What is it that defines

American culture?

To best describe it, I will borrow the definition from Wikipedia.

I like Wikipedia because you can click on the highlighted words and dig deeper into a subject.

The American Dream (The Dream) is a phrase referring to the freedom that allows all citizens and all residents of the United States to pursue their goals in life through hard work and free choice (see Immigration to the United States).

The phrase's meaning has evolved over the course of American history. The Founding Fathers used the phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The American Dream often refers to the opportunity for immigrants to achieve greater material prosperity than was possible in their countries of origin. America has been viewed as a land in which one's prospects in life are defined by one's talents and energy rather than by one's family wealth or political connections. This hope includes the opportunity for one's children to grow up and receive an education and its consequent career opportunities. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the restrictions of class, caste, religion, race, or ethnic group.

The United States was founded as a great social experiment to prove that a free people could govern themselves by Rule of Law rather than a monarchy, theocracy (Pope), or totalitarian dictatorship. These rights were established from a Judeo-Christian worldview that our rights were given by a higher power than man, our benevolent Creator, and cannot be taken away.

In the last 15 years, I have traveled the lower 48 states driving trucks and delivering freight to hundreds of cities. I have had interesting conversations with people from all walks of life. As a former Love Lines/700 Club crisis phone counselor, I have had deep conversations with anonymous individuals concerning their personal problems. I have found some things to be true of the human condition. Most people, whether believers or not, share common values based on their beliefs of life, love, truth, and the greater good of humanity. I have also found that, though every individual is unique with their own special talents and abilities, people also can be trapped into self-destructive cycles that Christians would call "The Seven Deadly Sins."

The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, are a classification of the most objectionable vices that were originally used in early Christian teachings to educate and instruct followers concerning (immoral) fallen man's tendency to sin. They are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. The Catholic Church divided sin into two principal categories: "venial", which are relatively minor, and could be forgiven through any sacramentals or sacraments of the church, and the more severe "capital" or mortal sin. Mortal sins destroyed the life of grace, and created the threat of eternal damnation unless either absolved through the sacrament of confession, or forgiven through perfect contrition on the part of the penitent. Beginning in the early 14th century, the popularity of the seven deadly sins as a theme among European artists of the time eventually helped to ingrain them in many areas of Christian culture and Christian consciousness in general throughout the world. There is nowhere in the Christian Bible that a specific list of the Seven Deadly Sins is given, although lists of virtues contrasted with lists of sins are found in certain books of the New Testament, such as the Epistle to the Galatians.

Now whether you consider yourself to be spiritual or not, just reading the daily news is enough to frighten any sane person. I remember reading a syndicated cartoon called Pogo years ago. Pogo made a profound little statement, “I have seen the enemy and he is us.” What can possibly save us from ourselves? The answer is you! The only true change that will come to our society and the human race as a whole is the change we make within ourselves.

Almost everyone has asked these questions. Who am I? Why am I here? How can I change? From a Christian perspective, you are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. A trinity so to speak. You could say that your spirit is made of the energies of life, love, and light. Your soul is your mind, will, and emotions. Your body is made of flesh, blood, and bone. Other eastern religions would say that you are a luminous being. Even now, science is just beginning to acknowledge and study the human aura, white noise, and a field of energy in the universe that actually responds to human thought and emotions. Last year, I watched a movie called The Secret. Though I find some New Age elements in their presentation, over all it is based on sound principle from a psychological standpoint. From a Biblical perspective, it is right out of Galatians 6:7 that says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."