and whatever does not match up, we need to throw out right away. We cannot let Satan use us to permeate disunity and lies any longer. The ethnocentric attitudes that we don't even know we have are dangerous and they are hurting our brothers and sisters worldwide. Instead of asking what we can give, we need to start asking what we are missing that they have. Church: wake up! Ethnocentrism is sin. We must repent. In a world ripped apart with racial tension, we are called to be different. We have such potential to show the world the love of Christ through our unity. May we never let ethnocentrism get in the way of our witness!
