Published Monday, March 23, 2026 | | SEND THIS NEWSLETTER TO A FRIEND HERE. | | | THIS WEEK WEDNESDAY MARCH 25 NOON OKLAHOMA HISTORY CENTER | Senator Shane Jett will moderate the panel discussion of the legislation which will be finalized this week in the House and the Senate. | | CICERO'S ROLE in SHAPING WORLD HISTORY & the USA | | I first want to thank the Oklahoman newspaper for publishing my response to the article they wrote a week ago regarding the OCPAC Foundation and Senator Shane Jett. They were gracious enough to publish it in this weekend’s digital issue. And, I want to thank OCPAC Foundation board member, Wade Burleson, for setting this up!
Read The Oklahoman story here. If you don't have a subscription, read it here. | | Above is from the Oklahoman this weekend
Second, I am impressed with the Oklahoman's desire to accommodate conservative thought in the articles they publish on a regular basis.
As a result, Senator Jett and I now both have a subscription in anticipation that Oklahomans will be able to read in this USA Today publication a broadened horizon of ideas. An expanse of ideas that includes the historic Christian cultural thought responsible for Western Civilization’s progress.
6,000 years ago, God created the cosmos and ordained a race of divine image bearers. The earth would be the theological center of His creation. Man was given the task of managing the earth as His vice regents. | | Once man fell, he was given the Laws of God that mankind could live together with one another as individuals, families, societies, and nations based upon his laws.
Politics is profoundly theological and cultural.
Politics which functions on the issues of short-sighted pragmatism will lead to the demise of a society.
Roman philosopher, writer, and political leader, Marcus Tullius Cicero (we know him as Cicero) reasoned that it is the Law of God which must rule nations and not man-made laws which are different in different nations and different times.
In the years just prior to the advent of Christ, Cicero wrote in The Republic the following words:
“And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and for all times, and there will be one master and one rule, that is, God, over us all, for He is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge!” | | Roman poet Virgil, (Publius Vergilius Maro) (70-19 BC), was a favorite of the great American poet, T.S. Eliot. Eliot highlighted the three key concepts articulated by Virgil: Preserving the humanity of the citizen, national humility before God, and an acknowledgement of a nation’s divine destiny.
John Hallowell (Duke University), in his book The Moral Foundation of Democracy, describes the purpose of the state and the political arena in which it exists. Hallowell spoke of man’s divine nature (the image of God) as the cornerstone of history’s triumphant progression.
He wrote of the cultural destruction which occurs when man forgets God. He stated that:
The Age of Enlightenment forgot that man is not an autonomous being but the creature of God. | | Last week, former U.S. Senator, Jim DeMint (South Carolina), wrote of the central role Christianity played in both Western Civilization and in the formation of the United States of America.
He noted that even famed U.S. Diplomat, Henry Kissinger, once said in a private meeting with Jim DeMint and a dozen House members:
“There would be no America without the Protestant Reformation.” | No one has said it better than Marco Rubio did when in Munich, Germany speaking to the gathering of world leaders about the Christian foundation of the West and of America’s intention to pursue that path with or without Europe's help. | Wade Burleson, inspired by what he heard last month from Rubio, wrote a magnificent article. I am reprinting it for your benefit this week. It appears below. | | WESTERN CIVILIZATION IS INSEPARABLE FROM CHRISTIANITY'S MORAL FRAMEWORK
WADE BURLESON February 16, 2026 | | Marco Rubio's Munich speech will be forever remembered . . . and often quoted! | | U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke at the 62nd Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2026.
If you do nothing else this week, this month, this year, listen to the speech Marco Rubio gave at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, 2026.
You can read what I write about the speech below, but it is like the difference between enjoying someone's description of the great recipe for your favorite dish and actually eating it.
The full speech can be watched entirely (22 minutes) here. | My Thoughts on Rubio’s Speech
History has a memory.
And Munich, of all cities, remembers.
In 1938, in that same city, Western leaders chose “peace in our time” over confrontation with evil. Neville Chamberlain waved a paper. Adolf Hitler smiled. The world paid in blood.
After World War II, the West learned—at least for a while—that civilization must be defended, not assumed.
That is why the Munich Security Conference exists.
Founded in 1963 as the International Wehrkunde-Begegnung, it became the premier transatlantic forum for security and the preservation of the Western order. Presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, generals - they gather not merely to talk, but to signal the moral direction of the free world.
