Obama & The Arc of Change
Last week we talked about how President Obama has embraced the old Progressive Christian belief that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. Although Obama talked of the long arc in reference to Iran, the growing impression is that he also feels this way with regards to “change” in the United States–which places him at odds with many of the more liberal and progressive members of the Democratic party.
If President Obama is taking a farsighted and measured approach to change, he should be applauded, not derided. For there often is a strong desire among activists and progressives to radically “change the system” overnight. Then, when that change doesn’t occur, disillusionment follows, and eventually their hearts become hardened. Thus we had the generation of Woodstock, and peace and love, morphing into the generation of Gordon Gekko and greed is good, leaving in its wake a jaded X generation whose favorite refuge remains satire and irony.
So our advice to the new generation of 20-something liberals and progressives is to recall the serenity prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr (a favorite theologian of Barack Obama’s):
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
And never to lose faith that while the arc of change in America is long, and we can only see ahead a little ways, it does indeed bend towards progress.
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