A single anti-abortion bill that never made it out of an Oklahoma legislative committee during the 2019 and 2020 legislative sessions has spawned a bitter internal struggle between a cult-like group of Republican Abolitionists and a significant portion of the rest of the state GOP over the last few months.
The catalyst is Senate Bill 13, an abortion bill authored by ultra-conservative District 5 Republican state Sen. Joseph Silk of Broken Bow in far Southeastern Oklahoma.
The proposed legislation died in committee last session after it was learned the proposed law made it a possible for everyone involved in having, or performing, an abortion could be charged under state law with a felony, including murder.
Silk is currently running for the Oklahoma’s 2nd District congressional seat held by conservative Republican plumber Markwayne Mullin.
SB 13 was originally filed in 2019 and was held over for consideration until the 2020 legislative session. Holding bills over for a total of two legislative sessions is common practice in the Oklaho- ma House of Representatives and Senate.
The bill never received a hearing in the 2020 session after being assigned to the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee. Assigning a bill to two committees before it can be voted upon by the full House and Senate traditionally is a sign of impending death for a piece of legislation.
Under SB 13, performing and obtaining an abortion would have been a felony crime punishable by life in prison, even if an abortion was performed because of a rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.
Abortion proponents fought the bill strenuously while Silk and his bill were aggressively promoted by anti-abortionists, including a religious group of abolitionists that call themselves “The Ekklesia of Oklahoma.”
Anti-abortionists, including members of the Ekklesia, held a rally on Feb. 13th at the Capitol where Silk and a number of abortion opponents spoke in favor of banning abortion.
One of the group members standing at the podium alongside Silk at the rally was Daniel Navejas, the self- styled leader of the Ekklesia (also spelled Ecclesia) who is a resident of the home at 1212 N. Mockingbird Lane in Guthrie.
Ecclesia is defined in the dictionary as a congregation or church. It also means an “assembly,” especially the popular assembly of ancient Athens in Greece.”
The Ledger has been profiling the group and its actions which emanate from Mockingbird Lane for several weeks after a number of GOP activists labeled the group of 12 to 14 adults and 10 children living in one house a cult.
The Logan County Election Board was the first to spotlight the group because there were so many adults voting from the same Guthrie residence, which county election board officials said was “highly unusual.”
County election board officials notified local law enforcement and the state Election Board. Local police took no action. The Oklahoma Election Board also ordered Logan County election board officials to turn the matter over to the Logan County District Attorney, Laura Thomas.
Thomas told the Ledger she nixed an investigation because she could find no evidence of a crime. She said she saw no reason to conduct a full investigation of the situation, adding that district attorney’s don’t investigate crimes, they prosecute them.
Thomas is an acquaintance of longtime GOP operative Charlie Meadows. Meadows has told the Ledger that he has been to the Mocking- bird Lane house on several occasions to discuss politics with the home’s residents and others.
Meadows told this newspaper he too is anti-abortion and he supports the group’s abolitionists efforts.
Ekklesia group members have put together a slate of candidates to oppose incumbent Republican legislators and other GOP candidates seeking county offices.
It is the challenge to incumbent Republicans that have angered GOP officials at various levels the most.
State GOP officials are trying to find a way to deal with the insurgency inside their ranks but have yet to take any public steps to address the matter.
However, a number of GOP County chairmen and other party officials have spoken to the Ledger about the brewing controversy.
Pittsburg County GOP Chairman Chris Wade lashed out at the Ekklesia and one of the candidates, Brenda Angel, who is his county vice chairman.
Angel is running in House District 18 against incumbent David Smith and another challenger Brecken Wagner. “These people will lie without reservation because in their mind the end justifies the means,” Wade said.
“What really gripes me is the way they distort the truth and take half-truths and turn them into something terrible,” he explained.
Wade has participated extensively in GOP politics in Oklahoma and other Southern States, and spent time working for a U.S. Congressman for a number of years He said Angel “was anything but a vice chairman” of the party in his view. “She’s been stabbing me in the back a lot.”
Wade said Pittsburg County Republicans voted to ask Angel to resign and when she was called to inform her of the local GOP members decision, “she refused to resign and hung up the phone.”
Despite several attempts, the Ledger was unable to reach Angel for a response to Wade’s comments.
Wade said the Ekklesia group claims to be Christian, but he said, in his opinion, they don’t act like it.
“I think they are giving Christians a bad name. The wrap themselves in the Bible and God and then go on doing what they’re doing. Well, I’ve heard a lot of things and I think actions speak louder than words.”