c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.)

(RNS)-Nearly 50 years ago, a book titled”The God That Failed”described how communism fell short of its egalitarian ideals. As seen through the eyes of six former communist intellectuals, communism represented”a vision of the Kingdom of God on earth,”a vision at odds with the sinfulness of those who controlled the Communist Party.

What was true of communism can also be said of the American dream. Though we are still a prosperous nation, that dream is proving to be as unreliable a deity as communism.

I know. I once worshiped at its altar. Six years ago, my wife was a mid-level New Jersey state official on maternity leave when she received word that her position would soon be terminated. Fran’s layoff several months later forced us to re-evaluate our financial situation. I resigned my position in a nonprofit Christian ministry to look for a better-paying job.

Neither of us expected much trouble obtaining employment. After all, we each possessed master’s degrees, had maintained good work histories and, as the saying goes, we had friends in high places.

Yet entering the recession-reduced job market we found that it was flooded with people just like us-well-educated, experienced, unemployed professionals. The competition for jobs was keen, and no one was in a hurry to hire us.

Thus began our re-education about the myths and realities of the American dream.

Like most baby boomers, Fran and I believed in the Protestant work ethic. We accepted as gospel the notion that if we lived right, got a good education and worked hard, our financial future would be limitless.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. As millions of our colleagues have discovered, the old verities of corporate and professional life no longer hold true. Past performance cannot guarantee future employment.

Like communism, the god that was the American dream has failed and the lives of many of its devotees have been drastically affected. As The New York Times noted in its recent seven-part series on”The Downsizing of America,”massive layoffs among white collar workers have resulted in stress-related illnesses, marital discord and civic disunity throughout the country.

At the heart of this apostate dream was the myth of an America that was deemed to be destined for greatness. The concept of Manifest Destiny embodied the spirit of a nation whose vast resources could be claimed by anyone who was willing to work hard.

And the opportunity to work for a piece of the proverbial American pie was viewed as a right, not a privilege. Success was a reward rather than a blessing, more the product of hard work than Divine Providence.

As a result, self-reliance became a cult unto itself and the Protestant ethic attained the status of a creed. It is little wonder, even among people of faith like Fran and me, that unemployment has proven so devastating. It forces us to realize that we are not in control after all. At the end of the day, our lives are in the hands of God.

Ultimately, this was the lesson Fran and I had to learn. As with Job, the Lord spoke to us out of the whirlwind, reminding us that He was sovereign and that our trust had to be in Him.

To be sure, it was not the answer I wanted to hear. It took me nearly three years to find steady, meaningful work. Yet the reality is that those years of hardship wrought changes in my character-namely, a dependence upon God-that were essential for the work I do now as a prison chaplain.

Our family values have been reshaped as well. Though Fran was able initially to get work as a consultant, she has not been able to re-enter the work force full-time at a level commensurate with her training and experience. While the consulting does leave more time for the children (we have since had a second child), the financial security we once dreamed of remains elusive.

Like many people, we did all the right things in our pursuit of the American dream. The problem was, we were not prepared for a god that would fail.

MJP END ATCHISON