[This is the fourth and last of Paul Cowan's reflections on the film Amazing Grace. Thanks, Paul, for letting us share in your thinking and reflection!]

Faithfulness, without ‘theories’ and predictions of success, seems the only way forward in society, doesn’t it? Hope is only anchored in the belief that there will be an ultimate end to “this world” - maybe 2 yrs down the road, or 2,000 yrs, or maybe even 200,000 yrs! - and an ultimate, “new earth and new heaven”. Right?

So, I think we work for the cup of cold water for this person and that family; and we just continue until we die. It is enough. If God gives a broader success, PTL. If it doesn’t come, while we continue to work for it, we just continue to work for it. And sometimes martyrdom comes. Which is not sought for (like Islam), but is accepted.

Scripture do seem to indicate a reward comes “later” - The Real reward.

I say all the above, living a contradiction: the single most important theological phrase for what I do, in my vocation, is: “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven”.

What expectations does the Bible really hold out for us for successes here on earth?
If conceivably some Wilberforces, and some Clapham Societies, did emerge today, what hopes should there really be? Besides slavery, it was the reform of “manners” (societal values) Wilberforce aimed at. Again, where is Britain on that today? Or for that matter, the USA? Especially in light of the fact that less than 50% of the boys today grow up with a living and intimate experience of a father! Where will we be in 20 years?

This is Paul’s third reflection on the film Amazing Grace:

I fight “the truth about myself” [and the world] all the time. It is not nice or fun, usually, to give in to the truth - our utter need of God’s love, grace, and mercy. Catholic and Orthodox theology even fight ideas like “total depravity” - usually misunderstanding them. That doctrine, properly understood, does not say, I think, that we are as bad as we can be, but that badness is everywhere. Like the tares among the wheat, it is in amongst every goodness and that goodness is never “pure”, but always tempted. Good is really good when it acknowledges that proximity of evil and fights it. I do believe Catholics and Orthodox are at times better at noting “goodness” here and there than Protestants (Evangelicals), - but this also carries with it the weakness of unwillingness to face “self-deceptions”, and unwillingness to really face the depth of the evil virus inside of us all - including collective societal diseases, like the one’s challenging now our Wilberforce idealisms.

My good friend Paul Cowan sent me a long email with some important reflections about the film “Amazing Grace” and the example of William Wilberforce and the “Clapham Society”. He’s graciously allowed me to post his thoughts in four blog entries. This is the first. I’d be very interested in your thoughts and comments.

After seeing “Amazing Grace” and reflecting on the story of how Wilberforce and his friends fought slavery in the British Empire, I wondered how in the pluralistic society of today such a thing could take place.

We now have more slavery in the world than before - and now it’s girls & women and children, as well as many men. We also have newer forms of slavery, like drugs, that crisscross around the globe via networks that make the British Empire’s “systems” look like child’s play - both in terms of the numbers of people enslaved, and in the sophistication of the networks. This prevents them from being dismantled by a political vote in some Parliament.

It was amazing to see that it was pirates’ boats, egged on by the change of ship flags that in fact, if I understand correctly, really began to undo the British system of slavery. What possibly could be an equivalent today?

This does not discount the “victory” of Wilberforce and the Clapham Society with Pitt’s and John Newton’s help … but in having them as our heroes we must avoid any triumphalism; that has no place this side of heaven.

Frances Schaffer said abortion was THE issue for evangelicals in the 21st century, along with all the related ills it reflects (inward soft worldviews) and ills it spawns such as new moralities, like homosexuality, that care less for children.

Well, we are not doing very well on that one. I’m beginning to doubt that a broad STRONG consensus on anything could built among believers - and then, second, from believers across society - largely because broad cultural and societal networks and solidarities of any kind hardly exist any longer. Our society is characterized by more individual freedoms and less “co-dependency” - at least in the mind and heart. These things work AGAINST social reforms and social revivals. Without these cultural solidarities and strong social “peer-driven” networks, how could movements such as happened in Wilberforce’s and Wesley’s times take place at all, even over a 20 year period?

For you that are privileged to live in Boise, Idaho: (-;
“The Lives of Others” is showing this weekend at “The Flicks” in the downtown.
The show times are 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 Saturday and Sunday.
I don’t know if it will be showing after that.

