EDMOND — The founders’ legacy of freedom will be reclaimed when Americans become like those who believed the Constitution was worth any sacrifice, and when they elect leaders that embody all that is best in America, a noted scholar said.  

J. Rufus Fears, a University of Oklahoma classics professor, culminated his lecture series Monday night at Oklahoma Christian University.

Fears said to reclaim the founders’ legacy of freedom, Americans must become like those who stood at Lexington, like those who suffered at Valley Forge and like those who fought at Gettysburg, Normandy, Sicily and Iwo Jima.

In recent years, the nation has had too many presidents who have not embodied what is best about America, Fears said.

“But this is still a nation of great and goodness,” Fears said. “And there is, out there, a leader like a Lincoln, like a Washington, to bring us back to greatness. This great nation will endure, as it has endured.”

Early on, Americans began to see the Constitution as being too powerful, too big of a threat to individual freedom and they wanted regulations to limit government and its ability to interfere with their private lives and their income, Fears said.

In the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...”

“Now, it is not an accident that that is the First Amendment,” Fears said. “James Madison and his committee didn’t just kind of shuffle them up and pick them out of a hat. That is the most basic freedom that you have.”

The reference to Congress means lawmakers cannot establish a church as the country’s official church and pay for it out of taxpayer dollars, Fears said.

And neither Congress nor the U.S. Supreme Court can tell individuals how to exercise their religion, Fears said. The founders did not want to force Americans to worship in the way in which they chose.

“But they would defend to the death your right, the town of Yukon, to set up a nativity scene in front of your town hall,” Fears said. “They would defend to the death the right of your children in your community to say the Lord’s Prayer.”

The First Amendment was for religion, and the Northwest Ordinance declared that liberty, morality and education were essential to freedom, and should be forever encouraged, Fears said.

“So we discourage religion, and we also discourage morality,” Fears said.

Fears said the press has become so powerful that it can make or break political figures, and it has abused its freedom — its responsibility — to report the truth and all sides of a question by the increased use of anonymous sources.

Another basic freedom is the right to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, Fears said. That right is given to all, including the Tea Party, he said.

OC’s Academy of Leadership and Liberty and the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank, co-sponsored the lecture series. Fears is an OCPA fellow.

Brian Bush, executive director of OC’s Academy of Leadership and Liberty, said event organizers are pleased with the reception in the community and the way people responded. Bush said 400-500 people attended each lecture, and several drove two to three hours to the Edmond campus.

“It says a lot about what the public is concerned about and what they want to know,” Bush said.

Bush said the academy’s mission is compatible with the OCPA’s, which is to accumulate, evaluate and disseminate public policy ideas and information for Oklahoma consistent with the principles of free enterprise, limited government and individual initiative.

Michael Carnuccio, OCPA president, said the goal of the lecture series was to have a dialogue about the Constitution and fundamental freedoms.

Carnuccio said he too is encouraged by the way the series was welcomed by Edmond, the number of family groups attending, the increase in attendance as the series progressed and that individuals drove long distances to learn about the Constitution.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Carnuccio said.

Now, the OCPA and OC are discussing future ideas, how they can continue their partnership, Carnuccio said.



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