One V. All

Jim Wallis, on God’s Politics, discusses the candidate’s power by using the word “change.” He argues that seventy percent of Americans believe America is moving in the wrong direction, and candidates have used the rhetoric of “change” to gain support. He quotes Obama who said last night, "it's also about what you, the people who love this country, can do to change it."

Any man or woman can enter office and claim to change America, even with the most genuine of efforts, but when it comes down to it, it is not the power invested in one individual that will change our country, it is the power of the masses. A president faces challenges and opposition in all areas of policy, yet a social movement has force in the fact that they can more powerful challenge that opposition. Wallis reminds us, “Remember, President Lyndon Johnson didn't become a civil rights leader until Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks made him one. And that's what we need again now.”

Wallis also notes that the best social movements have spiritual foundations. We are learning in class that even spiritual rhetoric is the most influential. As Christians we have the power to change this country and we need to hold strong to our spiritual foundations, as I have commented on yesterday, in order that we may become the building blocks for change.