Published Monday, March 20, 2023 | | A note from OCPAC FOUNDATION PRESIDENT BOB LINN | AN IRISH SLAVE WHO SAVED THE WEST | The greatest gift ever bestowed by England to the cultures of the world was made possible by Patrick in the 5th century when providence endowed this remarkable man with not only a fortuitous conversion to Christ, but an additional calling to engage in one of the most illustrious and storied ecclesiastical endeavors of cultural transformation the world has known.
The 1957 World Book Encyclopedia states of Saint Patrick:
He found Ireland all heathen and left it all Christian. See Page 6142 | England’s Maewyn Succat, better known to the world as Saint Patrick, gave his life to the Irish, a people who had once had abducted and enslaved him. | Through Patrick, Ireland was transformed from a godless society of murderous, heathenized, and barbarous Druids to a society devoted to the establishment of Christendom.
It was a transformation with an impact similar to that of King Solomon (I Kings 3-5) who impacted not just one but many nations.
Not only was a vibrant church established (300 local churches in Ireland alone), but these churches represented a full-orbed Christianity that transformed the government of Ireland as well as many other nations. | When Thomas Cahill wrote his 1995 book titled How the Irish Saved Civilization, he employed a title that did not over-state the impact of this English youth transformed from teenage slave of harsh Irish Druids to devoted servant of the King of Kings sent to recast Irish culture. His life of service transformed the whole of Ireland and peoples beyond. | Among the tens of thousands of converts was Ireland’s King Loigaire (King Leary).
This conversion of the Irish people and Irish leadership to Christianity brought with it a replacement of their pagan Druid laws with Bible-based Latin-Irish laws.
Biblical law was introduced into the civil realm when, in 432, Patrick penned the Liber Ex Lege Moisi (Book of the Law of Moses). It emphasized the rule of law and local self-government and transformed localities throughout Ireland. | Leslie Hardinge’s 1995 book, The Celtic Church in Britain, tells us that:
Wherever Patrick went and established a church, he left an old Celtic law book, Liber ex Lege Moisi (Book of the Law of Moses) along with the books of the Gospel.
This became known as the Senchus Mor or Code of Patrick. | Bill Federer writes that:
The Code of Patrick was taken by missionaries to Britain where it laid the foundation for English Common Law, later codified by Alfred the Great (847-899).
Alfred’s legal code was derived from Mosaic Law and Jesus’ golden rule.
King Alfred’s civil laws became the root of all English and American common law, trial by jury, and habeas corpus.
As American law is based on English Common Law, one is struck with the thought that Saint Patrick may have even influenced the legal system in the United States.
Order his book here. ___________
Thomas Jefferson Understood the Role of Scripture in Nation Building | Thomas Jefferson recognized the importance of these Biblical foundations and said that Anglo-Saxon laws represent “…the sources of the Common Law … the wisest and most perfect ever yet devised before the 8th century.”
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson was commissioned to a three-man team to develop the American National Seal.
He wanted reference to Anglo-Saxon law printed on one side and advocated for Biblical imagery on the other, specifying, in his own words: | The children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by the night.
Jefferson's desire to use Israel's desert journey to the land of promise indicates that, in 1776, he considered the divine and miraculous nature of Biblical history germane to the foundation of the nation he was helping to build. | In Richard Abels’ book, Alfred the Great: War, Culture and Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England (The Medieval World), it is argued that the use of Biblical imagery by King Alfred was due to the lack of an effective way of enforcing the law and an authority greater than the king or any earthly lord was needed to ensure social order.
Abels’ book also points out that it can also be argued equally as effectively that the sustained religious imagery in the Law Codes is nothing more than the product of a deeply Christian society, where the natural law of God forms the basis for all perceptions of right and wrong, therefore it is only natural that religion features extensively in a book of law. | The fact that Alfred is writing his Law Code shows that in spite of the deeply Christian society over which he presided as king, he accepts that men are only human and many will require guidance as to what is right and wrong.
| These three men were instrumental in shaping Western Civilization:
Saint Patrick Alfred the Great Thomas Jefferson
All understood the foundational role of the Bible in nation building
In the absence of a transcendent source of law (the Bible), mankind’s moral compass becomes increasingly erratic over time. | Attempts to hide this fact have evaporated completely with the rise of the international cultural revolution which germinated in the now infamous 19th century offspring of a wealthy German upper-class family who claimed to speak authoritatively for the common man against the bourgeoise of which he was a member.
I speak, of course, of the man obsessed with all things Luciferian, Karl Heinrich Marx.
In his wake came Trotsky in whose last work, Their Morals and Ours, we see the faithfulness to Lenin’s thesis that there are no moral limitations to the tactics of the Socialist/Communist revolution. | | To quote Italian intellectual, Augusto Del Noce (“no-chay”):
There is no separation between ends and means since these latter are organically subordinated to whatever goal has been discerned from the evolution of history.
