Update: The Amazing Grace website has changed! See update for details.
Today the film Amazing Grace is released in the UK (we are thinking of going as my Mum is staying so we have a ready made babysitter!). This Sunday is Amazing Grace Sunday, where churches all around the UK remember the work ofWilliam Wilberforce. In light of this, a first for my blog, I have a guest blogger, David McNeish who writes:
Amazing Grace is a new film telling the powerful and compelling story of Wilberforce’s determined campaign to abolish slavery. On the 200th anniversary of abolition there is much to reflect on and learn from in that story.
It is therefore a great shame that the accompanying website and ‘campaign’, Amazing Change, whilst providing compelling case studies, says so little of any substance to help address the issue today.
Its ten points for action lack efficacy. Watching a film, discussing it with friends, starting a blog - these are easy things but are only of any worth if they lead to action that secures lasting change. Otherwise we end up discussing how to tithe herbs and neglect justice.
In terms of securing change the website offers signing a petition, to be presented to unspecified governments at undetermined times. It also suggests writing to your congressman - of limited value to the thousands of people outside the US who will watch the film. Or you can attend a youth rally and shout ‘freedom’. This is far more likely to result in losing your voice than in gaining justice for the millions in slavery.
Of greater concern is the misguided endorsement of partners helping to tackle slavery. This includes links to some English local authorities and the Royal Navy. Whatever work the Royal Navy may be doing in tackling slavery (atoning for past sins?), it is not clear from the weblink. Instead their site seeks to recruit young people in to the Armed Forces - a curious priority for an antislavery campaign.
It may be worth asking WWWT - What Would Wilberforce Think?
A further source of disappointment is the failure to connect our own actions in Western society with both slavery and slavery like conditions.
‘Poverty is the new slavery‘ Jim Wallis
>Poverty is the breeding ground of many evils, including slavery. The actions and inactions of Western nations in both causing and failing to alleviate extreme poverty were brought to prominence by the Make Poverty History campaign. Much remains to be done.
And on an individual level, we may not be a Cabinet Minister or a CEO of a multinational company, but our lifestyles compound the problem. Our demand for cheap products, for luxury and comfort necessitates others being enslaved to produce them - whether directly, as in the slavery which props up cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire, or indirectly in the slavery like conditions resulting from, for example, the poverty caused by cash crops, deforestation or polluting factories. Here workers are effectively enslaved by low wages and terrible conditions to produce goods that no one needs, instead of building houses, schools and hospitals.
In the 19th century the people of Largo, a village near St Andrews, resolved to boycott sugar and rum. Why? They said they were “denying themselves the indulgence of delicacies that are prepared by cruel stripes”. They made the link between their actions and the slavery of others.
We need to change our lifestyle, ask others to do the same and ask those in power to use that power for the good of all of God’s children.
Part 2 tomorrow - Some suggestions for action.
[More on Guidance in Community next week]
David McNeish is part of Community Church Edinburgh, and works in the area of social policy. He has from childhood been passionate about justice and poverty, and when he preaches in church, these are topics that are never far from his lips!
Tags: Amazing Change, Jim Wallis, Slavery, Wilberforce
Hear hear!
Thanks Dave, look forward to seeing some practical comments. Very sad to see an excellent opportunity for change (the film) has turned into a meaningless hype by the promoters.
You make some great points, DAve. Looking forward to reading your practical suggestions.
Saw a very interesting programme recently where Moira Stuart (the BBC newsreader) took a journey to Africa, the Caribbean and some parts of the UK (including Birmingham and London) to find out the true story behind the abolition of slavery in the UK.
The programme did less for Wilberforce’s image but a lot more for the other people involved at the time. Wilberforce wasn’t as anti-slavery as he could have been and was really just the figure head for an already powerful movement. He’s painted in the film as being the lone ranger in the fight against slavery.
When going to see the film it will be worth bearing in mind that it’s based on a true story and not the whole truth. As always Hollywood has left something out in the interest of telling a powerful story without any inconvenient complications or nuances of reality.
Thinking on slavery a moment - and democracy and human rights in general - it’s interesting that Jesus didn’t say that slavery was wrong - only that slaves/servants should obey their masters . . . .
That doesn’t mean that slavery is at all right, it isn’t, but it’s an interesting thought that Jesus was less concerned with the rights of the individual to freedom of action and speech as he was interested in their freedom of sin.
hi Dave, thanks for your thoughts and for being a guest blogger - keep keeping rupert on his toes
guys - thanks for the comments. I am not dave, but i do thank you for your contributions.
I haven’t yet seen the film (longish story!), but i gather it also downplays the faith of wilberforce. I had a fascinating time in cambridge (where wilberforce was at uni i think) and he definately had a huge role to play, but there was a good group of people part of the story too. Wilberforce was probably the spokesperson.
There is fact in the conversation between newton and wilberforce, and that was the turning point for him.
Anyone else know more about this?
Very good points. Congratulations about the website as well.
Getting a currency exchange tax could be just as difficult as abolishing slavery, given the enormous profits involved.
Jesus was rightly more concerned about sin, but his kingdom does not stop in church. And freedom of speech and action is one of God’s foremost principles (many people mistake it for inactivity). Man removes it when he, in his wisdom, thinks he can be God, and create heaven without the cross. What he makes is hell, because he silenced the people who are warning him about it.
About poverty, if growing cash crops makes economic sense to farmers, it is not slavery. If it doesnt then you need to tell them. People say that they are trapped, and of course poor people find it more difficult to “diversify”, but are they really powerless? Shouldnt we be encouraging them that they have the power?
I have great respect for Tearfund who find ways to help people help themselves, through my brother (he just made a very Tearfund hoodie for himself that reads, cryptically “Correct the Human: A.I. but smarter”. (Amnesty International’s motto is “Protect the Human” - he is also a member)
Also, what about the africans who sold their neighbours to the europeans? I just watched a program that said as many as half died even before being packed into a boat.
And what about the racist anti-judaeo-christian spiritualism of the time? That saw the pure aryans as superior to the ape-like africans. Dare I say it was scarily similar to New-Age stuff. Does anyone know what the religious meaning of a swastika is? Its actually has pretty good vibes
Anon-Andrew