Email from OCPAC The Church is the Soul of the State Published Monday, October 7, 2024 NEXT MEETING OCTOBER 16 Artificial Intelligence & Election Day in November See Information below Send this newsletter to a friend here. BOB LINN The Church is the Soul of the State America’s morally impoverished classroom has bled dry the American soul. The assault on the nation’s children through public education has alarmed a number in academia who see the pathway to societal collapse at our doorstep. For those who have forgotten from whence we have come, the return to our moral foundations seems radical. However, it is the path we have allowed ourselves to be led for too many years that is radical. So decimated is our moral fiber, we are at the brink of a revolution of the same magnitude as that which propelled the Russian Bolsheviks to empower Lenin. THE DEATH OF CHARACTER HAS PLACED THE NATION AT RISK At the turn of the twenty first century, and with profound concern over the trajectory of America’s education, University of Virginia Professor James D. Hunter summarized massive amounts of research in his book, The Death of Character. The research is overwhelming that our psychological methods of nurturing morality have failed. Hunter writes about the revolution that has transformed the classroom by eviscerating the moral fiber of the nation. He discusses what began slowly a hundred years ago: Transcendent moral truths and the authority of Christian traditions were moving inexorably to the margins . . . Psychology was becoming a more authoritative source of moral instructions than religion. Not only did the Deity disappear from books and articles . . . but the role of family and the church weakened as well. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the institutional authority of psychology had become foundational. The evisceration of truth and moral absolutes were propelled by an educational tsunami called values clarification. Among those who promoted the concept widely were authors Sydney Simon, Leland Howe, and Howard Kirschenbaum. Together, in 1978, they published a book that helped push America’s children further into moral chaos. It was titled Values Clarification and published in 1978. Values clarification is a technique by which young people develop their own values. The authors write: It does not teach a particular set of values . . . the teacher who instructs at the values level is accepting and nonjudgemental . . . he understands that there are no right or wrong answers to questions at the values level. The goal is to make them aware of their own feelings, their own ideas, their own beliefs, so that the choices and decisions are based on their own value system. THE REVOLUTION IS DESTROYING AMERICAN VALUES Mark B. Tappan wrote in the May 1989 issue of The Harvard Educational Review: This vision seeks to use education to enable each student to resist and overcome social and cultural repression, and hence to authorize his or her own moral voice. The function of education is to remake society. OKLAHOMA’S STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION IS RESTORING OUR VALUES CHRISTIANITY IS THE SOUL OF A NATION Christianity views all mankind as divine image bearers. It views those who reject the Bible as those whose lives continue to have value and are precious. They simply need a spiritual renewal. They are not punished as enemies of the Christian state. It is incumbent upon a Christian nation to pray for and to befriend those outside the church community and to continue to protect the human rights. To protect their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the heritage of our American origins. In contrast, those living in nations hostile to Christianity (communist) have no freedom to criticize the government. Non-conforming dissidents are categorized as non-humans and fodder for slave labor, mass incarceration, starvation and execution. We see these traits in the American left. The left has no tolerance for free speech and they prevent those with whom they disagree to come to campus meetings to speak. The political left has worked to insure those with whom they disagree are punished in their work place and fired. They seek to harass Christian businesses. SIDE NOTE REGARDING TYRANNY IN AMERICA: Coach Joe Kennedy was fired for praying after football games at Bremerton High School in the state of Washington. Joe Kennedy's successful plea before the U. S. Supreme Curt was written by our own A.J. Ferate who played football at Bremerton High. After the victory, Joe was at the OCPAC Foundation meeting in September of 2023. He how has a movie out you'll want to see! Average Joe is now playing in theaters across America. Needless to say, no high school administrative thug will dare try that stunt again. My grandson is co-captain of his high school soccer team and at his initiative, the entire team kneels on the field of play both before and after every game. IN CLOSING: Xi Van Fleet was rescued from Mao’s China by Christian missionaries. In her book, Mao’s America, she affirms the universal practice of godless governments of re-defining enemies to be mere animals whose death and enslavement means nothing. She writes: One day, I was watching a rally with a friend when a line of trucks came by with men in back . . . one of the men was my friend’s father. On his signboard [hung around his neck] was his name crossed out and replaced with the phrase “little reptile,” which meant he had been a follower of a denounced party leader. She continues to explain that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) promoted hate by demonizing its political enemies as monstrous villains. She writes: It was much easier to humiliate, mistreat, torture, and kill when the enemies were considered to be subhuman. America’s founding generation knew that Christianity was mankind’s only hope to build a political structure which would respect the individual while assuring, through the rule of divinely-revealed laws, that society would knit itself together. We cannot sustain civilized society without a moral code John Locke (1632-1704) stated the role of the Bible clearly: As to the foundations of [virtue], there ought very clearly to be imprinted on his [the child’s] mind a true Notion of God, as of the independent Supreme Being, Author and Maker of all Things, from whom we receive all our Good, who loves us, and gives us all things. And consequent to this, instill unto him a Love and Reverence of this Supreme Being. If John Locke is any indication of the 17th century mind, we may conclude our founders thought there is no morality apart from God. However, were there a doubt, their own writings would bear this out. A few weeks ago, I noted the renowned German atheist, Jürgen Habermas. His perception of Christianity has morphed over the past twenty years as it has become apparent to him that not only is Christianity the root of European culture, but it is also the very lifeblood without which Europe cannot move forward. He writes: Christianity has functioned as more than a mere pre-cursor or catalyst . . . ideas of freedom and social solidarity . . . are 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. Twenty years ago, Hofstra Law Review published an article pointing out that the mantra of separation of church and state was a myth. A review of the state constitutions of the early colonies demonstrate that the first amendment protected the state’s rights to be Christian or sectarian or anything they wanted to be. As one of many examples, and right under the nose of a freshly written First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut declared its purpose: To maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we now profess. Bibles in the classroom represent the path to the restoration of America’s historic role as that bright and shining city on a hill. Send this newsletter to a friend here. OUR BOARD MEMBERS IN THE NEWS While the foundation does not endorse candidates at any level, it is noteworthy that three of our board members, operating independently of the board and of the foundation, were a part of an organized effort to gather close to 400 signatories with extensive experience in national security, foreign policy, intelligence, border enforcement, and more (along with a dozen families of service personnel killed in Abbey Gate in Afghanistan) supporting the reelection of President Trump. The list included over twenty-five former cabinet secretaries including former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and former Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin. Alex Gray, who worked close to the President while in the White House, was privileged to organize this effort alongside of his former White House boss, Ambassador Robert O'Brien. Of note was the reference to the Lord's Sermon on the Mount. Reflecting on the President's stellar record of a peaceful administration, Matthew 5:9 was quoted in the signed document: Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. While our foundation does not endorse or fund candidates, we would be remiss if we did not recognize and congratulate so many of our members who are able to participate at such a high level in the national affairs of the nation. IF YOU MISSED OUR LAST MEETING . . . RYAN WALTERS Watch the presentation here. Watch the entire meeting here. TOM GANN ILLEGAL SURVEIANCE Watch the presentation here. Watch the entire meeting here. 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. Box 2021 | Edmond, OK 73083 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice