Obamianity as a Social Movement for Change

It is no accident that many are associating the fervor and excitement surrounding Senator Obama with religious forms of expression. Social movements for change are often related or deeply connected to religious traditions. Even explicitly secular movements for change are enveloped in a general charisma that suggests religious enthusiasm.

It is also no accident that a good majority of African-Americans are now solidly in Obama's camp not because he is black, but more fundamentally because he is clearly living out his politics both in rhetoric and substance in the tradition of the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's.

Surely Obama is fulfilling the very best of the promises of the civil rights movement, a movement that had lost some of its power and focus since the late 60's with the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Is it possible that Obamianity has miraculously arrived at the end of the depressing Bush regime to push us forward into another period of creative social change and progress? Could we really be this fortunate? Is this why there is a palpable sense of possibility and hope in so many that better days are ahead of us?