If you know me at all, you know that I believe telling alternative stories will change the world faster than violence or politics.

It is in this spirit that I suggest the person who gives the speech in the video below would serve the world better from a grassroots level, than a political one.

This coincides with a comment by my friend Mark on Emergingleadersnetwork.org that has been making me think:

It strikes me that “alternative” was once synonymous for “non-commercial” in the same way “Christian” was synonymous with “contra-empire” in the first couple centuries. Both were co-opted – alas, alt barely had a chance to exist before getting sucked into the market. Theres a downside and an upside to this, the downside being obvious (a total 180 on the mission), but the upside being wider distribution of the “alt” or “Christian” message.

I seem to recall Augustine wrestling with this in “City of God,” expressing some guilt for Christianity’s alignment with Constantinople/Rome but also some hope for its propagation beyond the limited sphere it occupied at that time.

I do believe that we can change society for the better. I do not believe these changes can or will come from a government, rather from people with broken hearts.