Old Words that Built America Published Monday, September 23, 2024 NEXT MEETING OCTOBER 3 See Information below Send this newsletter to a friend here. BOB LINN Old Words that Tamed Governments There are two politically pregnant words which have morphed considerably over time. It is the reason Dr. Everett Piper often cleverly begins his presentations by saying he will be talking about why he is a liberal and many other conservative ideas. He capitalized on that playful bit or rhetoric and published a book with a title derived from his favorite and notable opening to the speeches he gives. As Dr. Piper intimates, classic liberalism is thoroughly Christian in its roots. More than that, as classic liberalism sprouts into its very Christian essence, its Christianity is the expression of liberty the world over. Classic liberalism means equality, dignity, responsibility, loyalty, honesty, credibility, justice, tolerance, respect, and benevolence. All are derivations of Christianity and Christianity’s Bible. Liberal thought is grounded in the Christian idea that the image of God inhabits, individually, the souls of all mankind. From this, we glean the idea of diplomacy and respect in our relationships with others. And for the need for governments to respect the individual when shaping the laws with which we govern each other. Marcello Pera is an Italian intellectual and politician. He was president of the Italian Senate from 2001 to 2006. Pera’s ultimate argument for the value of the individual is also his argument against the collectivist group think of Marxism. In his book, Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians, he states: The core idea from the viewpoint of both Judaism and Christianity is that man is created in God’s image and likeness. This is the religious source of the concepts of personhood and human dignity, the foundation of the liberal view that man has primacy over society and state, and the basis for the doctrine of natural, fundamental, individual rights. The classic liberalism of our founding era is obviously not 21st century liberalism. The same may be said for the concept of secular. He writes further: Traditional secularism, like classical liberalism, knew that it owed its origins and foundations to Christian theology because it was Christianity that first invented, long before it was practiced, the division between Caesar and God, the throne and the altar. The City of God and the City of Man. This is the secularism of which I approve. It does not oppose religion, nor does it take Christianity as a fairy tale for the unintellectual. Today’s secularism is different. It views religion as an obstacle to co-existence, science, progress, and human well-being. The strict atheism of Princeton Professor, Richard Rorty, bleeds profusely through his books. He helps make clear that the classic meaning of the word “liberalism” has indeed changed from its meaning in the nation's founding era. This influential American philosopher said in his book, Contingency, Irony, Solidarity: In its ideal form, the culture of liberalism would be one which was enlightened, secular, through and through. It would be one in which no trace of divinity remained. In his 1980 book, Social Justice in the Liberal State, Yale Law Professor, Bruce Ackerman, wrote that the liberal state is “deprived of divine revelation.” Of course, this new secularism and this new liberalism is not sustaining the cohesive and peaceful society which once defined America. When, in 1781, Immanuel Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason, his was a search to find the nature of a human being. He asked: What should I do? What can I hope for? Marcello Pera asks these same probing questions applied to the 21st century: What is the West? What do they believe in? What ideas and values do they stand for? The modern day (non-classical/atheistic) liberal and secularist has no answers. Marcello Pera states our cultural predicament well in his book, Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians: Religion is the main cause of our disheartenment. Rather than being neglected, it is openly opposed. What is happening today among today among the intellectual elite of Western countries, including the United States, is an apostacy of Christianity. It is a battle on all fronts, from politics to science, from law to custom, in which the religious tradition that baptized Europe and fostered it for centuries is now accused of threatening the secular state. The result is that in a Europe without God, Europeans must coexist without an identity. So many ideas and words have transitioned in the past century to become their opposites. Words like gay and concepts like democracy. Democracy is a word despised by America’s founding fathers. It is now bantered with pride by the political left. Symbols have changed. The rainbow was once internationally known as a divine message of hope. It is now, the world over, a representation of the redefinition of human ontology and mans rebellion against divine revelation. Among the original liberal and