Amazing Grace
John Newton wrote “Amazing Grace” two-hundred sixty-six years ago. The story behind the hymn is uniquely linked to African American and American history because the author had been the captain of a slave ship.
Throughout his early life, Newton was described to be reckless and wretched. He trafficked thousands of men, women, and children from Africa to the US slave auction blocks. In 1748, after he nearly lost his life in a violent storm at sea, he started to change. He began to feel the malevolence of the inhumane treatment of those held in bondage. Around 1750, he started preaching and was subsequently ordained by the Anglican church. “Amazing Grace,” describes his life before and after Jesus Christ touched him. As his life transformed, not only did he renounce slavery, he started working to abolish it. He wrote a treatise known as “Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade” that included eyewitness accounts of the appalling conditions on slave ships and the brutal treatment of the enslaved.
On June 26, 2015, President Barack Obama sang “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of Reverend Clementa Pinkney. He was the pastor and one of nine victims of the church massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The assassin was a young white supremacist, Dylann Roof, who could easily fit the pre-conversion character of John Newton.
The story behind this great hymn is a valuable life lesson that ought to be shared each time the hymn is sung. Only God knows how many John Newtons are out there waiting for life transformation from the touch of Jesus Christ. I believe it could have made a difference in the life of Dylann Roof.
“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”