Amazing Grace Reflections

(Rest assured, this is not a repeat post. This post will contain my review of the quality and themes of the movie, now that I’ve actually seen it)

Amazing Grace was far and away one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. All throughout it was reminiscent of one of the many A&E productions of classic English literature, only of superior quality. Unlike many “faith based” films that are produced far too quickly and lack a certain look and feel of professionalism (such as Fox Faith’s recent release, One Night with the King), this film was extremely well made at every level of production. The acting was top-notch (a predominately A-list cast), the directing was excellent (thanks to acclaimed director Michael Apted, an agnostic deeply interested in great men of faith) and the music was powerful (from accomplished British composer David Arnold, best know for the last four James Bond films). All this to say, “go see this movie!”

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of this movie is not only its accurate portrayal of a great man doing great things in the name of Christ, but its striking similarity to modern day battles about personhood and human rights. As Jen Hardy has pointed out, the themes of this film don’t lead where some might expect. I entered the movie theater looking for something analogous to the current “struggle” of the homosexual community. There were no such analogous aspects. Instead what I saw was a nearly exact replica of the current fight against abortion.

Most striking of all were two scenes, neither of which involved philosophical arguments, but rather emotional appeals. In the first scene, Wilberforce is shown the chains that bind the feet, hands and neck of the slaves. He is told stories of the terrible conditions the slaves are forced to live and work in. Finally, he is shown a brand mark on the chest of a former slave, an outward sign of the denial of his personhood. In the second scene, Wilberforce shows a slave ship to a group of MP’s (Members of Parliament) and advises them to “breath deeply” the “smell of death.” Both of these scenes brought to mind the graphic pictures of aborted fetuses that induce the same sense of horror and disgust in everyone who views them as those MP’s felt as they drowned in the smell of dead slaves.

According to WORLD Magazine’s recent review of the film, Only 4% of Americans know who William Wilberforce is. This staggering ignorance may be a key to understanding the way faith and politics are seen to interact in our culture. I think it’s safe to assume that most people in this country, both Christians and non-Christians, have the notion that religious faith shouldn’t be a part of public politics. This may have something to do with the mostly misunderstood and often sensationalized notion of “separation of church and state”, but whatever the cause, we’ve reached a place where even Christians think that you can’t be explicitly Christian if you’re in politics. Combined with the incessant argument from the secular left that you can’t even think about religion if you’re involved in any way with public policy-making, we are left with a total bifurcation of faith and politics. William Wilberforce, and other great men like Dr. Marin Luther King after him, show us that it is only the synthesis of these two pillars of our society that will result in the championing of human rights. We need not be afraid of what will happen if we allow our faith to govern our politics, rather we must be afraid of what will happen if we don’t.