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Christianity Today, March, 2007 |

What Would Wilberforce Do?

The 19th-century abolitionists have much to teach us about politics today.

A Christianity Today editorial | posted 2/19/2007 03:57PM

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Fourth, we should ground our political action in the gospel mandate to make disciples of all nations. The abolitionist movement did not begin as an effort to free slaves and shut down the business of trade in human flesh. It began as a missionary effort.

A group of devout Christians centered around the parish of Teston in Kent had a passion for the conversion of African slaves in the West Indies. The local parish minister, the Rev. James Ramsey, had encountered the slave trade while a surgeon in the Royal Navy and had also ministered on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. White plantation owners there had repeatedly frustrated his attempts to minister to black slaves. Ramsey wrote a passionate book about what he had seen, but he advocated only evangelizing the slaves and bettering their conditions. That book prompted others to get the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to devote its resources to evangelizing Caribbean slaves.

Ramsey's eyewitness reports ignited a firestorm. The fierce reactions to the book and most Christians' lack of evangelistic fervor moved the Teston circle to call for abolition. That's when they drew into their circle a young member of Parliament with phenomenal rhetorical skills. And so William Wilberforce was invited to visit Teston, where he met Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More, and others who would form the activist core for the long fight for abolition.

Wilberforce never forgot that missions was at the root of their movement; when the British East India Company's charter came up for renewal in 1813, he fought successfully to insure that Christian teachers would be sent to India along with the company's entrepreneurs.

Christians should never fear to engage a moral crisis, but we should always ground our work in the gospel mandate.

Related Elsewhere:

The Amazing Change campaign includes a petition to end slavery.

Christian History & Biography has a special section on William Wilberforce and Modern-Day Slavery.

CT Movies' review of Amazing Grace will appear in its special section on Friday.

Charles Colson looked at 'The Wilberforce Strategy' in his most recent column.

Other articles about Wilberforce include:

Model in the Public Square | Hero for Humanity shows how faith can change government. By Cindy Crosby (Christianity Today, January 1, 2003)

Christian History Corner: A Politician Explains the Faith | One hundred fifty years before C. S. Lewis, William Wilberforce wrote the 'Mere Christianity' of his time. (Christianity Today, January 20, 2006)

Abolitionists in Africa | Antislavery, evangelicalism, and the "American factor" in West Africa. (Books & Culture, May 1, 2000)

The How, What, and Why of Christian Politics | Wilberforce's A Practical View of Christianity, and other books on Christians and politics. (Books & Culture, Nov/Dec 1996)

Virtuous Like Us? | Bury the Chains is indeed a riveting history of the British anti-slavery movement. (Books & Culture, May/June 2006)

Story Behind the Song: "Amazing Grace" | John Newton was a wild, young man lost in darkness. Then he found grace. (Today's Christian, January/February 2007)

Every Arrow Needs a Bow | William Wilberforce and the power of community. by John Hart (Re:Generation, July 1, 1998)

A British council recently acquired a letter by Wilberforce.

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March 2007, Vol. 51, No. 3

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Colin Cody

Posted: February 26, 2007 6:06 AM

Biblical Christians should carefully consider my plan (developed on the model of Wilberforce) to free much of the Islamic world relatively quickly from spiritual slavery. In brief, here’s how it goes: We must convince Christian millionaires and billionaires (and non-Christians, even the CIA) that a necessary component in our national battle plan against Islamic terrorism should be to turn warlike Islamics into peaceful Christians. As I see it, this would involve a highly aggressive evangelistic TV, Internet and radio campaign using mostly Islamics who have been converted to Christianity and trained in evangelizing their own people here and abroad. It would become the heart of our long-term approach to defeat the terrorists by bringing the principles of Christian salvation in an attractive, intelligent manner to Muslims worldwide. If we fail to take advantage of this golden opportunity to evangelize Islamics, they will likely forever come to Christ only in very small numbers.

Gordon D. Payne

Posted: February 22, 2007 8:24 AM

Wilberforce demonstrated that it doesn't take a "United Nations" to accomplish a moral imperative. Indeed, his success is largely owing to the fact that his "politics" flowed from his "private" morality,which he, by the Grace of God, conveyed to convince others that it wasn't a matter of mere policy. The moral highground he pursued, and there despite the the rub of expedience, is an example for our time that political impact is not necessarily, nor even preferably, the foundation or even instrumentality for moral action, or its incentive. Rather than focussing on the politics of, for example, terrorism, what is needed are a few good men, inspired by God, to exterminate the crime within several sovereignty, and there Christ's way, not institutionally, but by a witness that convinces each and every of the necessity of sustaining good morality rising above even King Numbers, the fruit of which reflected in an universal resolve to rid humanity of the scourge, beyond the politics. gdp

mary chada wrucke

Posted: February 20, 2007 6:57 PM


News to me, that evangelizm came before the work on freedom. Thanks for an enlightening article.Of course, Christ's freedom should come first-otherwise it's an empty victory

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