Pans Amazing Labyrinth of Grace

Okay, the title is a mix of a couple of movies and I'll explain why, kind of. Saturday morning I started to read a book called "A Practical View of Christianity" by William Wilberforce, written in 1797. Yes, that is 1797 not 1997. Never heard of Wilberforce? Neither had I until started reading the book. I read through the introduction by Charles Colson. It told the story of Wilburforce and how he worked in Parliament in England to end Slavery at the end of the 18th century. What is fascinating about him is that he tried for about 10 years to get it done but got nowhere because of the political power of the slave trading companies. He decided the way to fix the problem was to improve people's morality through Christianity first and then their outrage would force the politicians to abolish slavery. And it worked. He wrote the book "A Practical View of Christianity" which basically explains how the "Cultural Christianity" of the day was different than "Real Christianity" and encouraged people to be convicted about what was true and not. He realized that the way to change society was through its morals, instead of trying to beat the politicians.

So I started reading that in the morning and went out to see Pan's Labyrinth with Ryanna in the evening. I had heard that it was good and wanted to check it out. The first preview that showed up was about a guy at the end of the 18th century in Parliament who was trying to abolish slavery through convicting the populace of England. I thought, hmm, I think I've heard this story before. And sure enough, it was about William Wilberforce. The movie's title is "Amazing Grace" because Wilberforce was a friend of John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace. It comes out February 23rd and I'm really excited to see it.

So... Pan's Labyrinth. Turns out it is a Spanish movie subtitled in English but that doesn't bother me since I lived over seas for so many years. The movie is really beautiful and strange in that it is a mix of the attempt to suppress the anti Franco rebellion in Spain in 1944 and a fairytale. It actually works though and Ryanna and I really enjoyed the movie.