thought for the day for BBC radio Humberside earlier this year

The faith that drove Wilberforce

On 1st June 1787 King George III issued a ‘Proclamation of Piety and Virtue’. It called on all persons of honour and authority to set a good moral example themselves and help reform persons of dissolute and debauched lives. I’m afraid it did try to ban dice and card-playing on Sundays! But it was the beginning of campaign to bring about a more moral Britain. Over the coming years, great public figures took up important moral causes like slave –trade abolition and ending child labour in factories and many, many other life-improving measures, which would in time bring in the modern welfare state. And the man behind that initial campaign in 1787 was none other than the 27 year old MP for Yorkshire, our own William Wilberforce.
 
Ten years later William Wilberforce wrote an account of his Christian beliefs which underpinned all his causes in a book called A Practical View. It became a best seller. It was translated into 5 languages and could be found in the homes of rich and poor alike. Perhaps one reason for its success was that he avoided adopting a furious, hectoring style for one of charm and charity. ‘A spoonful of honey is better than a barrel-full of vinegar’ said St Francis de Sales. As one reviewer put it, ‘fervour drove in harness with love for those whose faults he exposed’. Wilberforce was concerned that Christianity was on the back foot in terms of its national influence. He warned that ‘the time is fast approaching when Christianity will be almost as openly rejected in language as it has also disappeared in the behaviour of men’. The fact that Christianity in fact grew phenomenally throughout the 19th century, and was a driving force in the social reform too, was due in no small measure to the faith of Wilberforce.
 
Perhaps we need the vision and determination of Wilberforce once again. The archbishop of York, John Sentamu, was in Hull recently, speaking at a conference at the KC Stadium. He quoted Desmond Tutu of South Africa saying: ‘I don’t know what bible people are reading when they say that faith and politics don’t mix.’ Wilberforce certainly wouldn’t agree with those who want to keep them apart. Archbishop Sentamu coined a lovely expression which should both comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable: ‘Faith is the spiritual engine of change’. We’ve a right to ask ourselves: are we happy with the society around us? Violence on our streets, the highest teenage pregnancy & abortion rates in Europe, damage to the environment caused by the greed of more-goirsie societies.
 
Perhaps we could do more than just toast William Wilberforce in this bi-centenary year of his great achievement, the abolition of the slave trade. Perhaps we could attend more closely to his faith, which was the spiritual engine that drove him to change his country and the course of world history.