TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK’S MEETING
++ TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT
++ WEALTHY COULD PAY MORE - WOULDN’T IT BE FAIR?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 17th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speakers this
week will be Bill Shappard and James Davenport of Sooner Polling. They
will explain the ins and outs of polling, how it is done, who pays for
it, how the wording is determined and how close to accurate polls
might happen to be. You might be surprised to know how a business or
organization could become part of a bundle for a poll and it not cost
all that much to get a read on the public.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY - OKC AREA - Congressman James Lankford will hold a
town hall meeting tonight at the Francis Tuttle Technology Center
(Portland Campus) 3500 NW 150th street in OKC, from 6 until 7:30 p.m.

* TUESDAY - TULSA AREA - U.S. Senator Tom Coburn will hold a town
hall meeting tonight at 6:00 p.m. The location is the Tulsa Community
College - Southeast Campus in the Van Trease Performing Arts Center
for Education, 10300 East 81st street.

* THURSDAY - SHAWNEE AREA - Congressman James Lankford will hold
a town hall meeting at the CPN Cultural Heritage Center in the North
Reunion Hall, 1702 South Gordon Cooper Drive in Shawnee from 6 to 7:30
p.m.

* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - U.S. Senator Tom Coburn will host a town
hall meeting at the Oklahoma City Community College, Union rooms 1, 2
& 3, 7777 South May Avenue. The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m.

* THURSDAY - LAWTON AREA - Congressman Tom Cole will host a town
hall meeting, 5:30 p.m. in the CETES Center on the campus of Cameron
University.

* We are just a little over a week away from the Stand with Israel
rally to be held at the State Capitol in OKC on Wednesday, August 24th
from 7 until 10 p.m. I believe this will be a live satellite feed from
Jerusalem in conjunction with Glenn Beck’s Restoring Courage event.
For more information, log on to www.oklahomaunited.com.

++ COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK’S MEETING

This past Wednesday, Dr. Scott Carroll presented one of the most
interesting and compelling programs we have ever had at an OCPAC
meeting. Perhaps I am just a sucker for show and tell, but the 10 or
so Biblical artifacts Mr. Carroll brought to the meeting were
fascinating, not to mention they were valued in the millions of
dollars.

Included was the oldest known parchment of the writings of the Apostle
of Paul. It was part of the 10th chapter of the book of First
Corinthians. Dr. Carroll brought a tablet, about the size and shape of
a calzone sandwich which looked to be fired in a kiln or cured in the
sun. When looked upon at the correct angle, it had deep inscriptions
waiting to be translated to a modern language. The Green’s have the
largest number of these tablets of any collection in the world, many
still waiting to be deciphered. Another artifact involved monks
writing on a material and then at a later date writing over the top of
the original. Through precise technology the wording from each of the
time periods can be separated and clearly understood. Another was a
manuscript recently purchased at a world famous auction. The wording
couldn’t be deciphered with the human eye. However, when originally
written, the ink pen left ridges on the parchment. Through technology,
the ridges can be seen, bringing about the complete content of these
ancient manuscripts.

While a relationship with Jesus the Christ must be based on belief,
trust and faith, Dr. Carroll’s whole life work is about data and the
story it tells. Our good friend Dr. Yeagley was present and asked a
piercing question. Many may not know one of Dr. Yeagley’s 5 degrees is
from the school of divinity at Yale University. Dr. Yeagley’s
perspective was that many of the professors at Yale use the data to
destroy the faith of the students and only by the grace of God did he
survive those studies. Dr. Carroll defended the data by suggesting the
data is not the problem, but rather the misuse of data, through
misinterpretation rather than letting it say what it says. Dr.
Carroll’s perspective was that not only do the thousands of Biblical
artifacts verify and reinforce the veracity of the Bible, but also
many non Christian contemporaries add to the Bible’s veracity through
their historical accounts.

If you weren’t able to attend, the much larger collection will be on
display until October 16th at which time it will move to another city,
perhaps to never again return to OKC. The Greens have now put together
the largest collection of Biblical Artifacts in the world and its
value is nearing priceless. It has such rare artifacts, that Dr.
Carroll suggested we will see charter planes loaded with Hebrew
scholars coming to OKC to study some of the materials in the
collection. The collection will eventually have a permanent home in
Washington D.C. where an expected 2 million people a year will view
it. It is called “Passages” and is on display seven days a week at the
Oklahoma City Art Museum in downtown OKC. I hope to see it within the
next couple of weeks. I urge folks not to miss this special event
while it is in Oklahoma.

++ TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT

On August 5th a liberal blog released their list of the 20 most
dangerous people in America. To view it, log on to www.thechristianleft.org.
They called it “The Enemies Within: The 20 Most Dangerous
Conservatives and their Organizations.” As a point of interest, we
have had 3 of these “dangerous” folks speak at OCPAC over the years,
one of whom very recently. As a trivia question, can you pick out the
three? Send me their names at, charliemeadows7@gmail.com. Following
is their list in order.

