It includes the intertwined story of the Reverend John Newton, who was himself a reformed and repentant slave trader. John Newton was also William Wilberforce’s Pastor as Wilberforce was growing up. By the way, John Newton is also the writer of the great hymn which also serves as the title of the movie.
This true story is inspiring to any politically activist or Conservative Christian politician, who wonders if one man can make a difference. The odds were greatly stacked against Wilberforce, who was a member of the British Parliament, and who stood nearly alone at first in his anti-slave trade cause. It challenges us never to give up, to keep pursuing and persisting.
At one point in the story after Wilberforce had recently become a born-again, true Christian believer he questioned what his role in politics was, if any. We wondered if God wanted him to be a preacher. Those around him, especially several abolitionists, provided him with a very convincing argument that he would be actually doing the Lord’s work in pursuing the cause to eliminate the slave trade in all of the British Empire.
Wilberforce gave a great deal of his youth, his vigor, his health to the cause. After a brief illness and accompanied discouragement he was encouraged and challenged by his future wife to continue in the battle. The relationship reinvigorated Wilberforce to continue in this mighty cause. Over a twenty-year period he went from being virtually alone in his battle in Parliament, 300 to one odds, to eventual victory with only 26 opposing votes leading to the passage of the act that stopped the slave trade across all of the Empire.
While watching the movie, especially the scenes depicting the boisterous debate in the Parliament, I could not help but think of present day injustices virtually being ignored by mainstream tenured politicos and their not so silent accomplices in the media.
Today’s anti-slave trade or the abolitionist movement is the pro-life or anti-abortion movement. Pro-life forces have been waging for 30 plus years battle to end this equally insidious heinous barbaric practice with seemingly little success. The forces of evil in the abortion axis of evil include the Supreme Court, the Democrat Party, the liberal elite throughout this country and powerful abortion and other left wing lobby and leftist organizations such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. They also include their socialist comrades in cahoots, the NEA, the ACLU, NOW, radical feminists, George Soros and other well heeled financiers of a life-destroying, society-destroying and values-destroying mindset.
Secondarily to the wickedness of abortion is the equally wrong proliferation of the sex slave trade involving woman and children, which is becoming more and more prevalent in America as well as the rest of the world. Both of these evils need champions both in and out of office to be a force, like Wilberforce was as he fought injustice and evil of his day.
Furthermore, while Wilberforce was battling the foes of abolution in England, George Washington and other founding Fathers wre establishing a new country, which would also embrace the anti-slave movement, but would have to fight a costly Civil War over it. The things that most of our Founders and Wilberforce had in common was a faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, this is not acknowledged at all, if ever in today's modern "enlightened" age. This movie is a much needed reminder of a time when men where not afraid to hold and embrace their principles at all costs. They did not fear being politically incorrect, as so many do today.
These are the take-aways from the movie for me, the great lessonw that I took from this must-see movie. It was well worth the 70 miles I drove to see it! Look for it at a movie theater near you. If you like a fast moving picture, excellent acting, true heroism, true human struggle, and an uplifting and inspiring true historical account you would love this film. I highly recommend it to young and old and in-between. It brings history to life and to light.
My Movie Rating: * * * * *
TAKE ACTION
Chuck Norris asks us to take action by signing an anti-slavery petition. He challenges each of us to be a modern day Wilberforce or John Newton. See his article on WorldNetDaily. Sign the petition here: a worldwide petition.
"This true story is inspiring to any politically activist or Conservative Christian politician, who wonders if one man can make a difference."
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you find this story inspiring, Greg. So do I! Of course, I do find it amusing that you find such a quintessentially liberal cause as liberation from slavery to be inspiring for conservatives!
Not that I think most conservatives want to enslave anybody. But by lauding a liberal cause as inspiring for conservatives, you're showing a wonderful, generous "bipartisan spirit." I greatly appreciate your effort here to reach "across the aisle" so to speak.
And you're absolutely right that Wilberforce was "actually doing the Lord’s work in pursuing" this liberal cause. Liberalism (grounded in the doctrine that each of us has equal rights before the law) is, after all, an outgrowth of Christian humanism (the doctrine that each of us is equal in God's eyes). I truly believe that God calls us to treat all men and women as His children. This is what led my Quaker spiritual ancestors to wokr so hard for abolition, even though they were often thought to be overly liberal at the time.
I really am glad to see this as an issue that can bring us all together now -- even if it's one that was resolved a long time ago. It's always good to remember what we have in common, rather than give in to divisiveness. And I think this movie looks like it will be really inspirational for us all.