Amazing Grace- the movie

My boss had free tickets to see a prescreening of the movie Amazing Grace. So I went along and saw it with him. (The perks!)

I have to say first and foremost I loved the movie. There were some serious and somber moments where the gruesome brutalities of the slave trade were realised. There were also some light moments, like when Wilberforce was matched up with his wife-to-be. There was romance and humour. The political scenes were well done. There was suspense as a plan was hatched to pass the Bill of Abolition. There was drama as Wilberforce delivered a stirring speech to the Parliament.

But I don’t think this movie does much to help you ‘speak’ the gospel with your friends. There is a point in the movie where Wilberforce is at the death bed of Pitt, the Prime Minister, and Pitt says ‘I’m afraid.’ Wilberforce asks ‘what are you afraid of?’ Pitt says ‘Death. I wish I had your faith.’ At this point I thought ‘now he is going to show him that he doesn’t need to be afraid of death’. But Wilberforce merely takes his hand and holds it. End of scene. What the? When I'm about to die, I don’t need someone who is going to hold my hand…I need the Saviour. I was on the edge of my seat, thinking ‘Wilby, preach it brother.’ But apparently that doesn’t make for good movie making.

The difficulty is that the movie doesn't really explore the Chrisitan motive behind the ethics. It just explores the ethics of slave trading. I see this movie as a ‘flag waving exercise’. It adorns the gospel. It shows that Christians have stood up for Christian issues and they have been unpopular about doing so. And Christians still do the same thing today. When we speak up against the plight of refuges, or about euthanasia, or killing fetuses or embryos, its because we believe in the value of human life, that all are equal- men, women, Africans, Australians, embryos, elderly…all are made in the image of God, and are to be cherished as such.

It also strikes me that one of the challenges of atheism is to come up with a good reason why slavery is wrong. I mean, if people have no created worth, (the atheist's view) then surely it is OK to view people as commodities to be used, rather than people within relationships who are to be cherished?

Movies like these put Christianity into the public sphere, which is always a good thing. (The 200th anniversary of slave trade abolition in Britain was 25 March, 2007, so the movie comes at a significant time). I'd recommend going to see it. Who knows how God might use it? Perhaps you can use the movie to speak of Newton- the wretched man that he was- guilt driven, yet found by God. And explain the story of the well known words, Amazing Grace. Perhaps you can take your post modern friend along who doesn't believe in a category such as 'wickedness' and see what he thinks.

Incidently, here's some interesting trivia on Wilberforce: he used to say Psalm 119 to himself from memory when he was most under pressure. Not bad for a psalm which is 176 verses long. Wilberforce chose that particular psalm because its about the importance of relying upon God’s word.