{"id":476,"date":"2006-10-19T10:38:19","date_gmt":"2006-10-19T10:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html"},"modified":"2006-10-19T10:38:19","modified_gmt":"2006-10-19T10:38:19","slug":"the-new-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html","title":{"rendered":"The New American Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking of the American Dream, Aaron McGruder called it quits! <\/p>\n<p>His comic strip, The Boondocks, has been a unique commentary on American life.&nbsp; Grandfather moves to the suburbs (i.e. the boondocks) and then his two grandchildren come to live with him.&nbsp; In the process they wrestle with race, class, shades of skin hues and identity.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/.shared\/image.html?\/photos\/uncategorized\/boondocks.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"149\" alt=\"Boondocks\" src=\"https:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/boondocks.jpg\" width=\"149\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.popmatters.com\/pm\/columns\/article\/6072\/walking-away-from-it-all-the-new-great-american-fantasy\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>McGruder has been wildly successful, reportedly earning six figures and even had a animated series of the strip on The Cartoon Network.<\/p>\n<p>And then he gave it all up without any explanation.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Mark Reynolds has a column on what happened at the following link&#8230;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.popmatters.com\/pm\/columns\/article\/6072\/walking-away-from-it-all-the-new-great-american-fantasy\/\">Negritude 2.0<\/a>.&nbsp; He calls what McGruder did, <span style=\"font-size: 1.2em\">&quot;The New American Fantasy:&nbsp; Walking away from it all.&quot;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Reynolds recalls the story of Dave Chapell as well, who was an over night success and then turned down a $50 million contract to fade back to a normal life.<\/p>\n<p>The American Dream.&nbsp; What is it?&nbsp; What are people looking for?&nbsp; Is it the Kingdom?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking of the American Dream, Aaron McGruder called it quits! His comic strip, The Boondocks, has been a unique commentary on American life.&nbsp; Grandfather moves to the suburbs (i.e. the boondocks) and then his two grandchildren come to live with him.&nbsp; In the process they wrestle with race, class, shades of skin hues and identity.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The New American Dream - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The New American Dream - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Speaking of the American Dream, Aaron McGruder called it quits! His comic strip, The Boondocks, has been a unique commentary on American life.&nbsp; Grandfather moves to the suburbs (i.e. the boondocks) and then his two grandchildren come to live with him.&nbsp; In the process they wrestle with race, class, shades of skin hues and identity.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-10-19T10:38:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/boondocks.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Gelinas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The New American Dream - The Jazz Theologian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The New American Dream - The Jazz Theologian","og_description":"Speaking of the American Dream, Aaron McGruder called it quits! His comic strip, The Boondocks, has been a unique commentary on American life.&nbsp; Grandfather moves to the suburbs (i.e. the boondocks) and then his two grandchildren come to live with him.&nbsp; In the process they wrestle with race, class, shades of skin hues and identity.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html","og_site_name":"The Jazz Theologian","article_published_time":"2006-10-19T10:38:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/boondocks.jpg"}],"author":"Robert Gelinas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html","name":"The New American Dream - The Jazz Theologian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/boondocks.jpg","datePublished":"2006-10-19T10:38:19+00:00","dateModified":"2006-10-19T10:38:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/boondocks.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/boondocks.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/10\/the-new-america.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The New American Dream"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/","name":"The Jazz Theologian","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Gelinas on Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01","name":"Robert Gelinas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","caption":"Robert Gelinas"},"description":"\"For more information visit: Jazztheologian.com Robert Gelinas is Lead-Pastor (and resident Jazz Theologian) of Colorado Community Church\u00e2\u20ac\u201da multi-cultural, interdenominational community of 3000+ followers of Christ in the Denver area. Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys &amp; 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}