GUEST,Steve Baughman - I'm glad you appreciated my comments for what they were. It's not wrong to revisit the past or to ask questions about widely held beliefs about the past, a historical figure and the prevailing opinion of that person.

Historical revisionism is certianly not without it's faults mind you. I come at this from a background in Anthropology. In my academic career, I saw more than a few lazy researchers choose to root through a past researchers work like a wild hog in a jerusalum artichoke patch rather than go into the field and do their own work. But then, there are those folks who dare us to take a second look at sainted figures such as Margaret Meade for example and face the facts that she embellished a lot of her informants' testimony or simply made it up as she went along to fit the view she had already decided upon. The damage she did is imeasurably.

ANother field that both suffers and gains from this is Biblical Archeology. An entire field of naysaying things like the Exodus, the existence of King David or Solomon has sprung up from revisionism and it isn't based on actual field data but rather some new wave interpretation of existing data. They clash with the religiously motivated literalists who see the Bible as an exact reference source. What got lost in all this was the more sensible middle road that used real physical finds to show that some of these events likely indeed took place.

So - sure - ask those questions. Ask them of yourself since you're the one who is trying to decide if you should sing it. But before you make up your mind, do the work necessary. It's not easy to know what that work is at first because of the legends and popular history tha gets repeated about the songs creation. Therefore you have to go to if not primary sources such as the writings of Wilberforce or Newton themselves, at least find good secondary sources or crtically well-received contemporary reviews of their lives and lifes works.

The movie I mentioned is a good start only because it's entertaining and it will introduce you to important players in the story that you may not have heard of before. it will give you a basic understanding of the times and what these men faced by way of opposition from the aristocracy and the Prince Regent.

After viewing the film and the extras on the DVD, you can then check out the wikipedia entries and see the suggested readings. That ought to be a good running start.

Good luck and let us know what you think after you've seen the film. I'd love to hear that!

And.. don't be a stranger here. This has been a good lively discussion