>> ^RhesusMonk:
Someday I'm going to write a long treatise here about why this song and this story have very little to do with god's grace and being connected through JC. This is about awe and gratitude. Christians believe there is some force that is doling out goodwill and that we are unwitting and undeserving of this goodwill, unless we respond in a Christian way.

I read a great quote recently: "Christian is a wonderful noun, but a terrible adjective." I have to agree. I think the feeling you're describing, the feeling hinted at by Phipps, is transcendental. As Newton emerged from his cabin that day, and heard the dirge rising up from the hold, something in his brain clicked. No doubt, "Unknown" was sold into bondage exactly on schedule, and so the song did not save him in a meaningful way, but unbeknownst to him, that song did have an effect. Newton began to reconsider his role in things, and left the slave trade. He was a vocal proponent of abolition in England. It would be many, many years before he would put pen to paper and write out Amazing Grace (he experienced his conversion moment in 1748, and composed AG between 1760 and 1770) but nevertheless, the wordless song never truly left him. He chose to share its melody with those who'd never set foot on a slave ship, and found that, somehow, the effect was sustained.

Now everything I've just mentioned can be looked at in a non-Christian context, and it would remain true. It should be said, though, that the presence of Christianity and its memes made it easier for Newton to become aware of just how far he'd strayed in his life. Given the number of unrepentant slave captains who called themselves Christians, it does not necessarily follow that Newton's salvation was due to his turn to Christianity, but it certainly helped. And it also helped all the slaves who would have found passage in the hold of his ship, but did not, thanks to his conversion. Again, Christianity didn't do it, but it was a 'hook' upon which Newton could hang this unsettling feeling in his belly.

Kurt Vonnegut notes much the same in a speech he gave at Clowes Hall in 2007. He starts by pointing out that, while Marx said that 'religion was the opium of the lower classes', he should have been taken literally. Opiates were a wonderful class of drug that numbed the pain, and who knew pain better than the working classes? He continues, "The most spiritually splendid phenomenon of my lifetime is how African-American citizens have maintained their dignity and self-respect, despite their having been treated by white Americans, both in and out of government, and simply because of their skin color, as though they were contemptible and loathsome, and even diseased. Their churches have surely helped them to do that. So there's Karl Marx again. There's Jesus again."

I guess the question is, could John Newton have composed Amazing Grace without believing in the Magic Man Who Lives in the Sky? Maybe. Probably. But it certainly helped.

>> ^RhesusMonk:

Although that is a very beautifully orchestrated argument, I do believe that there was a specific intent of the song's writer and it has to do with Christianity.

...but I don't know, I could be wrong.

Someday I'm going to write a long treatise here about why this song and this story have very little to do with god's grace and being connected through JC. This is about awe and gratitude. Christians believe there is some force that is doling out goodwill and that we are unwitting and undeserving of this goodwill, unless we respond in a Christian way. This notion is predicated on the experience of the very emotion evoked by this video. It is endemic to the human being and is inescapable. This emotion, this psycho-physiological state, is what we often use the word "gratitude" to describe. Some might say that this gratitude necessitates a recipient, and while that's semantically and somewhat intellectually satisfying, it just isn't true. We don't need to look any further when we feel this feeling. It comes, we are struck and elated, and it passes. The story of the scale and slow reveal (see schtick above) sets up a feeling of wonder--the way the scale comes back around and unites master and slave is profound. Finally, the booming paean pulls the listener into that state of gratitude; we feel privileged to have the ears to hear it and the mind to understand the unified experience. The result echoes in the archway where awe meets gratitude. I entreat you to open yourself, try to let this song and story past the filter that syphons out believer nonsense. I hope you will be rewarded.

*promote

(I guess that was a pretty long treatise)

Tags for this video have been changed from 'slave scale, amazing grace, wintley phipps, spiritual, slavery, pentatonic' to 'slave scale, wintley phipps, spiritual, slavery, pentatonic, john newton' - edited by RhesusMonk

why thank you, kind sir. Very nice.

In reply to this comment by RhesusMonk:
Hey, I noticed your comment on the "Slave Scale" video, and I just wanted to follow up on it. I learned about this song when I was in grade school, and what this preacher says about it is true. No matter how hard my atheism kicks, I just can't rid myself of the awe and inspiration this kind of spiritual music fills me with. Below are some wikipedia links that corroborate all that was said in the video. I watch this video at least twice a month, and I am always moved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_%28music%29

In reply to this comment by laura:
I don't know if the story he tells is true... if so, cool.
This guy seems to me to be working a "schtick" he has well developed to appeal to the emotional experience of the southern baptist type mindset.
Was amazing to watch, though. Gotta say it.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'slave scale, amazing grace, wintley phipps' to 'slave scale, amazing grace, wintley phipps, spiritual, slavery, pentatonic' - edited by RhesusMonk

Hey, I noticed your comment on the "Slave Scale" video, and I just wanted to follow up on it. I learned about this song when I was in grade school, and what this preacher says about it is true. No matter how hard my atheism kicks, I just can't rid myself of the awe and inspiration this kind of spiritual music fills me with. Below are some wikipedia links that corroborate all that was said in the video. I watch this video at least twice a month, and I am always moved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_%28music%29

In reply to this comment by laura:
I don't know if the story he tells is true... if so, cool.
This guy seems to me to be working a "schtick" he has well developed to appeal to the emotional experience of the southern baptist type mindset.
Was amazing to watch, though. Gotta say it.