the Bible beltway

I'm not a religious person  - - yet I go to church every Sunday.  I pray - but my prayers usually start with 'Dear God' (when I'm good) or 'Good Lord' (during a prayer outburst).  When I see those huge JESUS billboards on the side of the highways - I get kind of creeped out.
This is the way I view things:  Jesus was kind of a community organizer, a rebel rouser, a misfit, an activist.  I'm pretty sure he is the son of God - but being the non-religious person I am - I think of him more of a man - an ordinary one at that.  If he were driving around today - I think he might be in an old, dented and rusted Suburu.  He'd love to be driving a Prius - but cash would be a problem. 
Then there is this whole issue of THE BIBLE.  I can't take it literally.  I just can't.  Its a story book - it may be a study guide to life - but I view it as stories that mere, mortal men wrote. It is impossible to live by it (totally) - and how do you pick and choose which parts are relative to today's time?
Now - GOD.  I really believe there is just one - but he has many names and looks different to all people.  I think we all pray to the same GOD - some of us just don't want to admit it.   He watches us.  I talk to him a lot - he doesn't talk back - well not yet.
A couple of weeks ago, my priest and friend Mike (who is probably on his knees about now praying for my soul), was talking about 'when movements become an institution'.  For some reason I can't get this out of my mind.  I can apply it to a couple of things.  First one, of course, is religion.  IMHO, when religion was a movement - it was pure and good.  Then it spreads like an oil slick and becomes an institution.  Now it's not just pure and good - it has some problems.
Stay with me here, don't go jumping out of the car.  I want to apply this to something/someone else.   OBAMA.  Remember when the movement started - do you remember the promises, the hope, the excitement - the total audacity!  It was almost like heaven (I'm still out on this idea).  Now travel a few miles down the road, the movement becomes an institution.  He's president, he has a staff, he has a job, he has lobbyists, he has problems, he has to acknowledge the other side.  The movement - is it still there?  Or has it morphed into an institution? Does the passion and infallibility still remain?  How can we grip (like a steering wheel) those feelings of a movement and hold on to them for dear life?  Does it have something to do with compromise?  Is compromise always necessary?
This whole movement/institution confuses me - its like driving down a foggy road.  I just can't see far enough down the road to see what lies ahead.