Amazing Grace

Today after church, Mrs. rightviewfromtheleftcoast and I took in the movie "Amazing Grace" and I must say that it did, in fact, exceed my expectations.
The story of William Wilburforce is not unlike great people in history who feel torn. In Mr. Wilburforce's case, it was whether to stay in politics and pursue ending the abominable slave trade or to do it from the spiritual. We all knew what Mr. Wilburforce chose and while it took a long time, he lived to see his goal of abolishing the slave trade, long before the United States fought a civil war over, ostensibly, slavery. We have to remember, other issues were involved in that as well.
The amazing aspect of this movie is the fact that it does not varnish in any way what motivated Mr. Wilburforce. It was his relationship with God. It was God moving him to end the worst thing I could think of doing to another human being.
So much of the garbage that passes for movies that come out of Hollywood does more to distort than edify. Just ask Tom Clancy. Everyone of his books that were brought to the big screen was changed in one way or another. In the latest, "The Sum Of All Fears", the Islamic terrorists that were portrayed in the book suddenly became Nazis in the movie. Don't want to offend the sensibilities of Islamics.
That being said, this movie has the kind of message of the positive force that Christianity is. It is about redemption. In the movie, a member of parliament ended up traveling on a slave ship and that changed his mind about the insanity and inhumanity of the slave trade. What it does not bring up, and it really would not make it relevant, is who sold the slaves and that many were Islamic.
"Amazing Grace" is what the Christian message is about. I hope that there will be more movies like this. One more thing. It was absolutely refreshing to see so many young people, especially teenagers. This is one way to reach a youth that hungers for a positive message, not the trash of the pop culture