“Too preachy?” That’s a new one to me. Hollywood is taking out all the factual, religious elements of the movie Amazing Grace and replacing them with secular, humanistic socio-political motives. From the Wall Stree Journal (subscription required):

Hollywood’s ‘Amazing’ Glaze
By CHARLOTTE ALLEN
Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2007; Page W11

…Alas, a lot of people watching “Amazing Grace,” Michael Apted’s just-released film, may get the impression — perhaps deliberately fostered by Mr. Apted — that Wilberforce was a mostly secular humanitarian whose main passion was not Christian faith but politics and social justice. …

… it is impossible to understand Wilberforce’s long antislavery campaign without seeing it as part of a larger Christian impulse….

Nowadays it is all too common — and not only in Hollywood — to assume that conservative Christian belief and a commitment to social justice are incompatible. …

Unfortunately director Apted, as he recently told Christianity Today magazine, decided to play down Wilberforce’s religious convictions — that would be too “preachy,” he said — and instead turned his story into a yarn of political triumph. …

What in the heck does Hollywood think “Amazing Grace” is, anyway? A triumph of secular humanism over slavery?

I was looking forward to seeing this movie precisely because I thought it was a pro-Christian movie, and I’m flabbergasted they would downplay the part that was most interesting to me, yet still leave the title as “Amazing Grace.”