Over the decades, giants have spoken there: · Henry Kissinger on détente. · Angela Merkel on European stability. · John McCain warning of Russian aggression.
And in February, Marco Rubio stood before that same audience. What he delivered was not a bureaucratic briefing. It was a moral argument.
Munich 2026 Is a Test | | Every generation faces its Munich moment. Will we defend what made the West the West?
Rubio did something that modern diplomats are often too timid to do: he named the source of Western strength. He spoke openly of Christianity’s shaping influence. He did not apologize for it. He did not whisper it. He did not reduce it to “shared values.”
He stated plainly that the freedoms we cherish—human dignity, ordered liberty, constitutional government—did not fall from the sky. They were born from a worldview.
That is Churchillian.
When Winston Churchill rose in 1946 at Fulton, Missouri, and declared that an ‘Iron Curtain’ had descended across Europe, he was not merely describing geopolitics. He was defending a civilization rooted in Christian moral order and parliamentary government. | | Churchill’s famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.
Rubio’s tone carried the same warning as Churchill’s:
Civilizations do not collapse because they are attacked. They collapse because they forget who they are.
Borders and Sovereignty: The Lincoln Parallel | | Lincoln at Gettysburg (Painting by Jari Villanueva)
Rubio also addressed open borders and uncontrolled immigration - not with anger, but with clarity.
A nation without borders is not compassionate. It is chaotic.
The West, he argued, must retain sovereignty if it wishes to preserve liberty. Immigration policy must serve the national good, not ideological fashion. This is not cruelty. It is governance.
When Abraham Lincoln stood before a divided nation, he insisted that the Union meant something tangible. It had laws. It had structure. It had constitutional boundaries. Liberty required order.
Lincoln’s genius was understanding that compassion without structure dissolves into anarchy.
Rubio’s argument fits that mold: love your neighbor, yes—but do not dismantle the house in which your neighbor must live.
Cicero and the Moral Republic | | Cicero denounces Catiline, a conspirator against Rome. Image by Cesare Macari.
Long before Churchill and Lincoln, there was Cicero.
Cicero warned the Roman Senate that a republic survives only if virtue survives. Corruption of morals precedes the collapse of institutions.
Rubio’s speech echoed that ancient truth.
The crisis of the West is not merely military or economic.
It is moral.
When Christianity is pushed to the margins, when faith is treated as embarrassment rather than inheritance, when borders dissolve and national identity fragments—the republic weakens.
Rome did not fall in a day. It eroded.
The Defense of Christianity | | The great Christian missionary David Livingstone understood that Christianity is the fountain of liberty in all venues of life.
Here is where conservative Christians must pay attention.
Rubio did not argue for theocracy. He argued for acknowledgment.
Western civilization is inseparable from Christianity’s moral framework: · The idea that every human bears dignity. · The belief in objective truth. · The conviction that rights are endowed, not granted.
These are not secular inventions. They are theological inheritances.
To defend them is not “Christian nationalism.” It is historical literacy. If we surrender the spiritual roots of the West, we will soon lose its political fruit.
Why This Speech Matters | | Rubio delivered a speech for the ages. Most modern speeches are transactional. This one was civilizational.
Churchill rallied a battered Britain. Lincoln preserved a fragile Union. Cicero pleaded for a dying republic. Rubio is speaking at a hinge of history.
The West faces: Cultural fragmentation Border instability Religious amnesia Authoritarian resurgence
And in Munich-a city that once symbolized appeasement-he chose firmness over flattery.
That symbolism matters.
Munich once represented surrender. Now it may represent resolve.
A Word to Conservative Christians | | The temptation is to retreat.
'Let politics rot.' 'Let culture drift.' 'Let institutions decay.' 'We'll just preach the gospel.'
But throughout history, Christians have shaped public life precisely because they believed the gospel changes everything.
Wilberforce ended the slave trade because he believed Christ is Lord. The American founders grounded liberty in Creator-endowed rights. The Civil Rights movement sang hymns while demanding justice. Faith never meant withdrawal. It meant engagement with courage.
If Rubio's speech signals anything, it is this: the West is worth defending. Not because it is perfect-but because it uniquely safeguards the freedom to preach Christ, raise families, worship openly, and govern by consent.
You cannot defend religious liberty if you abandon the public square. Somber Truth | | Civilizations die when their Christians grow timid. Rome did not fall because the barbarians were strong. It fell because the Romans stopped believing Rome was worth preserving.
