Amazing Grace Coming in One Week

Posted by Brian Tubbs Feb 16, 2007

I haven't seen the movie, but I literally can't wait. I've watched the trailer (both versions) several times and have seen a few of the film's clips released on the Internet. To say that I am salivating in anticipation of this movie would be an understatement.

I read of William Wilberforce for the first time, while in college. I was hooked. Wilberforce was one of the greatest statesmen the British Empire ever saw, and his greatest achievement - turning the tide of public opinion against slavery in the English-speaking world - is about to hit the Big Screen.

It has become fashionable in some circles - primarily on the Left - to bash evangelical Christians as being on the wrong side of certain issues in history. Among those issues, slavery. These charges stem from ignorance, because the people that make them are either unaware of (or unwilling to confront) great examples of Christian activism, such as that of William Wilberforce.

Wilberforce has been ignored for many decades, in spite of the fact that he championed the abolitionist cause. Why? Well....he was (inconveniently for secular humanists) a Christian. You see, Wilberforce believed in God (hmmmm) and, what's more, he believed in Jesus (you're kidding!). And he actually believed that Christian principles of morality and selflessness should guide the rest of society (the effrontery!!!). Indeed, Wilberforce made as his lifelong causes the abolition of slavery and "the encouragement of piety and virtue; and for the preventing of vice, profaneness, and immorality." Yeah, that's just too "evangelical" for some people. Sounds kind of like the "Religious Right." Can't have that, can we?

People would like to refashion the Wilberforce story as one of the common man versus greedy capitalist interests - a lonely voice for the oppressed against evil, racist exploitation. Though that would play well with the Left, it's only PART of the story. Wilberforce was driven by his decidedly and emphatically Christian convictions. At one point, he actually said: ""God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners." Wow. If only Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris had been around to set him straight. Poor fellow. This simply makes him an inconvenient hero in history - one that the Left is better off ignoring. Well, thankfully, that ignorance is about to come to an end.

Wilberforce was not perfect. And detractors of evangelical Christians (and, yes, there are many - it's become a cottage industry) are likely to point to his opium addiction. Of course, they will neglect to tell you that opium's effects and nature weren't widely known at the time, and that Wilberforce turned to the drug because of the horrific health challenges which plagued him his whole life. Nevertheless, Wilberforce joins the ranks of every other evangelical, conservative Christian in world history in that he, like them, was human! He had his faults. But he rose above his sin and fault to become one of the greatest champions of Christianity and conscience in the history of the human race.

Don't miss the movie.

http://www.amazinggracethemovie.com