Peace, Heroes, Religion, and Conflict

We watched the movie Amazing Grace last night (Trailer). It is the story of William Wilberforce, the member of Britain's Parliament who headed the movement to abolish the British slave trade.

If you haven't seen the movie, then you must. I think it's a very important film, and a very important story. In any case though, at the end of the movie, after the slave trade has been abolished, one of the members of Parliament says:

When people speak of great men, they think of men like Napoleon--men of violence. Rarely do they think of peaceful men. But contrast the reception they will receive when they return home from their battles. Napoleon will arrive in pomp and in power. The man has achieved the very summit of earthly ambition. Yet his dreams will be haunted by the oppressions of war.

William Wilburforce, however, will return to his family, lay his head on his pillow, and remember the slave trade is no more.

We often focus on the conquerors, the fighters, the defenders. Our heroes are Frodo Baggins, Spiderman, Rocky, Harry Potter, and the armies that defend freedom and human life. But what about the unsung heroes, like William Wilberforce, who helped abolish one of the vilest endeavors that human beings have undertaken. Men of peace, like Wilburforce, deserve equal, if not greater, commendation and respect for their heroic efforts.

Switching gears slightly--When I lived in Sweden, I often encountered individuals that claimed that many, if not all, of the worlds problems find their origin in religious belief. I couldn't say much--think of the Crusades, the fundamentalist Jihad, Hitler, and so forth. Much of our dirty, nasty human history has been bathed in blood, supposedly at the whim of belief in God.

Watching Amazing Grace, however, I realized that this is not entirely true. Wilberforce was driven by the desire to serve the God that he worshiped. He was influenced greatly by his friend John Newton, a man who abandoned the slave trade because of his religious inclinations (and who eventually wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace").

Economics, capitalism, philosophy, biology, prejudice--these were the ideas which condoned the slave trade (and religion was twisted to justify it). While I have no doubt that non-religious individuals contributed greatly to Britain's abolishment of slave trade, the man credited with the victory was not only a person who believes in God, but a person who did what he did because he believes in God. His actions were caused by his spirituality, not merely correlated with it.

This is not intended as a claim that religion is not associated with evil, terror, oppression, and death (because it is). However, I am claiming that religion has also inspired many great individuals to rise above the theories and social trends of their time to perform great things.

I think it inspiring that an individual's personal sense of spirituality can motivate them to do great things. Many view theists as weak, dependent, strange, illogical, etc., but I think that is a poor stereotype. I think that, as with anything, religion can be used to justify, discriminate, and bring about horrible things, it can also inspire, motivate, and effect great change.