1) Roger Ailes, President of Fox News.
2) The Koch Brothers, of Koch Industries of Wichita.
3) Dick Army of Freedom Works.
4) Tom Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
5) Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
6) Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition.
7) Edwin Feulner, President of the Heritage Foundation.
8) Art Thompson, CEO of the John Birch Society.
9) Rupert Murdock of News Corp.
10) Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform.
11) David Bossie, of Citizens United.
12) Tim LaHaye & Ken Cribb of Council for National Policy.
13) Steve J. Law of American Crossroads.
14) James Dobson of Family Talk Radio.
15) Phyllis Schlafly, founder of Eagle Forum.
16) David Keene of the American Conservative Union.
17) Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association.
18) David Barton of Wallbuilders Ministries.
19) Noble Ellington of the American Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC).
20) Edward Crane of the Cato Institute.

++ WEALTHY COULD PAY MORE - WOULDN’T IT BE FAIR?

If you listen to President Obama, other elected Democrats or liberal
callers on talk radio, one can quickly understand their agenda is for
the “rich” or wealthy to pay more in taxes, or in other words, “their
fair share”. Conservatives are quick to point out that the wealthy
already pay their fair share and usually quote some numbers about the
wealthiest 10 percent of income earners already paying 70 percent of
all taxes. My numbers may be off, but for the point I want to make
they don’t have to be exact.

To those less than wealthy liberals, the ones who have been
indoctrinated to hate the rich and envy their wealth, it doesn’t
matter that the wealthy already pay a greater share of taxes than the
rest of Americans. All they can see through their hate filled world
view is that the wealthy have more than they do and therefore could
and should pay more.

So my question is, they certainly could pay more, so why wouldn’t that
be fair? What I am about to say is really for Christians for the most
part. As a Christian, who is it that determines right from wrong? Who
is it that determines what is fair? Is it not our Heavenly Father
through His Word? Of course it is and that is why we have a struggle
today between competing world views. There are several competing world
views, but for this discussion, lets just say the main competition in
America is between a Judeo/Christian world view and a secularist or
humanist world view.

The secular world view believes in a heavy progressive tax burden. In
other words, the more a person has, or more particularly makes, the
more as a percentage that person should have to pay. That idea, at
least in a modern context, comes from the writings of Karl Marx and
can be found as plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto.

Over the years, I can’t tell you how many Oklahoma lawmakers and
candidates have espoused the idea of the wealthy paying more. Even
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn’s “back to black” manifesto, a proposal for
America to quit its spending in the red and get back into the black
has many elements of the wealthy paying more through “means testing”.

What I want to do is to challenge Christians to think Biblically. To
develop a Biblical world view and turn from a Marxist or secularist
world view. God’s covenant with Israel (Old Testament) was that his
people should pay 10% of their first fruits (a tithe) to take care of
the needs and duties of the nation of Israel.

I don’t want to get into an argument as to whether or not the tithe
applies to Christianity as some believe it does and some otherwise.
However, my understanding of God’s word is that it is an excellent
example to follow and I would suggest Christians should be willing to
give their all in their service to the Lord Jesus (obviously God
provides for us, usually through our labors, the money we need for our
necessities and more than just the necessities). The heart of a true
Christian should lead us to be giving individuals. There are some
people that God simply gives an ability to generate great wealth. He
instructs those people to be generous.

To better understand this lets look at the earnings of three different
people though first a Christian world view and then through the
Marxist world view. From the perspective of 10% of a persons earnings,
person number 1 will make $1,000 per month and pay $100 dollars in
taxes, thus leaving that person $900 to live on. Person number 2 will
make $10,000 per month and will pay $1,000 in taxes leaving him $9,000
to live on. Person number 3 will make $100,000 per month and will pay
$10,000 in taxes, leaving that person $90,000 to live on. This would
be fair in the Eyes of God as He equates fairness as to how the rules
are applied. Fairness in the eyes of God is not based on the effect
upon a person or the need of a person.

It should not take a rocket scientist to realize that person number 2
will have more opportunities than number 1 and person number 3 will
have more opportunities the persons number 1 or 2. There is nothing
wrong with this system, it is not evil, it is fair.

Now lets look at the possible outcomes for these 3 persons through the
eyes of the Marxist world view. Most likely person number 1 will be
exempt from paying any taxes and thus have their entire $1,000 to live
on. Person number 2 will probably have to pay a 30% tax rate and thus
pay $3,000 in taxes leaving $7,000 per month to live on. Now for the
really heavy weight of a progressive income tax. Person number 3 will
have to pay 80%, (past tax rates have actually been higher than this,
though loop holes allowed for high income earners to keep more of
their money) thus having to pay $80,000 a month in taxes and thus
leaving them $20,000 per month to live on.

