Amazing Grace

Recently the movie, "Amazing Grace" came out on DVD, starring Ioan Gruffudd (Mr. Fantastic) as William Wilberforce and Albert Finney (Ed Masry from 'Erin Brockovitch') as John Newton. The movie is not nearly as much about John Newton as one would think; it more has to do with William Wilberforce's campaign in Parliament to have the slave trade abolished. His campaign was influenced by his friend John Newton, a reformed slave trader himself who claims to be haunted by the ghosts of thousands of slaves that didn't survive the trip across the Atlantic in Captain Newton's ship. How much of the movie is actually true? That's hard to say; certainly the main plot is accurate, but the details are probably almost all conjecture. For some reason, I don't doubt that William Wilberforce actually stood up in a session of Parliament and sang 'Amazing Grace,' although not with that tune (the lyrics were not applied to the tune that we currently identify with 'Amazing Grace' until much later, but most of the audience wouldn't have known that, and would have been confused if Ioan Gruffudd had actually sung the tune that was used at that time).

It's a good story: A man who was, two hundred years ago, able to look past color and be outraged by the sufferings of his fellow man, even though that fellow man looked very different from himself. Another man, realizing that he has lived a despicable life, seeking redemption, and probably never really sure that he had found it. It's unfortunate that this didn't happen until after America gained it's independence, we might have been spared some of the most painful experiences that we, as a nation, have gone through. As it was, when the British outlawed the slave trade, we simply began dealing with Spanish and Portuguese slave traders. It took us a long time to learn the lessons of William Wilberforce (some of still seem to be learning).

Could a man like John Newton be redeemed, after causing so many deaths, and dealing in human lives? Certainly. God mercy knows almost no bounds. In this life, that may not seem fair, but in the life to come, no one will begrudge Reverend Newton his place (especially not those of us who love singing the hymns that he wrote the lyrics to).

In the book of Acts, there was a pharisee named Saul, who had letters that authorized him to do whatever was necessary to seek out members of this new cult of Christianity, and have them hauled in and incarcerated. Many faithful brothers and Sisters in the faith died, because of Saul. But God dealt with Saul on the road to Damascus, and Saul was converted, and became Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul became one of the most (if not the most) prolific evangelist of the early church, he was also one of the most prolific writers: 14 of the 27 books of the New Testament are attributed to Paul (some argue against Paul authoring Hebrews, but that would still be 13 of 27). Paul's past sins were remitted--separated as far from him as the East is from the West--and yet, I tend to believe that he never forgot what he had done, and always felt that he had much to atone for. I suspect that the actions of Saul, drove Paul to be a better Christian. Similarly, I think that actions of Captain John Newton kept pricking at the conscience of Reverend John Newton and caused him to work for God, to try to atone for some things that God had already forgotten. The irony here is that both men wrote about grace--Paul extensively in the book of Romans (and Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians...), and John Newton in the hymn, 'Amazing Grace,' and yet, both men's actions would tend to indicate that they had a hard time accepting grace, personally (perhaps they were each so individually thankful to be the recipients of grace that they wanted to make sure that others knew about grace...). I'm sure both men were haunted by that little voice in the back of the head that says, over and over, "You can never make up for what you did. You can never do enough. You will always be that man that did all those terrible things." The voice is partially correct: One can never do enough to make up for past sins, that's why God has extended grace to us. Will we always be the person who committed those sins? No; Jesus said you must be born again: You have to start your life over in God. We, being human, never forget what we did, but God looks past that, and gives us a fresh start. Grace truly is amazing.