8-20-25

I love stories about one person taking a stand…..don’t get me wrong, I’m all about

the team effort and the ability of a group to band together and get great things

done….but there is much to be said about the grit and determination of one

person taking a strong stand in the face of opposition…..like a piece I ran across

the other day…..a story about one veteran who wanted to fly his flag…..that was

not just any veteran….that was a man named Van Barfoot…..a legend, who

decided that the HOA for his neighborhood didn’t know how to find their

backside with both hands…..on May 23, 1944, near Cyrano, Italy, That same Van

Barfoot, who had in 1940 enlisted in the U.S. Army, set out alone to flank German

machine gun positions from which gunfire was raining down on his fellow

soldiers. …. he proceeded to single-handedly take out three enemy machine gun

positions, returning with 17 prisoners of war…..And if that weren’t enough for a

day's work, he later took on and destroyed three German tanks sent to retake the

machine gun positions…..That earned Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a Colonel

after also serving In Korea and Vietnam, a well-deserved Congressional Medal of

Honor…..but later in life Barfoot made news again in a quiet Virginia

neighborhood….his Neighborhood Association's took issue with how the 90-year-

old Veteran chose to fly the American flag outside his suburban Virginia home.

Seems the HOA rules said it was OK to fly a flag on a house-mounted bracket, but,

for decorum, items such as Barfoot's 21-foot flagpole were "unsuitable"…..Van

Barfoot had been denied a permit for the pole, but erected it anyway and was

facing Court action unless he agreed to take it down…..Then the HOA story made

national TV, and the Neighborhood Association rethought its position and agreed

to indulge this aging hero who dwelt among them….."In the time I have left", he

said to the Associated Press, "I plan to continue to fly the American flag without

interference."

As well, he should. And if any of his neighbors had taken a notion to contest him

further, they might have done well to read his Medal of Honor citation first.

Seems it Indicates Mr. Van Barfoot wasn't particularly good at backing down.

That’s a great story, and it was a big deal, but small in comparison to the one I’m

about to tell you…..

What if I told you that your opinion not only did not matter but that you were

prohibited from sharing your opinion in any way……any way at all…..no facebook

posts….no town hall meetings….no letters to the editor…..no calls to Rightside

Radio!......nothing at all. Your opinion is forbidden. If they want your opinion they

will tell you what it is first…….some of you may be thinking that you’re feeling that

way now……you’re not…..not by a long shot….in fact, your voice may be your

greatest weapon…..and it doesn’t have to mean that you’re always right, or that

your resume is the strongest, or that you have some amazing pedigree or

advanced diploma from an elite university……the voice of the average citizen is

still one of the greatest forces for freedom anywhere in the world, especially here

where the argument exists that the freedom of speech is an actual right…..not a

privilege……but a right…….

So, before I go any further let me be straight up…..if you are told that your

opinion is out of order, unwanted, unnecessary, or that you should go sit in the

corner and be quiet…..well, you have a decision to make…..do you go away and

not make a sound that could ruffle a feather or two …… or do you speak up

knowing that the founding fathers took this very question into consideration and

decided that the very first amendment to the US Constitution….the very first

one……should preserve the right to voice your opinion……I say don’t go

quietly……even if it means taking a one man stand…..Now, let me be clear on

something…..the fact that you can speak doesn’t mean that you should……and no,

I’m not crawfishing here……there’s a lot to be said for having the wisdom and

maturity to know when to bridle your tongue and when to let ‘er rip……and once

you speak you need to be able to ably defend your opinion……you need to be able

to back it up…….don’t go quietly but don’t go off half-cocked is what I’m saying……

It reminds me of an amazing man that I read about once……His name was

Watchman Nee……I don’t know if you’ve ever heard his story…..all of which is

true…..but there needs to be a feature length movie about the life of Watchman

Nee……I told you about him once a few years ago….but it bears repeating how this

one man stand changed the lives of millions…..

Watchman Nee was a Chinese citizen born in 1903……this was in the pre-

communist era and Christianity was grudgingly accepted as a part of society with

missionary schools being very common in certain parts of China…..Watchman

Nee, whose birth name was Nee To-Sheng, became a Christian in 1920 when he

was 17 and immediately began making waves in Chinese society….over time he

wrote numerous books and helped to found a non-denominational church that

focused on meetings in homes and small groups…..the name of his church was

loosely translated as “the little flock”…….but it grew and was not really that little

when taken in its totality…..at one point it was estimated that upwards of 1

million citizens of China had adopted the Christian faith and of those 10% were

members of Watchman Nee’s Little Flock…….When the Communist Party came to

power in 1949 religion fell from favor and like many others Watchman Nee was

deemed suspect and his opinions were heresy……he became a target of the

Chinese Communist Party Government but at every step he maintained his faith

and spoke about it openly…….in 1952 he was arrested and imprisoned and over

the next few years and a series of kangaroo courts he was eventually charged and

convicted with conspiring to do damage to the communist party and sentenced to

15 years in prison with labor for the purpose of reform and reeducation……except

it didn’t work……Watchman Nee would not be quiet…..I was told that at one point

the party officials in charge of his imprisonment had to switch guards out every

day because he kept leading them to Christianity……so they would send in a new

guard and Nee would again lead them to faith in Christ and they would have to

send in a new one…….in 1967 Nee’s sentence was due to be over but the

Communist Party refused to let him go…..without further sentencing he was

deemed to dangerous and so they delayed and delayed for five more

years……Watchman Nee died in prison in 1972…..you might think that sounds like

a sorry end to a difficult life…..but his legacy….the legacy that came from speaking

out……is said to be the root of over 10 million Chinese Christians who trace their

faith back to the ministry of Watchman Nee according to statistics compiled by

the World Christian Database…..Over 3000 churches worldwide have used his

teachings……he wrote 62 books……..he was honored by the US Congress in

2009…..and he was honored in March of this year by the Museum of the Bible in

Washington DC……

My point is this…..if you believe in something……something that you have

committed to in a deep sense…..whether a matter of faith, or principle, or ideas

on culture, or whatever…..then it is not enough to just shout words and walk

away…..there is no time in a world filled with social media posts and 24/7

soundbites for people who are shallow in their beliefs…..

Become a student of what you believe……be able to not just say it but actually

explain it……if questioned be able to dialogue about it……if offended be able to

counter the offense with a reasonable response……and when told to be quiet give

strong consideration to speaking out anyway……

Liberal arguments often defy reason…..they defy science…..they defy the idea of

faith……but they will shout those arguments nonetheless and then shout louder

when you don’t back down……but when they are truly faced with someone who

has the strength of their convictions to match the statements that they are

making they often don’t know what to do……

So I say gear up, study up, and speak up……liberals are demanding our silence so

often these days……I don’t intend to go quietly into the night and you shouldn’t

either…..

Be like Van Barfoot and fly your flag……And never forget that there’s 10 million

Chinese Christians who are glad Watchman Nee never stopped speaking up…..

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!