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Presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter

Updated September 18, 2022
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Presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter essay

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Name the 200-year-old hit song that is performed an estimated 10 million times per year, has been recorded on more than 11,000 albums, and has been covered by such stars as Aretha Franklin, U2, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and the Irish Tenors. It has even been sung in public by U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter to bring comfort to people in times of pain. This song was the inspiration for a major motion picture, a Broadway musical, at least one book, a 60-minute documentary, and many believe it helped to inspire the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom.

‘It may be the most recorded song on the planet,’ said Broadcast Music Executive Jerry Bailey of Nashville in a 2010 New Haven Register article. It was heralded as, “The world’s most famous hymn in history,” by Christianity Today in a 1991 cover story. That’s an impressive resume for only 171 words. This song is the Christian hymn “Amazing Grace,” written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton in 1779:

Why would John Newton refer to himself as “a wretch,” and as lost, blind and found in this song? Even more, the guiding question to consider as Amazing Grace is studied is: Why did John Newton write it and why has it remained an influential musical treasure for 200 years?

John Newton was an Englishman, born in 1725. His mother was a deeply religious woman who prayed that her son would one day become a minister. Newton’s mom died of tuberculosis when he was only seven years old. By age 11, John decided to become a sailor like his dad. John Newton eventually became the captain of a slave trading boat. After some time, he lost his job because of “unsettled behavior and impatience of restraint.” While still a teen, Newton rebelled against the discipline of the British Royal Navy and deserted. He was caught, put in chains, and flogged, but still remained arrogant and immoral. ‘I sinned with a high hand,’ John Newton later wrote, ‘and I made it my study to tempt and seduce others.” This recollection must have been the “lost, blind, wretch” of Newton’s lyrics.

Newton was eventually reassigned to work on another slave-trading vessel, was forced to work as an actual slave in Africa, and made his way back to sea, but he still didn’t renounce his work in the buying and selling of human lives. One night, Newton was wakened while at sea during a violent storm. His room began to fill with water. As he ran for the deck, the ship’s captain directed John to get a knife, while another man was ordered to the deck in John’s place. The man who ran on-deck was immediately washed overboard.

While anchored in Ireland after the storm, Newton wrote, “Thus far the Lord had wrought a marvelous thing: I was no longer an infidel: I heartily renounced my former profaneness and had taken up some right notions; was seriously disposed, and sincerely touched with a sense of the undeserved mercy I had received.” He ended his thoughts by writing, “Thus, to all appearance, I was a new man.”

“Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far.”

In 1764, the prayers of John Newton’s mom were answered when he became a preacher at the age of 39. This reformed slave trader remained a pastor to the poor in London for 43 years.

To support his sermons, John Newton often composed hymns. In fact, Newton wrote more than 280 hymns. Amazing Grace grew out of writing a hymn to support a sermon on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17 in the Old Testament.

John Newton became filled with intense remorse for his participation in the slave trade. He wrote an essay of his experiences in slavery titled “Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade.” This essay and Newton’s sermons and friendship were credited with inspiring a member of the British Parliament William Wilberforce to lead the charge to abolish slavery England. John Newton died in 1807, nine months after parliament voted to end the slave trade in the British empire.

The song Amazing Grace describes the incredible journey of a wretched, debauched slave trading sailor, changed to a tender-hearted pastor who served the poor and ended the industry he once supported—all by the grace of God.

“And grace will lead me home.”

Why has Amazing Grace remained a musical treasure for 200 years? While the hymn spent decades in relative obscurity, it was dramatically revived in the 1970’s when a singer named Judy Collins recorded it in the Chapel at Columbia University. This cover of John Newton’s song peaked at #5 on the UK charts and hit #15 on the music charts in the United States. As people studied the background of John Newton, the words took on even deeper meaning.

“It has both a spiritual and a political soul,” claimed a Chicago Tribune article when Amazing Grace inspired a Broadway musical. “Newton’s ‘Amazing Grace’ would not turn out to be an ordinary number in the hymnal, but an ecumenical anthem of freedom of all stripes, played at such times of secular sadness as after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the funeral of Nelson Mandela, but also at happier occasions (for some Americans, anyway), such as the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States and the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

How amazing is the power of grace, and the words that John Newton wrote about it 200 years ago? Consider this. John Newton was a slave-trading sailor whose life was so debauched, he was punished by his fellow crew members. And yet, he became a pastor who credited God’s grace for changing his life. And the song this former slave trader wrote about grace was sung in 2015 by the first African American president of the United States during the eulogy of black Senior Pastor and member of the South Carolina Senate, Clem Pinckney, who was killed in a racially motivated mass-shooting. President Obama sang Amazing Grace to bring comfort to the mourners at a time of horrible division and pain.

John Newton was a sinner who realized how amazing the gift of God’s grace is. He wrote this song about how he was saved, in spite of the wretched life he had lived. And the promise of this amazing grace is the same promise that moves people around the world in hope and love that they can experience the same amazing grace for themselves.

Presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter essay

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Presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter. (2022, Sep 18). Retrieved from https://sunnypapers.com/presidents-barack-obama-and-jimmy-carter/