Final Thought
History will judge our generation. Munich has seen appeasement before. It has seen silence before.
But last February, it heard something else: a call to remember who we are.
Churchillian clarity. Lincolnian resolve. Ciceronian warning.
And perhaps-just perhaps-the stirring of a people unwilling to surrender the moral architecture that built the West.
Conservative Christians: do not back down. Engage with conviction. Speak with grace. Vote with wisdom. Love your neighbor. Defend your nation.
Because if we do not defend Western civilization . . . someone else will define it. | | SEND THIS NEWSLETTER TO A FRIEND HERE. | | MARCH 11, 2026 MEETING: JOURNALIST KATY SMITH | | Journalist and popular speaker, Katy Smith presented stunning numbers regarding the state of education & administration in Oklahoma.
Watch Katy's presentation here.
Watch the full meeting here.
__________ | | TW SHANNON CANDIDATE FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR | | Former Oklahoma Speaker of the House, TW Shannon, speaks with clarity about how culture and society works as he spoke about Capitalism, the Constitution, and Christianity, the core of American success.
Watch TW's presentation here.
Watch the full meeting here.
_________ | | NATHAN DAHM Former Senator and current Executive Director of Oklahoma's Freedom Caucus. | | Nathan Dahm provided a preview of some of the topics we'll hear discussed by a legislative panel when we reconvene after St. Patrick's Day break* (AKA Spring Break).
Watch them speak here.
Watch the full meeting here.
* St. Patrick's Day Break is a term Bob made up. He also prefers it. _________ | | SENATOR SHANE JETT Presides Over Meeting | | Watch the full meeting here.
_________ | | BOB LINN President of the OCPAC FOUNDATION | | Bob spoke about the Christian foundation St. Patrick established not only in Ireland but in England and the entire West. Thanks to Patrick, the Law of God, written through Moses, became the foundation for nations extending to our own shores as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin sought to make the crossing of the Red Sea of the People of God under the leadership of Moses our national seal!
Watch the full meeting here. | | NOTES FROM TWO WEEKS AGO: TEENPACT | | NOTES FROM THREE WEEKS AGO: THIRTY YOUTH Home Schoolers from Elgin, Oklahoma TPUSA Students | | Grace Reformed Baptist Church Homeschoolers from Elgin, Oklahoma led the Pledge of Allegiance | | KENDRA WESSON JOINS RYAN WALTERS AND TEACHER FREEDOM ALLIANCE | | Kendra Wesson is stepping aside from other responsibilities to work full time with Ryan Walters and the Teacher Freedom Alliance (TFA) with a goal of providing teachers a pro-America Christian environment within which to work.
Thus far, the effort has been massively successful as thousands of teachers are fleeing the pro-Marxist teacher unions including the National Teachers Association (NEA).
Watch Kendra's Announcement here.
Watch the full meeting here.
News media was there to cover the TFA announcement. | | DECEMBER 3 MEETING: SAMANTHA FULNECKY INTERVIEW With OCPAC Foundation President Bob Linn and Senator Shane Jett | | Watch Samantha Fulnecky interview here.
Note:
Senator Shane Jett was pointed in his query and his followup remarks.
Shane Jett's first question begins at: 9:38 mark. Shane's blistering salvo to the University begins at the 11:21 mark.
Watch the full meeting here.
| | LEGISLATIVE COMMENDATION GABE WOOLEY | | GABE WOOLEY here
Full Meeting here | | WES LANE, PRESIDENT SALT & LIGHT LEADERSHIP TRAINING SALLT | | Wes Lane was the keynote speaker and once he finished, it was clear why he has had so much success challenging the church to step forward in boldness.
Watch Wes Lane's presentation here.
Watch the full meeting here. | | We anticipated the professionalism of Jen Nicole's voice, but her moving presentation of the Christmas season was breathtaking. She opened the meeting by leading us in "O Come All Ye Faithful" and brought tears to our eyes as she followed Wes Lane singing "O Holy Night."
Watch the presentation here.
Watch the full meeting here. | | TPUSA Students were in attendance Supporting Samantha | | SHANE JETT MESSAGE TO POLITICAL CLASS | | Senator Shane Jett here
Watch the full meeting here.
BOB LINN PRESIDENT OF OCPAC FOUNDATION | | 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. | | We are in desperate need of returning our nation and our state to Biblical foundations.
Thank you for your activism. | | | | |