secular thinkers are John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. They remind us that these bearers of the liberal banner were in no way advocates of a godless society. In 1678, John Locke asked: If he finds God made him and all other men in a state wherein they cannot subsist without society and has given them judgement to discern what is capable of preserving that society, can he but conclude that he is obliged and that God requires him to follow those rules which conduce to the preservation of society? Then, over a hundred years later, Thomas Jefferson asked the question which is engraved on the northwest wall of the Jefferson Memorial: Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? In closing, Marcello Pera made the position of the founders of classic liberalism clear when he said: The liberal ethos derives from the idea that we are children created in the image of the Christian God, who has given us truth and freedom, autonomy and the duty to fulfill His will. The apostacy of Christianity is exposing the entire West to the risk of a grave cultural and political crisis, and perhaps even to a collapse of civilization. The world-renowned German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, once known for his anti-Christian atheism, has, over the last twenty-five years come to see Christianity not as the bedrock of civilized nations, but as a necessity for the continued health of mankind. Christianity has functioned for the normative self-understanding of modernity as more than a mere pre-cursor or catalyst . . . [it is Christianity] from which sprang ideas of freedom and social solidarity, of an autonomous conduct of life and emancipation . . . [all] the direct heir to the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. To this day, there is no alternative to it. We draw upon the substance of this heritage. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk. Today is the day to no longer be embarrassed of our Christianity and to understand that its proper place in the world is more than a feel-good religion confined to the interior of cathedrals, but as the lifeblood of societies the world over. It is time we come out of our ecclesiastical shells and get to work! Ryan Walters is one Oklahoman who is modeling what Pera and Habermas are pleading with Europe's leaders to do. Ryan Walters is seeking to restore our nation's Christian foundation. That will require the restoration of our children’s education. It means restoring morality. It will require Christian foundations and the acknowledgement of transcendent authority in Oklahoma's classrooms. It means insuring parents are able to use their child’s educational dollars in private as well as public schools. Join us next week, on October 2, as Ryan come to the Oklahoma History Center and the OCPAC Foundation's noon meeting to address the voices which have been raised against him and against our moral and academic progress in the classroom. Send to a friend here. IF YOU MISSED OUR LAST MEETING . . . OLD GLORY BANK Watch the presentation here. Watch the entire meeting here. Alan Loeffler Vice Chair of the OCPAC Foundation board spoke of our meeting two weeks ago and its availability as a video to train citizens in the art of developing relationships with their representatives. Senator Shane Jett was responsible for bringing Old Glory Bank CEO Mike Ring to speak to the OCPAC Foundation and expose us to the relationships banks have with the federal government and the ways banks are legally unencumbered by federal threats of invasion of customer privacy. See last week's email to find a few more details about Old Glory Bank and the issues of federal intrusion into the private affairs of citizens here. OCPAC Foundation President, Bob Linn, spoke of the Christian foundation of our nation and the blessings God has bestowed on Oklahoma with its devout Christian leaders and the privilege we will have in two weeks to hear one of those state-wide leaders. Ryan Walters will be our speaker on October 2. COMING!!! WEDNESDAY October 2, 2024 COMING!!! WEDNESDAY October 16, 2024 COMING!!! WEDNESDAY November 13, 2024 COMING!!! WEDNESDAY December 11, 2024 OUR FOUNDATION BANKS AT QUAIL CREEK BANK A few of our board members at Quail Creek Bank From left to right: Joseph Palmer, Alan Loeffler, Suzanne Reynolds, Lucia O'Connor, Father Stephen Hamilton, Bob Linn, and Gaylene Stupic. OCPAC FOUNDATION is a 501 (c) (3). Gifts are tax-deductible. I encourage each of you to support our mission. To get started, we are suggesting: The Century Club To join, mail a cancelled check to: OCPAC FOUNDATION P.O. Box 721212 Norman, OK 73070 Your $100 per month donation will help support the development of the Foundation’s work to widen our audience and outreach capabilities with quality meetings and enhanced educational video content. Our beginning financial goals will allow us to secure the initial permanent staff positions necessary to the function of a foundation with ambitions to change the world. OCPAC | P.O. 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