The Document That Explains Why Nationalists Keep Trying To Ban Porn
For the second year in a row, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Dusty Deevers has introduced a bill that would criminalize pornography in the state. If passed, S.B. 593 would create “criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison for production, distribution, or possession” of consensual adult pornographic material and “10-to-30-year criminal penalties for organized pornography trafficking.“
The bill died last session after being assigned to, and ignored by, the Judiciary Committee, but its language was broad enough to criminalize the illustrator of erotic drawings or “even someone who simply sent someone who is not their spouse a sexually charged photo,” as Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown reported.Â
It would be easy to write Deevers off as a marginal figure who has attached himself to a strange lost cause, like the Florida representative who tried to repeal his state’s ban on dwarf tossing in 2011. But Deevers not only has a posse, but a much broader agenda for America. This agenda was detailed in The Statement on Christian Nationalism & the Gospel, a manifesto of which Deevers was the primary author. His co-writers included former Trump appointee William Wolfe and Texas pastor/online influencer Joel Webbon. Christian Nationalists are a disorganized bunch, ranging from dispensational dominionists who want America to help Israel build a third temple to theonomic anti-Zionists who want America’s laws to reflect those handed down by Moses. But Deevers’ statement is meant to be a conciliatory document—bringing together the populist right faithful regardless of “confessional tradition or denomination” to silence non-Christian voices in the public square, criminalize pornography, and repel immigration.
The ideological core of this document is a Christian Nationalist reading of “the Great Commission,” Jesus’ command to his apostles to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” The Commission is generally understood as evangelistic as opposed to coercive—after all, baptism always follows sincere belief and voluntary repentance in the New Testament. But Deevers’ Statement regards the Commission as, in part, a call for rulers to impose onto non-Christians uniquely religious imperatives regarding consensual
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