Slavery Still Continues Despite William Wilberforce

I see a lot of movies but rarely write about them.  But I must write about the remarkable film  Amazing Grace which I saw last week.

William Wilberforce, young, handsome and rich was great friends with William Pitt, son of a Prime Minister (William Pitt the Elder) who  become Prime Minister himself at the age of 24.

After his conversion to Christianity as a young man, William Wilberforce brought his religion into politics and while it took him 25 years, he brought about an end to the slave trade on British ships which had made many of his fellow members of Parliament quite rich.

Amazing Grace is an old-fashioned epic, wonderfully acted with sumptuous sets and  also a deeply inspiring movie.  Even the New Yorker liked it.

Amazing Grace,” a vibrant historical epic about the ending of the slave trade in the British Empire, offers what might be called an ideal of virile ethical activity.....Yet, as square as this movie is, it has been made with eloquence and jaunty high spirits, and it tells a good story that is virtually unknown here.
New Yorker  review - no permalinks so go to issue 2007-03-05

What inspired Wilberforce, the American abolitionists and the Martin Luther King was the power of their faith. 

Jonathan Bean writes about Wilberforce in Ignatius Insight
... without his life-changing conversion to Christianity, Wilberforce might have lived a forgettable life as a rich man's son. Instead, he helped give birth to new freedom in the British Empire, hope in America, and inspiration to abolitionists everywhere. Today, with slavery spreading in Africa and Asia, and according to Amnesty International an estimated 27 million in slavery worldwide, Amazing Grace is more than a period piece: it is a timely and enduring lesson on what one man can do to stop the spread of evil.

Sadly, the Muslim world never had a Wilberforce or abolitionists.
What You Didn't Know About Slavery

In many parts of the Arab world, there are still slaves, a custom they keep even when they come to the United States as I was shocked to learn about Slavery in My Home Town.

Director Michael Apted and Producer Terrence Malick hope to effect with their movie Amazing Grace, An Amazing Change - A Campaign to Carry on Wilberforce's Vision of Mercy and Justice.
They have gathered an impressive group of partners.

Go sign the petition already.