SPACE, WERNER VON BRAUN, & JULY 4 Published Monday, June 26, 2023 A note from OCPAC FOUNDATION PRESIDENT BOB LINN HERO WHO FOLLOWED THE PATH OF 1776 At the State Department of Education’s (SDE) board meeting this past Thursday, Ryan Walters announced steps to expose Oklahoma’s next generation to the founding principles upon which the world’s bastion of freedom was built. Itemized were prayer, the Ten Commandments, and Western Civilization. Not many years ago, the list of founding principles the SDE will be implementing would have raised complaints from only an inconspicuous few. Those were days when the voices of the U.S. Communist Party and the American Atheists were an uncommon bit of fringe on American’s cultural landscape. Today, the fringe has cast a shadow over the family, the church, academia, entertainment, government, journalism, and commerce. Nevertheless, Oklahoma’s voters have confirmed their desire to reject mandatory state education and to establish a free system of educational choice which respects parental authority over the training of our children. In choosing Ryan Walters, the voter also advocated for eliminating the shocking presence of pornography that had infiltrated our classrooms and the minds of our youth. OKLAHOMA AND RYAN WALTERS ARE FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF 1776 Next week, we will pause to celebrate the vote of the Continental Congress to approve the Declaration of Independence. It was a vote with a death penalty attached. The British would have hung many of those American founders had the ensuing war been lost. If nothing else, Oklahoma’s voters have provided hope that the risk our founders assumed on July 4, 1776, might continue to bear fruit. Today, our State Board of Education is doing their part. Walters and the Board of Education, along with tens of thousands of fellow Oklahomans, taking to heart the words of Ronald Reagan’s January 5, 1967 inaugural address as Governor of California when he said: Perhaps you and I have lived too long with this miracle to properly be appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again. WERNHER VON BRAUN & OUR NATIONAL FREEDOM As we look to next week’s Independence Day remembrance, I have enjoyed remembering the life of a German immigrant whose bold leadership helped assure that the path of political freedom forged by our forefathers would be extended. Just prior to the end of the war in Germany, a top-secret U.S. Intelligence program assisted the defection of a large group of German scientists from the Nazi Party. Germany’s leading rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun, led this massive defection. The covert affair, dubbed Operation Paperclip, brought the scientific brain power of 1,600 German scientists to work for the cause of freedom and the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA). The goal was to bolster American interests during the cold war by developing America’s arsenal of rockets and other weapons. A central focus of JIOA was to ensure this science did was not leaked to the Soviets. In September of 1944, von Braun had voiced his objection to Hitler’s use of the Von Braun rocket project to bomb civilian targets in Paris and London. For that protest, the Gestapo sent him to prison. He was released soon afterward, as the German scientific community could not function without him. The next year, in 1945, American troops penetrated central Germany and, through Operation Paperclip, enabled Von Braun, and his entire team of scientists, to escape to freedom in America. These men became America’s space program. Their families came with them, making it a massive evacuation of 5,000 people. Von Braun explained his surrender to the United States with this statement: I myself, and everybody you see here, have decided to go West ... We knew that we had created a new means of warfare ... We felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured. Wernher von Braun made this statement as a nominal Lutheran. However, while in El Paso, Texas, at a small country church, he encountered the God of whom Martin Luther spoke, in a far more profound way and devoted his life to Christ. As a result, this man who oversaw, in Germany, the world’s first operational guided ballistic missile, who became director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who was the chief architect of Saturn V, who laid the foundation for cell phones, satellite radio, the Internet, GPS, and Doppler radar, who in 1960, supervised the development of the Saturn liquid-fuel rocket, and who was at the center of the entire Project Apollo enterprise, which was the peak of the American space program … this man, became, like those who forged the scientific revolution before him, an ardent Christian and an impassioned proponent of sustaining the Biblical foundations of American society. Von Braun believed that Biblical origins should be taught objectively in government schools. For him, the claim that science and religion should be separate is invalid. For von Braun: Science, in its drive to understand the creation, and religion in its drive to understand the Creator, have many common objectives. Von Braun stressed that more than ever America’s survival depends on the adherence to basic ethical principles provided by Christianity. When asked about his views on religion and science, von Braun answered: The Ten Commandments are entirely adequate—without amendments—to cope with all the problems the technological revolution not only has brought up, but will bring up in the future … “The Bible is the most effective xxxxxx ever built against the erosive effects of time. It is the revelation of God’s nature and love. Prayer, too, was critically important to von Braun. Asked when his need to pray was particularly strong, he stated that he prayed a lot before and during the crucial Apollo flights.20: Science and religion are like two windows in a house through which we look at the reality of the Creator and the laws manifested in His creation. As