God @ the Movies: Amazing Grace

The film Amazing Grace has a US release on Feb. 23 (none in Canada yet). It is the story of William Wilberforce's political opposition to slavery. His politics were most informed, of course, by his faith and his understanding of what it means to oppress another human being made in the image of God.

A vocal Christian -- and a renowned orator -- he expressed his opposition to slavery with great passion, writing: "If it please God to honour me so far, may I be the instrument of stopping such a course of wickedness and cruelty as never before disgraced a Christian country." Wilberforce spearheaded a movement which, after many years of struggle, led to the 1807 abolition of human trafficking throughout the British Empire.

I am encouraged by the release of this film, not least because it is another in a line of films that is Christian-based and quality. Until recently the only Christian movies which had money behind them had to do with the "rapture"-- a horrific myth of evangelicalism, that somewhere along the way got mistaken for gospel truth-- the disappearance of all the Christians from the world so the world is left to its own demise. Good Hollywood plot, bad Biblical theology. But that is a story for another day.

Amazing Grace might help the churches begin to think about social justice. It might get us reflecting on the message of Philemon: in a world run by the economy of slavery, the Roman Empire, Paul sends Onesimus a run-away slave back to his owner, Philemon, and declares that all slavery/social barriers are abolished in Christ. Hopefully this film helps the church to realize that mission does not have to choose between evangelism or social justice--but that they are two sides of the same coin-- you can't have one without the other.

The gospel declares that God has worked in Christ to restore humanity and that every human being inrecious in his sight and that those who put their faith and trust in his saving work are forgiven and made a part of his covenant family, not because of anything we can do but because of what he has done (which is what grace itself is all about; undeserved favor). But the gospel does not leave this world unchanged--those presently in relationship with God thorugh Christ are called to reflect God's image in the world in order to re-humanize it. We are called to pray and live the Lord's Prayer: to do what we can to see God bring his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Fighting for those Jesus called "the least of these" is part of fulfilling that role.