Hence, every kind of violence, every ruse, every illegal action, every dissimulation, and every deception become licit if they are deemed to be necessary to reach the goal.
This is the classic thesis of Marx-Leninism, which says that politics absorbs morality within itself. |
Quoting the staunchly anti-Christian revolutionary Surrealists from Rupture Inaugurale in Le Surrealisme en:
We will always find it acceptable to transgress the current moral law.
So much for mankind left untethered to follow his quite sinful human reason as outlined in the first chapter of the book of Romans. | This all points to the need, as Patrick and Alexander both knew, for law which is grounded in the transcendent source of the Word of God.
Let me return to the positive note I began with. | Last week we gave honor to the man who laid a major section of the foundation of Western Civilization by honoring, as the Irish have for the past 1,000 years, the incomparable life of Patrick of Ireland.
Around 405 B.C., Patrick, aged 16, was working on his father's sea-side farm when Irish raiders in longboats came to shore and captured him.
For six years, he herded the animals of a Druid chieftain. It was a time of profound spiritual growth for Patrick who was, six years later, miraculously rescued and returned to England and his family.
At age forty, however, he heard the call of God to return to Ireland to deliver the Irish Druids from their paganism by introducing them to the God who twenty years earlier had delivered him from their bondage.
He did much more. While he was a simple and uneducated man, his return to Ireland provided the foundation upon which the West was built.
Last Thursday, was the 1,562nd anniversary of the date on which Saint Patrick was transported from this earth to the transcendent realm of his Savior and King. | ______________
OKLAHOMA'S ILLUSTRIOUS IRISH: THE KEATINGS
With the Irish on our minds, let me say thank you to Oklahoma’s favorite Irishman, former Governor Frank Keating.
We are all indebted to Frank and Cathy Keating for the role they have played in helping transform Oklahoma. It is a role they continue to play.
And I am grateful for the role Governor Keating plays on the OCPAC Foundation Board. | MARK YOUR CALENDAR
No meeting this week. However, mark your calendar and invite your friends for an incredible luncheon at the Oklahoma History Center on March 29th with a woman who escaped Mao’s Cultural Revolution and is now a medical doctor in the United States, Dr. Erica Li.
COMING TO THE OKLAHOMA HISTORY CENTER | RYAN WALTERS STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
CLEANING HOUSE | There is much good work being done by Ryan Walters and the State Board of Education. Below are two rule changes they have made. ________
PARENTS RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT THEIR CHILD IS BEING TAUGHT
Find the rule change here. ________
REMOVING PORNOGRAPHY FROM SCHOOL LIBRARIES
Find the rule change here. ________
Your presence is needed at all the public hearings at the State Department of Education. Currently, it is the few leftist radicals who attend while the many, the Christian majority are absent. Last week, threats of violence were directed toward our State Board of Education. This needs to change.
Find information you heed here. | YOUR LIFE IN THE HANDS OF THE LEGISLATURE AGAIN THIS WEEK | | NATIONAL INTEGRITY ELECTION INTEGRITY
House bill HB 2114 and Senate Bill SB 669 allow people who are in the United States illegally to receive a driver license from Oklahoma's state government. The license formally sanctions illegal immigration. It is the documented indication of the state's full approval of their violation of Federal border law.
While it is not a voter I.D., it is the formal sanction of their right to be in the state, to work in the state, and to drive on our roads. It checks all the boxes needed to begin the discussions which will lead to the legislation approving them as voters.
___________
CASH ASSETS SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENT CONTROL AND TRACKING
House Bill HB 2776 begins the process to all-digital currency. This would mean that all your liquid ("cash") assets would be vulnerable to the government's tracking of your spending. This enables a government enforcing the standards of Environmental Social Governmental (ESG) compliance to publish your ESG score and extend or deny privileges accordingly.
It also places your liquid assets in a position of vulnerability. Government would have the technology available to access your digital currency and engage in executing unilateral adjustments of the balance as it sees fit based on your compliance with ESG standards.
"Time Stamped Currency" is now being discussed. It means you must "spend it or lose it."
For information on the relationship between ESG and efforts to ties your bank account to a government controlled digital currency, see the links below:
A Primer on ESG & Digital Currency here
The Gateway Pundit: Excellent Sources here
From The American Conservative Movement here Government Controlled Central Bank Digital Currency: An Extinction-Level Threat Against Liberty
A wider discussion of ESG Scoring and its impact on liberty here | | | ____________
MORE ABOUT SAINT PATRICK
For more of the amazing specifics of the life of St. Patrick, refer to Bill Federer’s article now.
If you can wait a few days and want even more, order Saint Patrick by William J. Federer here.
For even more, order Thomas Cahill's 1995 book titled How the Irish Saved Civilization here. ______________
WILLIAM J. FEDERER In addition to a number of other sources, I am indebted this week, as I often am, to William J. Federer for the inspiration and ideas his American Minute brings. It offers daily glimpses into the many realms of our world’s Christian past.
Find him here. | | | | |