Grace

Index - Posting 04 April 2007 Vol. 3:6

…evidence of the grace of God…

Acts 11:23 (NIV)

March 25 th was the Bicentenary of the 200 th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. I had been invited to say a few words at the Saturday service of the Beaulah Spiritual Baptist Church and to preach at the Sunday evening service at North London MCC. On both occasions I began with thoughts on the unofficial anthem of the Bicentennial – John Newton’s hymn Amazing Grace. This is an edited version of what I said.

John Newton was a renown writer of hymns. He was also a renown slave trader.

According to a report in the magazine of the Evangelical Alliance, he “amassed a fortune as a slave trader until his dramatic conversion at age 45.” (He was also, incidentally, a mentor to William Wilberforce who is being showcased as the abolitionist by the Anglicans during a year of celebrations). Albert Finney, who plays Newton in the film Amazing Grace said of the slave trader, “He later suffered a crisis of conscience and left the sea to enter the Church…there he remained and wrote over 200 hymns, including Amazing Grace.”

What he does not say, is said by an Anglican commentator, “ Newton’s conversion might have stopped him from swearing and drinking, but he continued to trade in slaves for six more years.” During which time he allegedly continued to rape female slaves and to hold bible studies and prayer meetings with his crew, whilst slaves were kept in the most appalling conditions in chains beneath his feet in the holds of his ships. I have been unable to find the exact date of the writing of the hymn, Amazing Grace. I want to know when he wrote it. Was it whilst he was a slave trading Christian or as a vicar? Did he make recompense – restitution for his previous life, did he continue to live off his earnings from slavery as a clergy person?

Last month by chance, I met a descendent of William Wilberforce, at a conference on the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on art and design. I explained the reasons for my discomfort with the hymn. He replied that in his opinion, Newton wrote the hymn in connection with his need for repentance from his “swearing and drinking” and not his slave trading activities. I will never feel comfortable singing this hymn until I know whether he redeemed himself sufficiently to make this hymn the celebratory anthem for the abolition of the trans atlantic slave trade.

This is my response to his hymn and the elevation of Wilberforce, over and above the efforts of enslaved and free Africans and other peoples of African and European descent.

Amazing (Diss) grace, how can it be?

That the God fearing churches did not like me.

Stolen, enslaved and shipped to sea.

And in the name of Christianity.

Naked and shackled in the hold of a ship.

Writhing in agony at the feel of the whip.

Are we not created in the image of God?

Yet treated worse than even a dog.

Freedom came from many sources.

Let us honour those different causes.

Owing our liberty to a single man,

Denies the memories of what we can.…Do for ourselves and did.

Heroes and Sheroes through God’s amazing grace

Enabled our passage to a safer place.

Everyone deserves their rightful due

We should not elevate a single hue…But honour all who gave their lives.

Black white brown, whatever the race

Lets remember with a boldness of face

History contains the truth

It’s memories that fade

We must not forget. We must not deny the Truth

For Respect is unreservedly Due!

It was an absolute joy at the Sunday Service, to reclaim the spirit of the hymn by singing it to a reggae beat! Since writing this I have found that Newton ceased slaving in 1754/5, was ordained in 1764, penned Amazing Grace in 1772 and felt remorse for his slave trading past in 1780.

So if the Son liberates you [makes you free people], then you are really and unquestionably free. John 8:36 (Amplified & Inclusified )

May the Spirit of God, help us to understand the piece of grit that enables the pearl to grow.

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