Editor's note: Chuck Norris' weekly political column debuts each Monday in WND and is then syndicated by Creators News Service for publication elsewhere. His column in WND often runs hundreds of words longer than the subsequent release to other media.
On Dec. 25, the unforgettable story about Louis Zamperini, an Olympian turned World War II prisoner-of-war hero, opens in theaters nationwide. As astoundingly resilient as Zamperini was, however, his real power was found in a fact underplayed in the movie: namely, He whose birth we celebrate on Dec. 25 is the One responsible for restoring and transforming Zamperini's heart and life.
First, let me say, few lives can compare with Zamperini's. He lived hard from a young age. He smoked cigarettes by the time he was 5, and his favorite pastime as a youth was stealing beer from bootleggers.
Cops and his family members devised a plan to harness all his criminal energy into competitive running. It worked. By 1934, he set a record of running a mile in just 4 minutes and 21 seconds – a speed that landed him in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, alongside greats like Jesse Owens. He placed eighth in the 5,000 meters, but the last quarter mile he ran in just 56 seconds – a time that prompted even Adolph Hitler to meet him.
Louis wanted to compete in the 1940 Olympics, but Europe and then America burst into World War II. Zamperini was drafted as a bombardier for the American Army Air Corps. During a search and rescue mission for a downed American plane, Zamperini's own plane plunged into the ocean due to engine trouble. He was among only three of 11 who survived.
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Zamperini and his two fellow crewmen were afloat in a raft for 47 excruciating days, warding off starvation, sharks and the blistering sun. They survived by eating Albatross that landed on the raft.
In 2003, CBN conducted a two-part interview with Zamperini. He explained, "All we did on the raft is pray morning, noon, and night." Twice conditions got so life threatening that he bargained with God that if he would spare his life, he would serve him forever.
Eventually, a plane flew overhead, but it was a Japanese fighter that unloaded its ammunition on them. Amazingly, they weren't hit. They drifted for two more weeks, but their third crewmember died. They finally spotted land on their 47th day, but shortly after were picked up by the Japanese before ever reaching land.
For the next two years, Zamperini became a prisoner of war and suffered horrendously under the hands of a tyrant guard called "The Bird," torture that left him speechless in his CBN interview. Louis weighed only about 65 pounds when he went into captivity.
At the end of the war, in September 1945, Louis was released, returned home, got married, had a family and tried to live as normal as he could, but he just couldn't shake the wages of war.
For years, the only "help" Louis received for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was from a bottle of alcohol. He would often awake screaming from nightmares and even once woke up to find himself strangling his pregnant wife.
She grew tired of Louis' daily drunkenness and sought a divorce. Meanwhile, someone told her about a young new evangelist named Billy Graham who was coming to the Los Angeles area. She attended his crusade and gave her life to Jesus Christ, believing He died for her sins.
She returned to Louis and explained to him some good news, "Because of my conversion to Christ, I'm not going to get a divorce." He was thrilled but added, "She and her newly found Christian friends were all over me, but I avoided them like a plague."
Because he wanted to save his marriage, however, Louis reluctantly agreed to attend the next crusade, which was the 1949 Billy Graham Crusade held in a huge tent on the corner of Washington and Hill streets in Los Angeles.
Louis explained Billy's preaching this way: "He talked about one person only: the person of Jesus Christ for 30 minutes." Louis said, "He read the Scriptures, 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God' and 'The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.'"
Louis further elaborated, "I knew I was sinner but I didn't like someone reminding me!" So he started to walk out of the crusade. As he did, he thought about all of the prayers God answered years earlier when he was on the raft and in the prisoner of war camps.
The Christian Post reported Louis' feelings: "I started to leave the tent meeting, and I felt [awfully] guilty about my life. Yes, I had a lot of great times, a lot of great experience, a lot of escape from death, but I still didn't like my life after the war. I came home alive. God kept His promise. I didn't keep mine, and so I went forward and accepted Christ."
Louis explained that he knew, in an instant, that God had not only forgiven him but that he had also forgiven his captors, too, including "The Bird." As miraculous proof, Louis explained that the nightly nightmares he had since leaving the war had vanished. He said, "That's some type of miracle."
In 1950, Louis had come full-circle as he returned to Japan to offer forgiveness to his captors. He couldn't meet with "The Bird," but did many others, and, as a result, some gave their life to Christ. In 1998, Louis again returned to Japan at the age of 81, when he ran the Olympic torch before a cheering Japanese crowd at the Winter Games.
Asked what gave him strength to return to Japan and forgive his torturers, Louis explained, "The heart of this story is when I found Christ as my Savior. That's the heart of my whole life."
To ensure that moviegoers understand the full picture of Louis' faith and life, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association announced last Monday that it would release their own online movie, "Louis Zamperini: Captured by Grace," on Dec 25 – the same day as the release of the movie, "Unbroken."
Watch a preview of "Louis Zamperini: Captured by Grace."
(Next week, in Part 2, I will discuss further evidence for the depth of Zamperini's Christian faith and what his own adult children said about it.)
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