The Art of Liberty Foundation | Investigating Oklahoma's ATF Raids Published Monday, September 4, 2023 AT THE HISTORY CENTER THIS WEDNESDAY Etienne de la Boetie by OCPAC Foundation Chairman Wade Burleson Etienne de La Boetie (1530-1563) was a French philosopher and an essential contributor to the doctrine of Liberty. This is not to be confused with the 18th Century atheistic Revolution. Our guest this Wednesday, September 6, 2023, writes under the nom de plume Etienne de La Boetie 2. His name is Howard Lichtman. He is our guest at the invitation of his friend and OCPAC Foundation supporter Ken Blood. Howard's book, "Government: The Biggest Scam in History," is a bestseller. Howard is the Founder of The Art of Liberty Foundation. You will absolutely love the research he brings regarding the way governments and international conglomerates are linked through funding agencies like BlackRock. We bring Howard to educate on many of the areas which we do agree on as well as the principles of Volunteerism. The original Etienne de La Boetie wrote the classic "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude: The Politics of Obedience." This Wednesday will be your opportunity to learn more about the principles of Liberty from 16th Century France and how those same principles apply to 21st Century America. ______ ATF RAIDS UPDATES ON WEDNESDAY J.J. HUMPHRIES Calling for a formal investigation Has there been a Federal call to put Oklahoma firearm dealers out of business? Since Biden declared War on Guns, there has been a 500% increase in the revoking of Federal Firearms Licenses. Humphries is the chair of the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee. He wrote a letter to Oklahoma's Attorney General. In the letter, he said: I believe I have a duty and obligation to declare our state should not allow the intentional and egregious actions of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to deny Oklahomans of their rights to own and carry firearms. See a copy of the full letter here Humphries said that Oklahoma county sheriffs should not allow the illegal seizure of such firearms by federal agents. Russell Fincher is a well respected pastor and school teacher in Clayton, Oklahoma. He is licensed to sell firearms. Fincher said his home had been raided by about a dozen ATF agents who coerced him at gunpoint into signing pre-prepared paperwork to terminate his federal firearms license. His 13-year-old son was present during the raid. Humphrey said another matter of concern is that one agent is reported to have told Fincher, “Tell your firearms buddies we are coming after them.” Humphries said: If this report is true, and I have every reason to believe it is, then it would appear the ATF’s actions constitute a gross misuse and abuse of their federal police powers. Representative Humphries is working to verify reports that regarding a national call for ATF to violate civil liberties. "This seems an obvious illegal threat," Humphrey said. Come and be a part of building an informed Oklahoma! Bring your family and friends Wednesday to the Oklahoma History Center. Bring your pastor and buy his lunch! The future of a nation depends upon its shepherds to guard, protect, and guide the people of God that we may perform our roles well in both family and state. Please bring your friends, family, church leaders, and your pastors! $5 ENTRY FEE Tax-deductible donations accepted at door. SEE YOU AT THE WEDNESDAY LUNCHEON ___________  WEDNESDAY LUNCH Doors open 11:00 AM $5 entry fee Tax-deductible donations accepted at door.  Optional Lunch 11:00 AM Meeting NOON to 1:15 PM  Optional Lunch: $10 Find us at Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. TABLE of CONTENTS BOB LINN In Anticipation of Earthly Victories  LAST WEEK Christie Mullen | Lucia O'Connor | Ginger Tinney | Jared Boswell TULSA PUBLIC SCHOOLS Fourteen Years of Documented Pain & Suffering MARK YOUR CALENDER State Board of Education September 28, 2023 Meeting BOB LINN In Anticipation of Earthly Victories While the political left wants to assure us that there is no pornography in the schools, last week’s news told us that Oklahoma City School District (OKCSD) has hired a Drag Queen Elementary School Principal. This OKCSD principal was once arrested for possessing child pornography and illicit drugs. State Superintendent Ryan Walters commented in response to the national flurry of news regarding this hire here. Institutions and governments reflect the people who design and manage them. Misbehaving governments and the political parties behind them become evil for one reason only. It is because of one of the favorite terms of a Presbyterian: “total depravity.” It is a problem solved only when the sin nature of a people is addressed. Italian intellectual leader, Augusto Del Noce, in his The Crisis of Modernity, quoted Erich Fromm as having said, “for the first time in history the physical survival of the human race depends on a radical change in the human heart.” Del Noce followed up by saying, “In other words, for the first time in history, worldly survival is entrusted to religious conversion.” History is the multi-generational story of the redemption of people and nations. Cultures go awry because people go awry. Societies, their institutions, and their governments are healed when the individual is transformed and healed. The church is here to redeem mankind from its intellectual and moral savagery in order that we may have governments and institutions which are more therapeutic than they are caustic. Even the world-renowned secular thinker, Jurgen Habermas, Germany’s most prominent thinker, understands that the future holds promise if, and only if, we re-discover our Christian roots. In his 2006 book, A Time of Transitions, he wrote: “Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of western civilization. To this day, we have no other options. