Christianity Today on "What Would Wilberforce Do?"

As Friday's opening approaches for the movie Amazing Grace, on William Wilberforce and the British evangelical movement to abolish the slave trade, Christianity Today editorializes on the lessons of that movement.  Among other things,

we should not worry about "diluting" any political clout we might have by engaging a variety of issues. Wilberforce and his circle did not conceive their political duty narrowly. They eagerly sought to reform society on a number of fronts. They are remembered best for their antislavery work, but they also founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Church Missionary Society, promoted prison reform, and sponsored charity schools, while encouraging George III to step up enforcement of existing laws against vagrancy, blasphemy, drunkenness, and profaning the Sabbath.

Among other things, taking on more than one issue builds up "moral capital" transferable from one issue to another -- as long as one avoids "arrogance and silliness" in embracing positions that dissipate that capital.

How do we apply the lessons today to questions about whether the Church and other Christian bodies take on too many issues, or not enough?

Tom B.