The Allied Forces of D-Day Show What Valor Is
June 6th marked the seventy-ninth anniversary of D-Day, one of World War II’s most bloody encounters, changing that war’s trajectory in favor of the Allied forces. On June 6, 1944, approximately 160,000 Allied troops from the United States, Canada, and Britain dutifully landed on a beach in western France called Normandy to a hail of gunfire from over 50,000 Nazi troops. The ensuing battle took the lives of nearly 73,000 Allied soldiers and wounded more than 153,000 men.
The staggering number of casualties suffered is a testament to the perniciousness of evil. The Nazi war machine sweeping through Europe brought tyranny and death and was a genuine existential threat to civilization. Those brave men who embarked on the mission to free the world knew beforehand that their chances of returning to their families were slim. Yet, even though they were young and not yet in their prime, their courage to fight against evil and their willingness to give their lives to defend freedom is a lesson that should never be forgotten.
Eighty years ago, courage and bravery were known as a person standing up to evil, even if that resistance cost them bodily harm. There was a more apparent distinction between good and evil back then, and many people intuitively knew cowardness in the face of evil was not an option. They knew they might have to sacrifice their lives, evidence of how formidable an opponent evil is.
Times have changed, and in today’s parlance, those principles of bravery and courage exhibited over eighty years ago are far from what they are now. As with all Marxist movements, the commandeering of language is crucial, and the notion of courage and valor are no exceptions. Terms once reserved for the righteous and the selfless person have now become the pretext of demanding recognition of a sexual proclivity. “Oh, how courageous was Johnny to come out of the closet and accept his womanhood,” declares the ill-informed, over-educated suburban progressives—such a banal statement compared to the real courageous individuals storming the beach at Normandy. Courage now seems to be the ability of unfettered self—expression and willingness to fight against the bigots who refuse to accept alternate lifestyles which contradict nature.
If Christians are serious about practicing their faith, and they should be, they must start pushing back on highjacked language and start exhibiting courage in their own life. Real courage is not coming out of the closet but staying in if necessary and living the best moral life possible. Authentic courage is joining the parents at school and library board meetings objecting to using public funds to sexualize and propagandize innocent children. True courage is resigning from a law enforcement position when the superiors demand you terrorize Catholic groups and parents exercising their rights to object to evil. Real courage is taking a family leave to care for elderly parents instead of dumping them into the nearest nursing home. And yes, courage is boycotting corporations promulgating the talking points of the sexually perverted movement even though you may like their products or find their services convenient.
Evil is pernicious and, once tamped down almost 80 years ago, finds a way to sprout new shoots in every generation. Evil has found a new home to grow and reproduce in our self-absorbed and hedonistic culture, where pleasure is paramount. The only way to defeat evil in our time is to be courageous and fight against it, as did the soldiers on D-Day. Those men knew that courage has to be grounded in self-sacrifice and a belief that the good is worth fighting for. The lesson is clear, which definition of courage will you accept?