Today, liberals say it is not fair for person number 3 to keep $20,000
each month when person number 1 only has $1,000 to keep and spend.
Therefore, they want to take even more (they are already taking
$80,000 each month) of person number 3’s earnings from him and then re-
distribute (give) even more of person number 3’s earnings to person
number 1.

What liberals don’t realize is that the wealthy do one or two things
with their wealth. They either spend it or invest it (even putting it
in a bank becomes the capital others borrow to use for their needs,
desires or business financing). When a wealthy person builds a 3
million dollar home and has to pay a $30,000 per month mortgage, it
provides work for contractors who make $10,000 per month (person
number 2) who in turn provide jobs for craftsmen who make $5,000 per
month right on down to person number 1 (an apprentice to the
craftsman) who makes $1,000 per month.

When person number 3 realizes people hate him for his success and want
to take ever larger amounts from him, at some point in time he may
decide to quietly tell them to “go to hell”. He might do this in
several different ways. He might just slowly wind his business down or
simply close it down and live on his savings. Perhaps he might move it
to another country where he will be treated better. He may sell the
business and move to a different country taking his capital with him.
The point is, wealthy people have the resources to make these
decisions and carry them out.

Rather than hating the successful, God’s Word tells us to mourn with
those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. If people inherit
or earn their wealth honorably, then we should rejoice at their
success, not hate or become envious of them.

Perhaps the most important Biblical perspective on this issue is found
in the parable of the talents, found in the 25th chapter of Matthew.
The parable explains that a certain Lord of some servants was going on
a journey and summoned his servants. He gave 5 talents to one servant
with the most skills, 2 talents to another servant and 1 talent to his
servant with the least skills. After the Master had been gone a long
time he returned to settle with his servants. The one he had given 5
talents to had put them to work and produced 5 more talents. The
Master told him good and well done faithful servant and because of
your faithfulness I will make you a ruler over many things. The one He
had given 2 talents to had put them to work and produced 2 more,
another good and well done from the Master and he put this servant in
charge of many things. The servant he had given 1 talent to was
paralyzed with fear and as such took his talent and buried it in the
ground. When he tried to return his talent to his Master, he was told
by his Master that he was wicked and lazy and should have at least put
it in the bank to draw interest. The Master then called for servants
to take the one talent away from this wicked servant and give it to
the servant who had 10 talents. Then the Master fired the servant and
drove him off his property and into the wilderness.

May I suggest that the talents represent the giftings and capabilities
that God puts in every man. We do not all have the same level of
talents, some more and some less. The teaching of the parable is that
God rewards faithfulness and productivity and will never ask a person
to produce more than he has the talent to produce. In addition, the
parable also teaches that God actually punishes those who are
unproductive and unfaithful.

If you want to know what is wrong with America from an economic
standpoint, you have to look no farther than this parable. Since we
started the welfare state in the 1930s, we have turned God’s economic
principles upside down. Using the Karl Marx model of a heavy graduated
income tax, the more productive a person the more we punish them by
taking ever more of the fruit of their productivity. We then take a
productive person’s wealth and give it to the un-productive.

America has been able to get away with this violation of God’s
economic principles for a long time, but the Master is returning to
America and is about to set things in order. Because America has
violated these Biblical principles for such a long time, we have
created a large class of people who are of weak character, as well as
being sniveling, whiny butt, dependents. As the welfare state begins
to shut down, as it must, they will scream and clamor. Some will turn
to violence, much like we see in certain places in Europe.

America is not exempt from violence as we are now beginning to see
flash mobs in places like Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and at
the Wisconsin state fair. Whether these flash mobs are motivated by
racial hatred or wealth envy or both, it doesn’t really matter. What
we are beginning to see is the predictable fruit of a welfare state
coming to an end. The turbulence in the economy and the decline of
America has more to do than anyone might think with our violating the
simple principles set forth in the parable of the talents.

Violating these principles is the number one reason we are over 14
trillion in debt, with untold trillions in unfunded liabilities for
the future. It is why America is bankrupt. Though it is possible to
turn this around, it is not likely given so many of our citizens have
been indoctrinated through the government schools to value socialism
and ignore God and His principles.

America needs another great awakening, but that will only come about
when its pastors, priests and rabbis understand these truths and get
the courage to teach them to their congregations. This will be
difficult as so many churches today have become seeker friendly
churches, feeding their congregations a pink, puff and piffle marsh
mellow diet rather than the solid truths that will mature people. The
clergy is failing to teach people to become like the faithful servants
in the parable of the talents. We need to pray that God will stir the
hearts of the pastors to be filled with courage and pray that the
people will want to know the reality of the Master and His ways.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com