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter.” We are in the midst of an earthly victory in Oklahoma. One of the major political projects in Oklahoma designed to overcome the growing secularity of both state and national government is the return of educational authority to the parent through educational choice. We elected Ryan Walters to help us move the taxpayer dollars to the authority of the parent to use in the school of the parents choosing. School choice begins the process of removing government’s authority to use our fiduciary educational tax dollars on the government’s own system of schools. Any society who allows their government to dictate the content of education of its future voter base is providing a political elite assured victories on election day. When educational dollars are restricted to government educational institutions, the people are living under tyranny. Etienne de la Boetie was a 16th century writer who despised governments who were not “of, for, and by” the people, but were, instead, “of, for, and by” the tyrant who rules. He states, however, that people are responsible for their own enslavement. To quote him directly: “All servitude is voluntary, and the slave is more despicable than the tyrant is hateful.” Etienne de la Boetie addressed governments gone askew when, at the age of seventeen, when he wrote “Voluntary Servitude.” The text can be found here. He summarized his thoughts here: Let us raise our eyes to Heaven for the sake of our honor, for the very love of virtue, or, to speak wisely, for the love and praise of God Almighty, who is the infallible witness of our deeds and the just judge of our faults. As for me, I truly believe I am right, since there is nothing so contrary to a generous and loving God as dictatorship — I believe He has reserved, in a separate spot in Hell, some very special punishment for tyrants and their accomplices. As la Boetie said earlier, it is incumbent upon the people to cast off tyranny. It was the sentiment of our founding fathers as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence. The Missouri-born writer, T.S. Eliot, was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature for his writing. His 1940 The Idea of A Christian Society contains this sentiment the people must rise from their lethargy and cast off evil where they see it. Eliot said: “There is a class of people to which one speaks in vain. Those possessing an obstinate state of mind, prone to sloth, who cannot believe that things will ever be different from what they are at the moment. An invincible sluggishness of imagination makes them go on behaving as if nothing would ever change.” For both Eliot and la Boetie, we must rise to our feet and, with optimism of our divine calling, work toward the day when the evil we now see will one day no longer be. Italian intellectual and former President of the Italian Senate, Marcello Pera said, “The apostacy of Christianity is exposing the entire West to the risk of grave cultural and political crisis, and perhaps even to a collapse of civilization.” Last Friday night, Coach Joe Kennedy knelt at the center of the football field at High School in Bremerton, Washington. It represents a happy ending. It is an earthly victory, the final chapter of a very long battle led by Oklahoma’s own A.J. Ferate. It was A.J. who wrote the argument which went before the U.S. Supreme court, won a victory for coach Joe Kennedy, won a victory for the families of Bremerton High School, and won a victory for Christianity and the fundamental freedom of the American citizen. We have more battles to fight to win the victories Christ promised. Before out out-of-town guest, Howard Lichtman, speaks this Wednesday, Representative J.J. Humphries will update us on what appears to be an unconstitutional assault on American liberty through the ATF. In close, thinking of the journey before each of us, the noted poem by the American writer, Robert Frost, comes to mind: The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. We are in desperate need of returning our nation and our state to Biblical foundations. Thank you for your activism. _________ This Wednesday's luncheon! 11:00 AM Doors open 11:00 AM Lunch Available NOON to 1:15 PM Meeting Oklahoma History Center 800 Nazih Zuhdi Dr., OKC, OK 73105 God bless! LAST WEEK AT OCPAC FOUNDATION Watch Lucia O'Connor ask Christie Mullen how Washington has impacted the family on a number of levels. Watch the interview here. Watch the entire program here. Ginger Tinney was as bold as she has ever been in light of the radical left's very public resistance to the dismantling of a program which has been a failure for more than 14 years. View Ginger here Jared Boswell led an impressive campaign against sitting TPS School Board President Wooley. He continues to organize parents in an effort to restore local responsible leadership which is no longer a public embarrassment on both moral and academic levels. Watch Jared here. ____________  TULSA PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOURTEEN YEARS IN THE NEWS ADMINISTRATORS DEFLECT THREE MINUTE VIDEO Finally, a leader who will fix the problems in Tulsa Public Schools Three Minute Video here MAKE YOUR CHRISTIANITY PUBLIC: MAKE PLANS TO ATTEND WITH A FRIEND September 28, 2023 Thursday 9:30 am State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, and the State Department of Education, invite you to attend their August 24th public meeting. Your comments and presence are sought as the foundation of the future of Oklahoma's children is being established. The SDE offices are on the northeast lawn of the Oklahoma State Capitol. PLEASE MAKE PLANS TO ATTEND: State Department of Education Oliver Hodge Education Building 2500 N. Lincoln Blvd, OKC, OK Thursday, August 24, 2023 8:30 a.m. Gather for fellowship and prayer. 9:00 a.m. Sign in for option to speak. 9:30 a.m. SDE meeting begins. OCPAC FOUNDATION is a 501 (c) (3). Gifts are tax-deductible. Bring your checkbook this Wednesday! Make your tax-deductible donation 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!