Rarely does a campaign advertisement for a state Senate race draw significant viewership on social media. But when Dusty Deevers announced his run for the Oklahoma Senate, his launch video went viral because he revealed that he would serve as a lawmaker even as he continues his work as a pastor. Deevers said in an interview with The Sentinel that his church asked him to occupy both roles as state and federal tyranny threatens their flourishing as a community.
Deevers currently serves alongside a plurality of elders as a bivocational minister at Grace Community Church of Elgin, Oklahoma. Because the state has a part-time legislature which meets from Mondays at noon to Thursdays at noon between February and May of each year, Deevers believes that fulfilling his pastoral work and occupying his Senate seat will be feasible.
“My church charged me to take up the duty for them and our children to get the government off our backs and out of our pockets. I'm running to protect and defend people’s God-given and constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, fight to build strong communities and families, and establish equal protection for all lives from fertilization and conception to natural death,” Deevers commented. “My church prayed for a couple of weeks before our final prayer meeting where they charged me to take up the duty to fight for them, our children, and our neighbors' good by establishing justice as God demands.”
Deevers said that there exists considerable precedent for pastors venturing into the political realm, especially during times of national crisis. He noted that nine members of the Continental Congress were clergymen and that several Presbyterian ministers formed the Black Robe Regiment during the American Revolution, supporting the war against Britain through various religious and political activities. Several members of the current Congress are also ministers.
Grace Community Church was likewise heavily involved in combating tyranny amid the lockdowns three years ago: Deevers and the congregation hosted a conference for community members to provide them with a Christian basis for resisting the unlawful decrees.
“The lockdowns had a major impact on my family, church, and business. Tyrants locked down the memory care facility my dad was in, and for over a year, I could not touch him, but only see him through a window. Friends and church members lost jobs and income and were harassed and threatened for not taking the jab or wearing masks,” he remarked. “Proverbs 29:2 says, ‘When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.’ The lockdowns woke many people up to the fact that we indeed do have wicked rulers, they will take power however they can, and when they do, innocent people groan under their tyranny.”
Deevers centers his campaign on establishing “strict constitutional government” by spurning federal overreach into areas that are not in the enumerated powers of the United States Constitution, particularly in the domain of education, as well as protecting “strong families and communities.” He supports a ban on pornography, lower business taxes, and less regulations. Deevers also calls for the complete “abolition of abortion,” observing that laws in Oklahoma have loopholes which let mothers take abortion pills mailed into the state.
“We have to get the government operating back under the Constitution. They need to return to protecting life, liberty, and property,” he said. “We must establish strong families and communities by fighting for morality and principles in government to create an environment where families and communities thrive rather than being beaten down.”
