Abolitionist: The Movie, produced by Matthew Wiersema and edited by Mauricio Belgrano, is a must see for everyone: abolitionists and non-abolitionists, those engaged in the fight and those who know they need to do more.

The film expertly weaves together hard-hitting narratives (Wiersema as a missionary to the Pagan peoples of Am-ur-ika), real footage of Wiersema engaging people in the streets, and interviews with abolitionist leaders. It is a long film at two hours and twenty-three minutes, but considering how much ground the film covers, it is a wonder Wiersema kept it that short.

Of course, the film teaches the five tenets of abolitionism among other elements of abolitionism, but what makes it unique is the way it addresses the tenets in the specific context of tearing down Am-ur-ika's three idols: Pietism, Antinomianism, and Statism.

Pietism is demonstrated by churchman-after-churchman Wiersema encounters who confidently declare that, though they personally support Wiersema's work to rescue preborn children, their church's calling is simply to preach the gospel.

Pastor Matt Trewhella, who is featured throughout the film, responds sharply to those who excuse themselves from loving their preborn neighbors: "Notice when they say 'we should just preach the gospel,' they say it not when the next potluck is announced. You never hear anyone say, 'hey, we should just preach the gospel.' Or when the church softball team is being organized, no one says 'oh no, we should just preach the gospel.' They only say it when you bring up civil government matters like helping the preborn child."

Antinomianism is the view that God's Law no longer applies to contemporary people and societies. Wiersema encounters Christians in the street and outside of a church arguing that abortion laws need not conform to the law of God. "When you reject the Law [of God], you have no grid for justice," Pastor and Abolitionists Rising Board Member Jason Garwood says in the film. "You have no grid for mercy. You have no grid for dealing with the social order that is the Christian worldview in another social order that is against the gospel."

The chaos and insanity that now defines our society is a direct result of the rejection of the abiding relevance of God's Law. We must return to it, a point which the film hammers home.

Last among the three idols, the film takes on statism: the belief that the state is the highest legal authority to whom citizens must look to to solve all their problems. For instance when Wiersema says that God's Law trumps court opinions such as Roe v. Wade, an older gentleman outside a church building angrily calls him an anarchist. Garwood's response: "[Statism] is this unhinged belief that unending authority belongs to the collective; the group of people who get to say 'this is righteous' or 'this is unrighteous.'"

After targetting A-mur-ika's idols, the film turns to the Pro-Life Movement, addressing the foolish pro-life ideas that women are victims of abortion and that abortion should be fought secularly.

"It's not that you're going to get a change of heart because you give somebody some more education," abolitionist Steven Smith says in the film. "The [abortionist] is more educated than anyone around there. We could put all our education together: that guy murders children for a living. He's not going to read a textbook and say 'Oh, hey this is wrong.' It's going to take a change of heart. So we have to address the heart."

The five tenets of abolitionism are also central to the movie, with Abolitionists Rising Director T. Russell Hunter providing interviews about the tenets as well as the Abolitionist Movement's origins.

The movie begins and ends with very intense, dramatic scenes leaving the viewer with a sense of gravity that is only appropriate for a film about abortion. There is no watching Abolitionist: The Movie and coming away from it anything but more zealous to rescue preborn children. For that reason, we highly recommend watching this film and sharing it with others.