Amazing Grace

William Wilberforce was a rising young political star when an earth-shattering event altered the course of his life forever: he found God. Or, rather, as he explained it, "I think He found me."

Amazing Grace, a Bristol Bay Productions film, tells his story, one that cries out to be heard by the apathetic world of today.

God didn't leave Wilberforce alone for long. As he grappled with his newly-found faith, Wilberforce was faced with a dilemma.

"We understand you're having problems choosing whether to do the work of God or the work of a political activist", a group of mysterious visitors told him one evening.

"We humbly suggest...that you can do both."

And he did. Amazing Grace is the story of that battle: one man in Parliament versus his country's largest profit machine. A small band of friends versus evil. All of them fighting an impossible battle.

Wilberforce: "No one of our age has ever taken power."
Pitt the Younger: "Which is why we're too young to realize that certain things are impossible. Which is why we will do them anyway."

And so Wilberforce devotes his life to righting a wrong that has plagued him for years - slavery. He gives his brightest years of life to the cause. He gives his health, his sleep, his mind, his soul. His everything. Any hope of a peaceful family life is crushed by the commitment.

But years later, the only thing Wilberforce has won is ridicule. Bitter and depressed, he withdraws to the country to mull over his failures.


"It's only painful to talk about because we haven't changed anything," he says.

The determined Barbara Spooner draws him out, forcing Wilberforce to confront his past. "...If there is a bad taste in your mouth", she scolds him, "you spit it out. You don't constantly swallow it back." And later: "You still have passion! That matters more!"

After they marry, Wilberforce returns to London renewed and once again surrounds himself with his closest friends and confidants, this time a group freshly zealous to end the slave trade once and for all. With a new strategy and revived passion, they continue the fight.

"Your life is a thread. It breaks, or it doesn't break," Equiano, a former slave, comments. Righteousness, however, stretches on - a reality greater than yourself, bigger than anything you could possibly hope to be.

When the slave trade is finally outlawed, there is no doubt: every failure was worth it. As Lord Fox proclaims: "William Wilberforce will return to his family, lay his head on his pillow, and remember the slave trade is no more."

That's not the end of the battle, of course - but it is one glorious victory in the struggle for the sanctity of life. It demonstrates what happens when good men do something.

Amazing Grace reminds us that some things are worth fighting for. Worth giving all you've got - the last drop of blood, the last tear, the last breath. In a world where selfishness is the norm, Wilberforce shows us that there are things that transcend a life of comfort and complacency. Things worth doing.

Twisted Justice

"Mercy, detached from Justice, grows unmerciful."
- C.S. Lewis

Several weeks ago, I was standing in the Senate Gallery of my State Capitol. Two Senators had just begun to filibuster a pro-life bill that would prevent Planned Parenthood from teaching in public schools and put more restrictions on abortion clinics. I was watching them closely when another Senator slipped in behind me and began speaking to another woman in the gallery.

"I am so excited!"*, the Senator bubbled, putting her hand over her heart and smiling. "I just got an email with the most exciting news! There's a man who was given the death penalty and has been sitting in prison since 1996, but I just received word that he has been granted a retrial. Hopefully we'll be able to get the poor fellow a much lighter sentence. I'm going to try to get him out on probation as soon as possible!"

The other woman expressed her delight, and they began to speak softly of the possibilities for the felon's release. When they had finished, the Senator tossed her head and stepped toward the door. "I'd better get back down there", she declared with chagrin. "After something wonderful like this, I have to go down and worry about that." She motioned with disgust toward the Senate floor, where the abortion debate was still going strong. "See you later."

Her words brought to mind Isaiah 1:16,17: "...Seek justice, reprove the ruthless; defend the orphan..." In our society, these priorities are often twisted - the ruthless are defended and the vulnerable are oppressed!

Isaiah further states:

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20)

Since when did the guilty merit more compassion than the innocent?

*dialogue to the best of my remembrance

Ideas Control the World

Adapted from a speech given at the Missouri TeenPact class, March 2006.

A few days ago, when we were all in the Capitol rotunda for the class photograph, I noticed a unique inscription carved on the Capitol wall. It stated simply, "Ideas Control the World."

I ignored the photographer for a moment to focus on the implications of that statement. Do ideas really control the world?

I have come to the conclusion that they do.

Thousands of years ago, God had the first idea. He imagined creating something in His own image, something that He could fellowship and commune with. Someone that would bring Him glory and enrich His life. So He created the first man, and the world has never been the same since.

Then man had an idea. Wouldn't it be a thrill to taste the forbidden fruit? To revel in the delicacies that God had banned?

Mankind acted on that urge, and the world was changed forever on that tragic day.

Not very long afterwards, another human being had another idea, an evil one. His brother had offended him, so what could prevent him from taking revenge?

He acted on that idea, and the first murder was committed.

What followed was a long cycle of hate, tyranny, self-will, and oppression. Most people lived for themselves, rejecting God.

Then God had another idea. Mankind had become corrupt and full of evil ideas, so why not rescue them from the terrible path they were on? Why not send Christ to enrich mankind with beautiful ideas and wash away the punishment they deserved for all the dreadful consequences of their terrible actions, fueled by rebellious ideas?

So God sent His son, the Messiah, who washed away the sins of the world and gave mankind an eternal opportunity for redemption.

And so the battle of ideas began again. A rift was formed between those with naturally evil ideas and those whose ideas had been transformed by the love of Christ.

Eventually the world sunk into a period known as the Dark Ages, a time when fresh ideas were stifled by the tyrannical web of illiteracy, confusion, and lies.

Finally, people began to have new ideas again. A man named Martin Luther dreamed of spiritual freedom and independence. Gutenberg had an idea that evolved into the printing press, which in turn produced books, especially the Bible, that refreshed the continent's ideas with hope and creativity. The Protestant Reformation was born.

Individuals like Bunyan, Milton, Knox, Michelangelo, and many others were full of fresh ideas that inspired others. The citizenry wrote and read books, traveled, and made new scientific discoveries.

In France, however, the citizenry was dancing to a different drumbeat. The humanistic ideas of the so-called Enlightenment, led by men like Rousseau and Voltaire, rebelled against traditional moral values,replacing them with permissive policies that encouraged civil anarchy and the bloody revolution that ultimately followed. The world watched and wondered.

Meanwhile, the egalitarian ideas of a few pioneers produced America, a land of ideas and thoughts that would become a blessing to civilization in the years to come.

And now here we are, young and bursting with optimism in a land of nearly limitless possibilities and colossal potential. We are bombarded daily with ideas that have enormous potenial for both good and evil.

Here in our time, we have seen the effects of ideas with our own eyes. The ideas of individuals like Hitler and Stalin cost millions of people their lives and denied liberty to even more. Dangerous ideas are eroding personal responsibility and Biblical morality in our country today. The ideas of moral relativism are indoctrinating society with an apathy that will be its downfall if left unchecked.

Ideas can kill and paralyze. They have the potential to bring horrible destruction. Yet at the same time, ideas can invigorate and heal. They can bless many, freeing millions from oppression and despair.

Today we stand at a crossroads. We are future leaders in the culture war, and the ideas we endorse will change the course of society and shape our worldview. They will control the world.

The ideas and philosophies we choose to live by will shape our every moment, for better or for worse. Be careful how you utilize them, because ideas control the world!