Is Oklahoma Heading Towards a Christian Crusade?

An Oklahoma state senator just introduced a slate of faith-based bills he says will reverse his state’s “moral decay.”

The legislation targets a wide-ranging list of perceived moral failures with controversial policies: sending drag queens to jail, abolishing abortion, making divorce more difficult, and handing out prison sentences for looking at porn.

And while the author of these bills calls them a common sense return to traditional morality for a culture which lost its way, others see a slippery slope towards Christian theocracy.

The Bills to Restore Sanity

Oklahoma State Sen. Dusty Deevers, a self-described Christian Nationalist, has introduced eight bills which he says will “restore moral sanity” in Oklahoma.

Deevers, who also serves as pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Elgin, Oklahoma, says that “these bills set a course for pushing back against the moral decay foisted upon Oklahoma by the far-left’s march through our institutions to destroy the moral foundations upon which the United States and Christian Civilization had long rested.”

What are the proposed bills intended to restore sanity to the Sooner State?

• The Abolition of Abortion Act - Classifies abortion as homicide and abolishes mail-order access to abortion pills
• Increasing Penalties for Child Pornography and Prohibiting Pornography in Oklahoma - Increases legal penalty for possession of child pornography, and makes possession of pornography in general a crime
• Prohibiting Drag Performances for Children - Makes it illegal for drag queens to perform in front of children
• The Covenant Marriage Act - Provides a tax credit to couples who opt into covenant marriages
• Prohibiting No-Fault Divorce - Removes "incompatibility" as a legal reason for divorce
• The Make Adoption Affordable Again Act - Provides a tax credit for couples who adopt
• The Promote Child Thriving Act - Establishes a per-child tax credit for married mothers and fathers filing taxes jointly
• Equal Tax Status for Health Share Ministries - Grants tax benefits to health share ministries

There's a lot to unpack in these controversial policies. The abortion bill, for example, closes a “loophole” allowing the order of mail-order abortion pills, and reclassifies the termination of a pregnancy as homicide.

The divorce bill makes it impossible for couples who are no longer in love to divorce, instead requiring proof of abuse, abandonment, or adultery to justify a split.

The drag bill reclassifies all drag – even nonsexualized drag – as an “adult cabaret performance” carrying a criminal sentence of one to five years behind bars.

But the policy grabbing the most attention so far is the pornography proposal, which makes creating or possessing pornography a criminal offense, carrying a prison sentence up to ten years.

Deevers has been active on social media in response to critics, offering a religious plea (or threat, depending on how you read it) to those who watch porn: "Porn brain is real. The conscience accuses the sexually immoral. Don't silence it. Run to Christ! Confess your sins. Repent and be cleansed."

Making Oklahoma Great Again or Hate Again?

So, what next? Will these bills “restore sanity” to Oklahoma? That depends on who you ask.

Deevers himself says the policies are intended to restore American values to how they used to be, combating what he calls “radical and degenerate” changes in recent decades.

“The left’s century-long assault on morality and decency has been so successful that some have come to accept as normal a society that is drowning in hardcore pornography, prenatal homicide, and sexual performances for children. None of this is normal,” he wrote in the bills’ press release. “We can and should imagine and move toward a society that celebrates virtue in the public square rather than vice.”

Yet many Oklahomans view these bills as a harbinger that Christian nationalism is knocking on their doorstep – and perhaps even letting itself in.

For many, these sorts of draconian punishments are more at home in 1625 than 2025. And even some conservative Christians believe these bills go too far, either in what they criminalize or their restrictions on free speech.

“The Christian Taliban is here,” wrote one Facebook user on Deevers’ official Facebook page. “This is fascism,” wrote another. “You say you stand for freedom but you want to shove your Bible down people's throat.”

Others sought to sound the alarm about the legislator and his religious beliefs:

Will the Bills Pass?

It's unclear if any of these proposals will become law. Deevers introduced a similar slate of bills in last year’s legislative session that were never brought to a vote.

However, other faith-forward policies have been successfully implemented. Last year, Oklahoma announced it would spend $6 million to put Bibles in public schools statewide. 

Related: "Is Satan Real?" Oklahoma Families Shocked By God-Themed School Assignment

And the recent re-election of President Trump, coupled with the passage of similar bills in other states, could make Oklahoma’s political environment more open to this type of evangelical pivot.

In fact, they may even have the president’s support.

As Deevers puts it, there are only two futures for American politics. “You're coming under the rule of God your creator, who is also gracious and sent His son, or you're going to come under the rule of The Serpent,” he explained in an interview. “It's a serpentine theocracy or a rule of God – and there's not a space in the middle.”

Should these bills find their way to passage, Oklahomans may soon be living under Deever’s interpretation of “rule of God” – whether they like it or not.

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