The film "Amazing Grace" is named for a hymn penned by a repentant slave trader who mentored British abolitionist William Wilberforce. It is about Wilberforce, and its producers hope to inspire the same wave of Christian social action that Wilberforce did 200 years ago.

	Ioan Gruffudd portrays William Wilberforce in "Amazing Grace." Click photo for larger image. Related stories Film Clips: 'Amazing Grace' a winner Family Film Guide

The movie chronicles his 20-year struggle to end the trafficking of Africans. While the film ends with that victory, he worked another 26 years to free all slaves in the British Empire, helping to launch a bill that passed days before his death in 1833.

Wilberforce was a legislator, social reformer and evangelist. He spent his early teens in the church of John Newton, the slave-trader-turned-priest who wrote "Amazing Grace." He later lost his faith, but he found it again early in his political life. Tempted to quit parliament for a holier calling, he sought advice from Newton, who urged him to use his post to help the helpless. His many causes also included prison reform, child labor and animal rights.

"In my almost 50 years of filmmaking, I have never been involved in a project that I love more," said Ken Wales, one of the producers, whose credits include "Revenge of the Pink Panther" and the CBS series "Christy."

He pitched Newton's story to Walden Media's Philip Anschutz, who was already fascinated with Wilberforce. Since one mentored the other, they decided to tell one story. They hope not just to sell tickets but to inspire action -- their Web site, www.theamazingchange.com, enlists viewers to abolish modern-day slavery.

"The film has really resonated with people all across the political spectrum. The liberals are sort of claiming it for themselves," said Bob Beltz, another producer.

Among evangelicals, he said, "Wilberforce is often lifted up as a person who understood how faith should translate into the marketplace or the political arena."

Beltz edited a paraphrase of Wilberforce's 18th-century best-seller, which urged Christians to take their faith seriously. The literary challenge was clear from the original title: "A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes in This Country, Contrasted With Real Christianity." Beltz's version is "Real Christianity."

The Rev. J.R. Kerr, teaching pastor at Northway Christian Community in Pine, is one of The Centurions, 100 leaders mentored through the Wilberforce Forum in Washington, D.C., to apply their faith to public life. The Centurions plan to use the film as a teaching tool locally.

"This isn't a Republican or a Democratic thing. The point is to teach evangelical Christians how to engage the culture as William Wilberforce did," Kerr said.

For the Rev. Ronald Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, the movie is evidence of a change in evangelicalism. When his group began in 1973, most evangelical leaders only wanted to evangelize, he said. They later developed a short list of causes, topped by opposition to abortion. Now he sees them also addressing poverty and other issues.

"This movie is an indication of a massive change going on in the evangelical world," he said.

"Never in my lifetime has the most prominent evangelical voice been talking about the poor the way Rick Warren (pastor and author of "The Purpose Driven Life) has. ... The evangelical center is moving away from the religious right's one- or two-issue politics and saying we have to be engaged with a whole broader agenda."

More information is at www.amazinggracemovie.com.