Amazing Grace
The fight to end slavery continues
by Peter Fleck

Brian Rushfeldt didn’t know what he got himself into when he agreed to host a prescreening of the movie, Amazing Grace. Little did the executive director of the Canada Family Action Coalition fathom the impact the film would have on him.

As the credits finished rolling, a visibly shaken Rushfeldt stood teary eyed at the front of the Calgary theatre in search of words.

"What can I say after that," he uttered softly. "But where there is a Savior, there is a way."

Amazing Grace profiles one of the greatest social reformers in history, William Wilberforce, centering on his quest to abolish the slave trade in the British empire, a battle won 200 years ago. It speaks profoundly of how God can use a life totally transfixed on Him to overcome seemingly insurmountable opposition.

For modern-day crusaders like Rushfeldt, it offers hope as he seeks to stand up for the family amid obstacles no less daunting, including widespread abortion and a new breed of slavery that sees children sold into prostitution and abused by pornographers.

Perhaps not since Chariots Of Fire has there been such a powerful major motion picture with deep Christian underpinnings set in a post-Biblical era. Like the 1981 classic, Amazing Grace is equally ideal for family viewing, staying clear of gratuitous violence, sex or unsavory language.

The film was entrusted to seasoned British TV and movie director Michael Apted who surrounded himself with a talented cast. Leading the way is Ioan Gruffudd as Wilberforce, probably best known as Mr. Fantastic in The Fantastic Four.

Joining him is five-time Academy Award nominee Albert Finney in the convincing role of slave trader turned hymn writer, John Newton.

Amazing Grace is clearly a highly-motivational cinematic experience. But to treat it as an accurate reflection of history would be misguided. Much artistic liberty has been taken.

Among other things, Prime Minister William Pitt’s role in the abolition movement is greatly exaggerated. The dramatic scheme to inflict a preemptive strike against slavery through "cheating" is also pure fiction. Literary license is further portrayed in the courtship between Wilberforce and young Barbara Spooner. The list goes on.

But while many of the details have been thrown to the wind, the "spirit" of the true story has been maintained.

What Amazing Grace accomplishes is to reawaken public consciousness of a great hero of humanity and ambassador of the Christian faith.

Hopefully, the film will serve as an appetizer to many for further inquiry.

Much has thankfully been written. Not least among them is Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, a 281-page volume released this past February in conjunction with the movie.

Where the film only makes scant references, author Eric Metaxas is able to plum the depths of Wilberforce’s faith and conversion. He further introduces us to a myriad of key characters in the life of Wilberforce including one of the greatest minds of all time, Isaac Milner. We discover Wilberforce’s many other accomplishments including opening the doors to missionary activity in India.

And we learn of the many organizations he had a hand in founding such as the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

It all makes for very compelling reading of the life-changing variety.