Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

Chasing the “American Dream” and “Keeping up with the Joneses”--both pressures seem to be the locomotive that pull people from cradle to grave. Who hasn’t felt the need to buy the newest car or phone simply to fit in? How do Christians justify themselves with mounting debt and self-centeredness while claiming to follow Jesus, a homeless man who gave everything He had to love and serve the poor and preach the Gospel? Why is there such a spiritual contrast between a megachurch in Texas and an underground church in Asia? In his book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream, David Platt attempts to answer these questions and more. Relative to the actions taken by the early church and those who recognized the urgency of the Gospel message, Platt notes: “I cannot help but think that somewhere along the way we missed out on what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable.” It seems that a majority of American Christians are doing everything in their power to obtain stability, security, and advancement--quietly making their way through life with the goal of arriving safely at death. It seems that comfort has become “the treasure” we are searching for instead of the kingdom of Heaven (Matt 13). This book argues that there is something more for the Christian to seek--the joy of knowing and following God regardless of cost to our 401K or our perceived security of a 2-story home on a cul-de-sac. Some of the major aspects include: an unmatched desire for more of the Word of God, a love for the world that reflects the love that caused Jesus to come and die, a proper view and use of money that solely seeks the glory of God and not ourselves, and an exercise of fulfilling the Great Commission within the next year. I would love nothing more than to break down each chapter with all the insights I’ve gained, but this review is not the proper place for that. Suffice it to say that this book is challenging--it is certainly not for people who enjoy the comfort of your church’s padded seats or the fact that the pastor isn’t “preachy.” If you’d rather not be challenged to rethink your retirement plans, I’d suggest another book. However, if you (like me) have become uncomfortable when reading through Scripture because of the disparity between the claims of Christ and your own motives/aspirations, I recommend this book. While it is not the panacea for all the commercial brainwashing we’ve been subjected to, it does put true Christianity into perspective. Reading this alongside your Bible will prove that Platt’s bold claims are not innovative whatsoever, but merely a repackaging of what our Savior taught over two millennia ago--the challenge, of course, is to put it into practice in today’s culture. Our church will be spending the next two months dissecting this book and exploring how we can integrate the teaching into our personal and corporate lives. I will be posting updates/thoughts as we continue, as well as ways that I’ve chosen to join the “Radical Experiment.”

Hard to know where to begin, but this book reflects the growing divide between truth and propaganda that is permeating the beliefs in our churches. Pastor Platt is sincere, but the foundation for his beliefs is not scripture but the dogma of socialism. Proof of that is no more clear than the first page of his eighth chapter where he juxtaposes Adams with the righteous prophet of our country FDR, "While James Adams was coining the phrase 'American Dream,' Franklin Roosevelt was emphasizing how Americans will postpone immediate gratification..." Read it for yourself, this is the foundation from which Platt was educated as a child through college, and it now permeates his theology. James Adams and capitalism are vilified and FDR is hailed as preaching something akin to the Gospel message. But there is more. Why James Adams' definition of the American Dream? Platt in his second chapter warns us of the inherent danger in Adams' thesis that we will worship our own ability. Those unfamiliar with Adams' book, from which the phrase was taken, will assume that "ability" was the focus of Adams' quote. It is not; rather, it sounds strangely like a more modern speech in which in which a great preacher called for measuring people by the content of their character. This is the conclusion of the quote that Platt annotated from Adams, "It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order...regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." Using Platt's logic we should also warn everyone against the potential pitfalls of seeking equality based on the character of a person in the words of Martin Luther King. Freedom to be who you want to be regardless of birth or social position is what Adams was talking about, not wealth per se. But this flies in the face of socialism's ideology. You have no such freedom in this world, because the haves do not share it and the only way for you to get up, or as Paul the Apostle would say, "Get up and work so that the heathens have no room to slander you," is for someone else to do it for you. There is more, but it is enough to conclude with a final point about his faulty understanding of the 1st Amendment. Platt has bought into the belief propagated by Christians that we are in a post-Christian age where people don't like Christians, and that there is a "wall" between the church and the government. He completely misses the real reason why people don't share their faith today, and it is because Pastors and writers like him are convincing Christians that people don't want to hear the Gospel. We should tell them anyway, and I applaud his chapter on this, but it is weakened by his unwillingness to engage the real issues related to this--we have believed the separation of church and state lie as well as the lie that this is a post-Christian nation. Perhaps he does not wish to be political, but he invokes the prophet FDR so he has by virtue of that entered the political arena. And that is the real problem I have with this book. He wants to subtly be political, without being political and these words affect politics! To that end, which was the end FDR was working, Platt's thesis will not produce radical Christians but radicals who vote for the imposition of tyrannical government who will take away every freedom for which Adams was commending our Forefathers for prayerfully creating. It is laughable, but even the word radical is the political label given to one who seeks such political ends in the government. I don't know if that was the intent, but anyone who has had a politics class knows that the conservative counterpoint to a radical is a reactionary. Doubt Platt would ever produce a book like that. Platt's seventh chapter is the only chapter I can recommend because he unashamedly presents the truth of the Gospel. The rest is buried in the socialist ideology that he has been educated in, which permeates his writing. I have

This book will surely challenge your sense of purpose and calling. It dig deep down into the core of your faith and reveal the areas of your heart that are not aligned with that of God. It is such a convicting book, but it is amazing to see what happens when we choose to let God take charge of our will and make our hearts into His own.