Townhall Review | Commentaries

What does it mean to be a hero?

The dictionary defines a hero in terms of courage, achievement and morality. In practice, our culture’s heroes have commonly been sports figures, such as Olympians or military figures.

But heroism is really about doing the right thing and standing for the right virtues even when the world isn’t watching. Many of the most heroic acts undertaken in human history are unknown to me or to you or to history—but they are not unknown to God.

In this crucial moment, we need a new category of heroes. Today, our heroes include doctors, nurses, and medical staff on the frontlines of the global pandemic. They are putting their lives at risk in order to protect and extend the lives of others.

But the notion of a hero has expanded to those who are stocking the grocery store shelves and delivering our packages—people who are making the world work and trying to keep all the pieces of society together.

We’re seeing heroism where we never knew to find it before.

As a society, we don’t pass out gold medals to grocery store stockers or to X-ray technicians. But when you think about it, we probably should.

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Commendations to Congress—and especially Senate Majority Leader McConnell—on the massive rescue package.

America gets the message: Help is on its way.

But it’s time to do more, Congress. We need a phase four.

Phase one was the $8.3 billion measure on vaccine research.

Phase two was the bill that came from House Democrats—deeply disliked by Republicans but the Senate GOP passed it anyway.

Phase three blew the doors off the normally staid Senate, but will bring tangible help to American workers and businesses, now that it will pass.

But the country still needs a phase four. We need to respond to the purveyor of the plague: The Chinese Communist Party.

China is nearly equal to the United States in economic strength, and superior in stealth and ruthlessness.

The immediate fight is the virus. The larger, long-term battle is with a regime that allowed the virus to leave its shores.

This does not mean war. It means vigilance and deterrence.

It means phase four.

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Are borders a bad thing or a good thing?

In recent years we’ve seen a lively debate on the issue—with conservatives taking a pounding for enforced borders and responsible immigration policy. The very notion of a nation having borders and a careful framework for welcoming immigrants to protect citizens, has been characterized as backward, racist—even evil.

The coronavirus pandemic has shifted the conversation. The same people calling for open borders are now calling for restrictions on travel. In an ironic twist that they might not see themselves, the left has suddenly become pro nation-state and pro borders—not just between countries, but between individuals.

The global crisis is giving us all a master-class in why security matters, why nations matters, and why leftist ideas don’t work. Unimpeded globalism sounds great on Twitter, but works poorly in the real world.

Borders aren’t evil.

They’re necessary—and they’re for our good.

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My latest book, “God’s Hand on America,” bears a title that could be understood now in a totally different context—seeing God’s hand as the source of national punishment, not protection.

Believers on all sides cite reasons for retribution—on the left for racism and social injustice, on the right for disregard for marriage and human life. But I am confident the Lord will continue to use this nation, for all its imperfections, as the greatest available instrument for human betterment and advancement of decency and liberty.

The grave coronavirus crisis may yet uplift America, providing perspective on home, school, work and faith that encourage timeless and constructive values. In his 1957 novel “The Plague,” Nobel-Prizewinner Albert Camus wrote: “This same pestilence which is slaying you, works for your good and points your path.”

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When the President declared a national emergency on the coronavirus, he also declared a national disaster, freeing up billions of dollars and opening the door to exercising extraordinary powers as President in the face of this kind of challenge.

War is the most apt metaphor for the challenge we now face as we're confronted by the coronavirus.

As far as pandemics go, in order to find anything on this scale, you would have to go back to the 1918 pandemic of the Spanish Flu. The deadliness of that pandemic should be a chastening factor upon us all.

It should remind us that one of our responsibilities on the other side of this crisis is going to rebuild what has been lost—and, in the midst of the crisis, we must not only pray, we must work.

There are many things to be done and it’s going to be up to us to do them.

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America is again at war, but war of a different kind: war against an unknown virus attacking our health, our economy, our social lives. Sadly, there is no quick knockout punch we can deliver to the enemy, no cease-fire agreement halting hostilities.

No, fighting this war will require a different kind of character. It will require the “now” generation of instant technology and immediate gratification to exhibit patience. The “me” generation must become a “we” generation.

This war will be fought on the front lines of medical science, but even more important now is the home front. We will need both rugged American individualism and community concern for one another. The golden rule—do unto others as you would have others do unto you—will be more valuable than a financial bailout or a silver bullet.

This is America’s new test of character.

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There’s something important that all of us can do to stop the spread of coronavirus.

It’s not convenient, and it’s not necessarily fun. But it will save lives. What is it? Try your best to stay at home.

You can still take walks outside with others in your family, shop for essentials, or get take-out from a local restaurant.

And there’s also plenty we can do to stay connected to others: Check in on your loved ones and friends frequently, give to people in need in your community—supplies for food pantries, financial donations, personal hygiene items.

Buy online gift certificates to your favorite local stores and restaurants — and use them when this is over.

If you’re going to spread anything, spread help, compassion and humor. Above all, do not panic. Remember: Like all outbreaks, this too will eventually end.

Focused and united, we can avoid the worst possibilities. It’s up to all of us. As a country, we can overcome this crisis together.

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Senate Republicans must go big and fast in their response to the coronavirus. They are facing choices right now about what sort of economic relief and stimulus package they support in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The goal is simple: Help those injured in their pocketbooks and provide aid to an economy shuddering under successive shocks of slowdowns and closures.

The biggest impediment to success might be the fact that Capitol Hill staffs don’t turn over much. Longtime Hill workers aren’t exactly the eager recipients of new policy proposals that haven’t been sliced and diced by constituent interest groups.

That has to change. The need is urgent for Congress to go far, go big, go fast. Senate Majority Leader McConnell announced the intention to do just that. He’s going to stay there until it gets done using never tried before ideas.

Time to break the glass and pull the alarm. Time to spend as though you are FDR going to war.

This is no time for business as usual.

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Amidst the chaos surrounding the coronavirus, it’s worth asking how it got to the point of our now global pandemic. We should not overlook or quickly move past China’s authoritarian, messianic government.

Remember—as the Wall Street Journal reported—one of the very first doctors to discover the outbreak was accused of “spreading rumors.” Another was forced to write a letter apologizing for the “negative impact” his warning had.

The Chinese government is exceptionally harsh on anyone that questions the benevolence and competence of the Communist Party.

That’s how the Chinese cult of personality works. That’s why they persecute the Church.

What kind of country would punish doctors for trying to prevent a plague? The kind that has replaced God with the state.

I’m not pre-occupied with calling it the Chinese coronavirus or the Wuhan virus. But there is no doubt that the Chinese government does bear unique culpability.

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The global pandemic of the coronavirus has us all looking at a new normal that doesn’t feel that normal at all. We’re learning a new vocabulary, a new set of habits, a new set of rules and a new set of expectations.

There are so many deeply humbling aspects of the COVID-19 crisis.

Among them is the timing: A couple short weeks ago it would not have seemed plausible that we’d be facing a shutdown of travel between the United States and Europe; a 40 percent fall in airline travel coast to coast, and a suspension of athletic events.

School children are not in class, college and seminary students are not in classrooms and—campus by campus, school by school—the populations have been evacuated.

We should all be hoping—and praying—that social distancing will slow the spread of the virus and, soon, that we’d see an effective vaccine as well.

All of this reminds Christians that our only hope is found in Christ. Our ultimate refuge is only in the one true and living God.

We knew that, but we need to remind ourselves of that—we need to share that with our neighbors—even if we share it with our neighbors at some distance.

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