Aaron Keith Harris
2007-03-02 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Some commentators have been quick to note that “Amazing Grace,” the recently released biopic of British abolitionist and member of Parliament William Wilberforce, plays down its hero’s fervent evangelical faith. The implication is that director Michael Apted’s film is just another instance of Hollywood satisfying its bias against Christianity in favor of secularism.

At first glance, they may have a case. Wilberforce’s campaigns against immorality and vice — including the gambling he enjoyed as a young man — are not explored. Neither is his support for missionary evangelism, which included fighting for legislation to make it part of the British East India Company’s charter.

Wilberforce’s admirable love for animals and opposition to animal cruelty does make the cut, partly because it neatly parallels his opposition to the dehumanizing slave trade. But also because it does not offend our modern sensibilities.

Talk of Christ himself is also kept to a minimum, leaving Wilberforce (played rather well by Welshman Ioan Gruffudd) looking merely like a decent, if ambitious, chap who would be out canvassing for Greenpeace if he were around today. But stripping the principal motive from the protagonist in a historical drama is not really the best way for a director to develop that character. Could a film like “Malcolm X” be done without the pilgrimage to Mecca?

But “Amazing Grace” tells an enriching story, while dodging excess criticism — or worse, indifference — from film critics and moviegoers in a cultural marketplace with segregated slots for “Christian” or “family” entertainment.

Just as his friend William Pitt the Younger is about to become prime minister, Wilberforce begins to rediscover his childhood faith. He wants to quit politics to become a preacher, but those who know him best are shocked. Why should a young man peculiarly equipped with political skills abandon the chance to use them?

Pitt, for mostly selfish reasons, wants Wilberforce to stay in the game and suggests abolition as a cause worthy of both God and country. Wilberforce gets the same advice from his childhood preacher John Newton, the reformed slave-ship captain who wrote the song for which the film is named. (For more on Newton and the song, see Steve Turner’s excellent “Amazing Grace: The Story of America’s Most Beloved Song.”)

Wilberforce listens, and sets to work doing the noblest thing a politician can do. He appeals to the reason and morality of his countrymen in order to alleviate individual suffering and expand individual liberty. There aren’t many politicians using that approach today. Not on global warming. Not on abortion. Not on immigration. Not on the war. And certainly not on the size and role of government.

Getting out the party base is more important than changing hearts and minds. And there’s just no one on the scene now who is as talented and thoughtful as Wilberforce apparently was.

Knowing more about Wilberforce’s religious beliefs would have likely explained the personal drive that kept the public man going. He had a disease that caused a badly inflamed colon, which kept him weak and dependent on laudanum, the preferred painkiller of the day. Yet he kept working, doing his best to help millions of people he would never meet and who could never help him.

Christian faith certainly isn’t the only source of good works, and it’s not the only thing that goads a man when he would rather quit. But it was both of those things for Wilberforce, and “Amazing Grace” would have been a better film for acknowledging that.

Aaron Keith Harris writes about politics, the media, pop culture and music and is a regular contributor to National Review Online and Bluegrass Unlimited. He can be reached at aaronkeithharris@gmail.com.