In my main blog, Peter Porcupine I have a post about a special movie called Amazing Grace which opens in theatres today.
I hope you will drop by to read the post called Making Amends and I hope even more that you will take the time to see the film about an extraordinary person who gave his entire life to a single cause, changing the course of human history by making unacceptable something which had existed in Biblical times, and before.
Last Sunday, the beautiful hymn written by John Newton was sung in hundreds of churches across America at the same time, reminding us all that we can always change for the better, no matter what our lives have been.
Please share widely!
rather than at your pad, PP, since here I already have a BMG pwd.
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Well spoken, PP! I’ve been looking forward to the movie since I first heard of it last Fall. I’ll be curious to see if they make any mention of Wilberforce’s spiritual heir and my hero, our own Wm Lloyd Garrison.
Good call! I forgot about this movie…lately I’ve been foaming at the mouth over 300 and the Transformers Movie.
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The list grows on!
“…we can always change for the better, no matter what our lives have been.”
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Is there something you want to tell us, Peter? Doues this mean you’re finally colapsing under the weight of your conscience and becoming a Democrat? ‘Cause you know, this William Wilberforce character seems like a flaming liberal!
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Kidding aside, I checked out your post – well done, Peter. I also check out the trailer. This seems like a fun movie and I hope it lives up to our expectations.
A fuller version of the story of the end of salvery in Britain can be heard in this story from last saturday’s Weekend Edition on NPR.
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The historian interviewed gives more information on the political forces which created the environment for change, the group which created the political organizing tactics which are second nature today, like the graphical political poster.
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But most importantly, he corrects the popular story surrounding Newton and the writing of “Amazing Grace”. I encourage people to listen to it to understand more of who Newton really was and how, ‘I was blind, but now I see’ was more figurative than literal when it came to Newton and his change of heart regarding slavery.
and it was quite interesting. You can listen to it here. Newton, it seems, knew he had been wrong about slavery and that abolitionism was the morally required position — yet, despite his religious awakening, he couldn’t quite get himself there, largely because of his own financial interests which remained tied up in the slave trade. His wonderful hymn didn’t actually reflect his own life.