change is coming?

The video below contains an inspiring speech from a religious leader in North Carolina at the June 17 "Moral Monday" gathering.   There have now been seven such "Moral Monday" protests that have been staged in North Carolina to protest the regressive decisions of the North Carolina Republican-controlled government. 

The main preacher in the video is inspiring indeed.  As an atheist, it makes me somewhat sad for me to realize that it will probably take appeals to religion to accomplish significant progressive change in this country.  Without Martin Luther King appealing to our "better angels" in a religious context in the '60's, the Civil Rights movement might not have had such success.  Would not.  There are no real secular leaders in this country that have the moral authority that religious leaders have.  

At the risk of being labeled a hypocrite, I am all for using religion as a tool to accomplish positive change.  I just wish we could "do the right thing" without appeals to mythology and superstition, but that's not where this country is at right now.

You could almost replace "North Carolina" with "Texas" in the video below and it would be equally apt.  Except that Texans are not massing in large numbers to lobby the Texas Legislature.  Yet.