Devotional

Courage, Character and Civility

Randy Kilgore

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If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

It was a moment it took twenty years of unbelievable sacrifice to manufacture, and even then it would be another twenty-seven years before the real celebration could begin. 

Still, it was a moment for the ages.

Britain’s Attorney General Samuel Romilly stood to deliver a speech before the House of Commons on the matter of ending the practice of slave trading in the British Empire.  In his usual place that evening, William Wilberforce watched the proceedings unfold with a lifetime of emotion sweeping through him.  Here, in this very same hall in 1787, Wilberforce had first proposed the unthinkable: That the British Empire should not engage in, nor allow, the practice of slavery.

From the moment he first spoke up, Wilberforce became one of the most hated men in the history of the British Empire.  No thinking man, common wisdom declared, could believe an Empire can be maintained without slavery.  His foes would be found in the Royal Family, among his fellow Parliamentarians, and among the elite of British history.  Even Admiral Lord Nelson, he of British Royal Navy heroics, publicly yearned for the chance to do battle against Wilberforce on the matter of slavery.

Wilberforce wasn’t just attacked verbally, either, but physically as well.  In the face of such formidable opposition, Wilberforce wrote in his diary: “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners.”

In other words, not only was Wilberforce intent on destroying one of history’s greatest evils, but he intended to do so in a way that rejected returning hate for hate, vitriolic volley for vitriolic volley.  He further argued that social reform not based on faith carried the flaws of humanity into those reforms, ultimately hurting the very people needing help.  So he set about to make it fashionable to believe in Jesus Christ again; a first step, he argued, in any society wanting to help the weak and oppressed.

So, on that vaunted night in 1807, two miracles occurred.  First, even before Attorney General Romilly finished his speech, Wilberforce’s peers were on their feet pointing to him and cheering in the boisterous fashion known only to British politicians.  One of his peers took it up a notch, and the dignity of the British Empire dissolved into an emotional chorus of hurrahs surely heard in the most distant corners of heaven.

William Wilberforce, once Britain’s most hated man, sat quietly in his seat, tears streaming down his cheeks as one after another after another parliamentarian cast a yes vote, ending slave trading 283-16!

Still, much work remained.  While slave trading was now illegal, slavery and slave ownership were not.  Back to work the evangelical Wilberforce went, a man led to Christ (in God’s ironic majesty) by former slave-trader John Newton, the author of the haunting hymn “Amazing Grace.”  Wilberforce himself would often declare that before meeting Christ, he lived and served only himself, and after meeting Christ, he lived and served the oppressed. 

Again, Wilberforce and his allies refused the easy path of partisan rancor and incivility in public debate.  While Americans took up arms to settle the matter in the disastrous and tragic American Civil War, England finished the job on the self-same floor of the House of Commons.  Believing that how he changed culture was as important as the changes itself, Wilberforce set a course any leader in any culture could follow—if only they had the courage and patience to do so.

At long last, on July 26, 1833, colleagues raced to approve the Act of Emancipation, forever abolishing slavery and slave ownership from the British Empire.  Across town, too ill to be present for this final victory in the most important work of his life, the joyous news was delivered to England’s best-loved citizen.  His earthly work finished, William Wilberforce went to meet the Savior face to face.

In an age ravaged by sinful actions stamped with the human signature of legality, it is not enough for Christians to stand against the stream of culture.  In standing, we must also bring honor to the One whose name we carry; finding ways to change hearts and minds instead of looking for new enemies on the horizon.

Courage, character and civility matter. In the lives of those who seek to represent Jesus Christ, that trio of traits must surely be viewed as inseparable.

Randy Kilgore is Vice-President and Senior Writer for Marketplace Network, a non-profit organization whose primary mission is to motivate and equip Christians to apply faith to work. You can reach him at rkkcak@aol.com