Sergeant York: From Heathen To Hero
A film about the tension between faith and politics, Sergeant York is a wonderful tribute to the man who exercised moral courage in the face of battle.
Memorial Day may be over, but that doesn’t mean we need now to forget those who have fought and died for our country. We can continue to honor the fallen by living as good citizens and defending the freedoms that have been bestowed upon us. Also, we can keep turning to great movies to commemorate the fallen.
How about giving Sergeant York a try?
This 1941 classic directed by Howard Hawks still stands up over eighty years later. Gary Cooper does a phenomenal job portraying Alvin C. York, the real World War I hero who, accompanied by only seven of his fellow combatants, almost single-handedly captured 132 German soldiers. It was an astounding work of heroism on York’s part, but it took quite a moral journey for him to eventually accomplish this feat. His journey is beautifully told in Sergeant York.
The film starts off in rural Tennessee. This community is steeped in legend about Daniel Boone — on a tree are carved the words “D. Boon cilleD A BAR on the tree in yeAR 1760” —, built upon farming, saturated in that old time religion, and troubled by Alvin York. It is in this setting that we get our first glimpse of York during an evening church service. As Pastor Rosier Pile (Walter Brennan) preaches a sermon on the Lost Sheep, he struggles to keep his congregation’s attention as York and two of his friends are riding outside drunk and frantically shooting all over the place. Pastor Pile has to end the service, as York’s widowed mother (Margaret Wycherly) deals with the stigma of having the practically heathen Alvin as her son. But she never gives up on him and even declares that she is proud of her son, who, despite his revelries, works hard to maintain the family farm.
York realizes he’s not a very good man, but he’s not too keen on becoming religious. “There ain’t no use for a fella goin’ out looking for religion,” he says to Pastor Pile. “Well, it just got to come to a fella.”
“It will come, my boy!” Pastor Pile almost prophetically tells York.
In the course of the story, York finds himself set on a girl named Gracie Williams (Joan Leslie), and he almost immediately resolves to marry her. But first, he decides he needs to get his own property before he can be fit to marry Miss Gracie. So, he makes a deal on a piece of land and has 60 days to make $70 (a large amount of money back then) and buy the land. He comes to need an extension on his payment, and that extension gets granted. He gets the money after winning a sharpshooting competition, but he gets double-crossed with the land sold to someone else during the extension.
York is furious. After getting drunk, he takes his rifle and decides to kill those who swindled him. As he was riding to find them during a heavy storm, the very rifle he carried was struck by lightning. His gun is destroyed, but even though he was thrown off his horse by the strike, he is unharmed. As Providence would have it, in the near distance, there’s a service going on at the church. Thankful to be alive, York steps into the service, where Pastor Pile directs the congregation in singing “Old Time Religion.” York is happily embraced by the congregation as they sing (for him), and it was that night that he converted.
Well, York finds himself to be a changed man, and the Lord blesses him for his repentance. After seeking reconciliation with those who swindled him, he ends up getting to work as a sharecropper on the land he wanted, with the hope that he will soon be able to own that piece of land himself. And with Miss Gracie happily accepting his offer of marriage, life couldn’t go better for York.
Until America joined the war in Europe.
As a newly converted Believer who belongs to the Church of Christ in Christian Union, he firmly holds that killing is against God’s law. With the help of Pastor Pile, he seeks an exemption to military service by filing a conscious objection. But his exemption gets rejected, and he has to report for duty. He doesn’t resist due to the advice of his pastor, who encourages him to “trust in the Lord” during this testing of his faith.
While in boot camp, he solidifies himself as a hard worker and a real crack shot. His commanding officer takes notice and wants to promote him to corporal. York relates to his officer about his objections to killing, and so his officer, a Christian himself, gives him a ten-day furlough to think things over. If he still can’t reconcile his faith with his war service, then he will get his exemption.
York’s struggle is rather thought-provoking. To him, initially, it appears he must pick between serving his God and his country. He spends his time reading his Bible and a book on American history his officer gave him. He believes war and killing were not part of God’s plan for humanity. He can’t see how it could be morally right for him to serve and end up killing people. But he also learns about the Americans who came before him (like Daniel Boone) who fought for their country so that men could be free, so that men like York could practice their faith as they see fit. If it were not for the men who fought and died in times past, York might not have even had the freedom to hold religious convictions like pacifism.
As he struggles to resolve this tension between faith and politics, he happens to come across Matthew 22:21, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” Upon reflecting on this verse, he realizes he does have a duty to his country (rendering unto Caesar), and he can keep serving his God (rendering unto God) while doing so. He tells his officer he still hasn’t figured everything out yet, but he will stay in the army. This is where God has placed him, so York will just have to trust in the God who is bigger than himself.
In France, York experiences the horrors of war, watching several of his friends die in the line of fire. He carries on, and we hit the climax, where he heroically saves his division and captures over 100 German soldiers. He kills twenty Germans while doing so. It wasn’t easy for York to kill human beings, but as he witnesses all the other human beings being mowed down by heavy German fire, he realizes that the only way to save lives is to take lives. If he wanted to save his fellow combatants, he would have to stop the Germans, even if that meant killing them.
York returns home a hero, earning himself some of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a soldier. He says he’s not proud of what he did, but it was something that had to be done. So, he returns home, enjoying the many blessings God had prepared for him. York could never go wrong in trusting in his Lord, even in the most trying of times.
By excellently tackling the tension between faith and politics, the themes in Sergeant York still resonate today. There may be times when there is a genuine conflict between God and country. And when that happens, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). But upon his reflection on Scripture and of those who came before him, York found his freedom to obey God rather than men was a heritage bestowed upon him by those who were willing to fight and day to preserve that freedom.
Yes, according to his faith, God despises killing. Still, He wants His children to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s too. Killing may not be a part of God’s plan, but there are times where killing may be necessary, even a Christian duty. York came to realize this, and because he was willing to serve his country and trust in the God who graciously protected him, he saved the lives of many while in France.
I hope that even to this day America will continue to honor men like Alvin C. York, and especially those who give their lives in the call of duty. Thanks to Sergeant York’s heroism, many American warriors lived on and did not have to be tragically counted as part of the fallen. But for those who have fallen, we must honor their memories too. York saw many of his friends fall on the battlefield, and he risked much to prevent any more of his band of brothers from falling, too. He would have wanted us to remember and respect those who didn’t make it home, and that is something we can do on Memorial Day or any day of the year.
The film Sergeant York is a loving tribute to the man. It’s a powerful story, and it gives us today much to think about, much to strive to remember. If you’re looking for a great movie to remember the men who fought for our country, give Sergeant York a watch. You will witness moral courage and learn that “the Lord sure does move in mysterious ways.”