long as we see two different images through these two windows…we must keep trying to obtain a more complete and better integrated total picture of the ultimate reality by properly tying together our scientific and religious concepts. Clearly, Wernher von Braun would have been among the first to join Oklahoma’s Christian patriots who gather each month at the monthly board meetings to affirm the work of Ryan Walters and the State Board of Education. Like the Americans of past generations, he would affirm the need of Oklahoma children to understand the role in American history of prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the development of Western Civilization. Wernher von Braun's endorsement of the Ten Commandments and prayer as fundamental elements in society are an endorsement of the recommendations of the Oklahoma Advisory Committee on Founding Principles listed below. These were endorsed by Ryan Walters at the State Board of Education meeting this past Thursday. Many of you were there to witness the event. Each of these played a vital role in forming society’s paths to God and the political freedom the nations of the world so admire in America. The leftists who have infiltrated America's many institutions would have us think that they represent civilizational muscle. It is not the case, and the American Christian must begin to understand the responsibility and the influence of the church in cultural development. My thanks to both the Institute of Creation Research (ICR) and Bill Federer for leading me to this information on Wernher von Braun two years ago. Find ICR on von Braun here. _____________________ For more from Bill Federer: Read today's American Minute here. Subscribe to American Minute here. CONTENTS LAST WEEK STATE BOARD of EDUCATION June 22, 2023 LAST WEEK AT OCPAC FOUNDATION June 21, 2023 Fr. Stephen Hamilton Chad Christiansen TWO WEEKS AGO June 14, 2023 U.S. Senator James Lankford THREE WEEKS AGO June 07, 2023 Ryan Walters RYAN WALTERS ANNOUNCES RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE THE OKLAHOMA ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON FOUNDING PRINCIPLES The United States of America is a harbor of hope for all, a nation blessed with liberty, justice, and opportunity for all people. Adherence to the principles of our nation’s founding civic documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, secures these blessings for future generations. Our nation’s founding principles are built on dependence on Nature’s God and His Laws (see the Declaration of Independence). As stated on America’s currency: IN GOD WE TRUST The Oklahoma Advisory Committee on Founding Principles encourages the Oklahoma State Department of Education to keep its public instruction grounded in what it means to be a citizen of Oklahoma and the United States of America. Our Founding Fathers believed morality and virtue are required for this nation’s citizenry to be capable of self-rule and the promotion of the common good. We agree. The formation of morality and virtue in students is integral to the work of public education. Maintaining this nation’s founding principles is a gift to students in aiding their intellectual growth and development of civic identity. A few years ago, an outdoor marquee at an Oklahoma City public school proclaimed: Do what is right, not what is easy. We agree. The Oklahoma Advisory Committee on Founding Principles recommends that the Oklahoma Department of Education: 1. Enforces the existing state statute, Oklahoma Statutes Title 70, Section 11-101.2, whereby each school in each Oklahoma school district shall begin every school day with a minute of silence. This shall be a full minute and not only the commonly referred to “moment.” Prior to each day’s minute of silence, each school in each district must announce over the school’s public address system the following purpose for the minute of silence: We now pause for a minute of silence in which students and teachers may use this minute to reflect, meditate, pray, or engage in any other silent activity. This pattern may be followed for significant school functions throughout the academic schoolyear. 2. Requires that each classroom of each school in Oklahoma school districts displays a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments in a prominent location. 3. Requires a Western Civilization course for graduation as part of the curriculum in each school in each Oklahoma school district to strengthen the heritage which was integral to the nation’s founding and western culture, as well as to foster gratitude and informed citizenship. Implementing these recommendations will help create a society of free, virtuous, and flourishing citizens. Implementing these recommendations will help restore society to its origins as a free, virtuous, and flourishing citizenry. SBE BOARD AGENDA HERE NEA/OEA EXPOSED Video of 2022 National Convention in Chicago Last week's State Department of Education (SDE) meeting premiered a shocking video of the NEA/OEA agenda. It was presented as a part of Ryan Walter's State Superintendent of Public Instruction report. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE JUNE 21, 2023 L.A. DODGERS and the CATHOLIC CHURCH Father Stephen Hamilton received a standing ovation after his exceptionally well-done presentation of the issues in Major League Baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Watch Fr. Hamilton here Watch the entire program here IN THE GAP Chad Christiansen We need to partner with Chad in orchestrating a statewide network reaching children for Christ. Watch the entire program here June 14, 2023 U.S. SENATOR JAMES LANKFORD Hear the presentation of James Lankford here James in Senate addressing the border on C-SPAN here OCPAC FOUNDATION JUNE 7, 2023 RYAN WALTERS Hear the presentation of Ryan Walters here Video on the NEA/OEA and porn in Oklahoma classrooms here OCPAC FOUNDATION FUND RAISING OCPAC | P.O. Box 2021, Edmond, OK 73083 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!