Humble courage

William Wilberforce reasoned with opponents but did not rant at them | Marvin Olasky

You'll probably hear something about William Wilberforce this month, because an important 200th anniversary is coming. On Feb. 23, 1807, the double-decade determination of Member of Parliament Wilberforce finally brought results when the House of Commons voted to abolish the British slave trade. Year after year, voted down, he had not responded bitterly, and this time the other MPs stood and gave three hurrahs as Wilberforce bowed his head and wept at the culmination of his long battle.

Others are cheering in 2007. Washington, D.C., has a Wilberforce Forum, under Chuck Colson's auspices, and that organization plus the Trinity Forum sponsored Wilberforce Weekends last month. A major film biography of Wilberforce, Amazing Grace, is scheduled to hit theaters across the United States on the bicentennial, Feb. 23. A documentary, The Better Hour: William Wilberforce, A Man of Character Who Changed The World, is scheduled for television broadcast this fall in the United States and the United Kingdom. Members of the state legislature in Alaska have a Clapham Fellowship, named after the British group Wilberforce headed.