Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber donated to the Republican primary opponent of Dusty Deevers, a fellow Southern Baptist pastor who is running for Oklahoma State Senate, despite the opponent’s support of a Biden administration vaccine mandate which the denomination’s flagship seminary publicly challenged in the court system.
Barber contributed $100 to the campaign of Jean Hausheer, who ultimately finished second in the four-way Republican primary last month, after a series of disagreements with Deevers about the issue of abortion, as revealed in a report from The Sentinel published over the weekend. Hausheer, a physician who previously led the Oklahoma State Medical Association, was prominently criticized during the Republican primary race for supporting a federal vaccine mandate for private employers from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
"We have seatbelt laws, we also have don't drink and drive laws, and those are all very sensible," Hausheer said in comments about the controversial mandate two years ago. “I think it just falls into the same category. And I sense that President Biden has done this because of so much of the difficulty we've encountered in healthcare with this very issue.”
The donation occurred despite a legal challenge to the vaccine mandate from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Attorneys at the Alliance Defending Freedom filed an emergency motion to review the mandate on behalf of the school; the lawsuit was consolidated into a new case that prompted the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to rule against the mandate, which also would have required private employers to enforce testing and masking requirements.
The Sentinel asked Barber on Saturday whether he was aware of the support for the Biden administration vaccine mandate from Hausheer before he donated to her campaign. The Sentinel repeated the question to Barber on Monday but has not received any response.
Hausheer also spoke in favor of a mask mandate policy at a city council meeting three years ago in Lawton, Oklahoma. Deevers spoke against the mandate at the same meeting.
Disagreements between Barber and Deevers, the pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Elgin, Oklahoma, centered on the latter’s support for the immediate abolition of abortion as well as criminal penalties for every party involved. Larry Bush, the Democratic nominee for the Oklahoma State Senate seat who will challenge Deevers in the general election next month, featured criticism from Barber toward Deevers in a campaign mailer. Barber clarified on Friday that his words were taken “out of context” in the advertisement and used without permission, adding on Monday that he would vote for Deevers in the general election.
Hausheer received backlash during the primary for contributing $1,000 to Joy Hofmeister, a former Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Oklahoma who ran last year in support of increased abortion legality. Barber insisted in a Monday social media comment that he had “made a legal contribution for a Baptist pro-life physician.”
Barber said in a statement on Saturday that neither the Southern Baptist Convention nor the president of the denomination endorses candidates. He previously told The Sentinel that the donation to Hausheer was consistent with his commitment to not engage in “negative politics.”