Secret Police Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe)

Back when the Berlin wall still divided the city and the country itself was split, a unit of our ministry team regularly traveled secretly to encourage believers in small groups and churches in the former GDR (the communist east). Occasionally, Ann and I would also visit Christians in East Berlin, smuggling in Christian literature on one occasion. Today, it is hard for people to really comprehend how pervasive the presence of the Stasi (Secret Police) really was in the East. The film that won an Oscar for the best Foreign Language film comes close to recreating that atmosphere and the moral challenges it produced on the screen. I watched it twice in German on my last trip to Berlin and want to recommend it to you (with one caveat - see below).

The film revolves around the life of an average officer in the Stasi and an assignment he receives to spy on the life of a theater director and his girlfriend, a well-known actress. A dedicated servant to the state, he is increasingly forced to reconsider his commitments as it becomes clear that the reason for his assignment is that a member of the communist party Central Committee simply wants the director eliminated as a rival for the attentions of the actress. The tension increases to the breaking point. The director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, described the background to the film on the film website:

Other people we knew had very normal jobs, yet one could see the fear in all of them, right up to the end of the regime. Fear of the Stasi (The State Security), fear of the 100,000 highly trained employees whose sights were trained on one thing: ‘The Lives of Others’: the lives of those who thought differently, who were too free spirited and above all, the artists and people working in the arts. Every aspect of life was recorded. There was no private sphere and nothing was sacred, not even one’s closest family members… In the film, each character asks questions that we confront every day: how do we deal with power and ideology? Do we follow our principles or our feelings? The Lives of Others is a human drama about the ability of people to do the right thing, no matter how far they have gone down the wrong path.

Jesus recognized that there can be degrees of responsibility resulting from a political situation. He stated to Pilate: “The one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” (John 19:11) But he did not excuse the Governor from personal responsibility: the sin was one of degree.
Can people really rise beyond the system they are in? That is a vital human question that this film explores. Watch for it when it comes to your city. (By the way: it is in German with English subtitles.) One caveat: there are a couple of explicit sex scenes. They are not gratuitous, but part of the plot development. Nevertheless, I’d recommend leaving the children at home.

Ann and I saw “Amazing Grace” on Friday evening.
We thought the portrayal of John Newton was particularly powerful.
What did you think about it?
Comments welcome! (-:

I want to strongly encourage you to carve out some time this weekend to see the film “Amazing Grace”, the story of the life and work of William Wilberforce, the British believer who battled for years against enormous odds to abolish the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was produced by Walden Media (Narnia, etc.)
The opening weekend is always crucial for how long a film will remain in theaters.
So, if at all possible, plan to go as soon at it opens near you.
You can check out more about the film and find a theater where it is being shown at the movie website:
www.amazinggracemovie.com

Early on this Good Friday, as we fast and pray, my thoughts turn to one of my favorite scenes from both the book and the film of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers:

“Sam: By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened.”

[Aragorn and Èowyn embrace as Rohan is victorious at Helm's Deep.]

“Sam: But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.”

[The sun shines on Isengard, as Merry, Pippin, and the Ents celebrate victory.]

“Sam: Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.”

“Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?”

“Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

Amen! The darkness of Good Friday will be followed by the dawn of the Resurrection morning. Evil will not triumph! Nothing that is truly good will be lost, because God remembers it; and the good that God remembers He will make real again at the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21).

May you have a blessed Easter!

Tim and Judy Gordon had extra tickets to The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe and invited us to see it with them this evening.

It’s well done (the computer work isn’t quite as spectacular as The Lord of the Rings but is good, solid work.) Above all, it’s true to the original intention of Lewis. See it this weekend if you can. Seanne (our oldest) tells us that it’s the first weekend that really counts in the evaluation of the success or failure of a film, and it’s in the interest of the Kingdom that this one succeed so that more may follow! Why go to Narnia at all?

Aslan himself said it:

‘You are too old, children,’ said Aslan, ‘and you must begin to come close to your own world now.’
‘It isn’t Narnia, you know,’ sobbed Lucy. ‘It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?’
‘But you shall meet me, dear one.’ said Aslan.
‘Are - are you there too, Sir?’ said Edmund.
‘I am,’ said Aslan. ‘But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name.
This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.’”
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, p. 216