Amazing Grace, Part 2

A week ago I put up a blog entry entitled: Finding God in Amazing Grace. In this post I recommended the film Amazing Grace even though I hadn't yet seen it. Now I've seen it. And now my recommendation is even more emphatic.

Amazing Grace is a wonderful movie. Even if you have no particular interest in Christianity or in history, you'll enjoy the story of William Wilberforce and his amazing life. But if you're a Christian, you'll see in Wilberforce a model to be emulated. As much as any person in recent history, Wilberforce lived out his faith with integrity in the complicated and often compromised world of politics.

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog series entitled: Evangelical Christians and Social Activism. In this series I used William Wilberforce as an example. Let me reproduce here what I wrote earlier:

Born into wealth and privilege in 1759, William Wilberforce was known in his early years only for his love of socializing and his several physical infirmities. He had no guiding purpose for his well-to-do yet meaningless existence. When he was elected to the British Parliament as a young man, he sought nothing more than his own fame.

But when a Christian friend shared the good news of Christ with him, Wilberforce realized the emptiness of his life. He considered withdrawing from politics altogether. But, as he trusted Christ for salvation on Easter Sunday, 1786, Wilberforce sensed a new zeal to serve the Lord within the sphere of government. Ultimately he seized upon the abolition of slavery as the focus of his Christian and political energies. Though discouraged by many Christian leaders because of the impossibility of the mission, Wilberforce believed that God had sent him into politics to fight against the evils of slavery.

William Wilberforce struggled his entire life with various physical ailments and handicaps.
In 1788 he introduced a measure in the British Parliament to indict the slave trade, and was resoundingly defeated. Similar measures were defeated in 1791, 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805. Finally, in 1807 Parliament voted to abolish the slave trade, though leaving the institution of slavery untouched.

Wilberforce was not satisfied, however. For the next 26 years he continued his crusade against slavery. Finally, on July 26, 1833, the emancipation of slaves was insured when a committee of the House of Commons ironed out the details of Wilberforce's bill. Three days later, after 45 years of tireless, God-honoring effort, William Wilberforce died, leaving an unsurpassed legacy of Christian concern for justice. His efforts encouraged many American evangelicals who worked tirelessly for the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Amazing Grace focuses on the life of Wilberforce through 1807. The film will entertain you and, perhaps more importantly, challenge you to find true purpose in living.

In my post Finding God in Amazing Grace I also recommend a fine new book by Jim Ware and Kurt Bruner, called, appropriately enough, Finding God in the Story of Amazing Grace. Let me encourage you, once again, to buy this book. It's a wonderful historical and devotional telling of the lives of William Wilberforce and John Newton (who played a key role in Wilberforce's life, and is best known as the writer of the hymn "Amazing Grace").