The Sunday before Scott Pruitt’s confirmation hearing to run the Environmental Protection Agency, Pruitt stood on the stage of his hometown church, bowed his head, and prayed.
“I stand on a platform today with a man of God who’s been tapped to serve our nation,” said the Rev. Nick Garland, the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Broken Arrow, Okla.
“It’s an honor for the kingdom of God to have a man of God who’s going to fill that role,” said Garland. “We wanted to pray for you today, and ask God to bless you.”
The congregation at First Baptist, which is part of the Southern Baptist Convention and has a membership of some 4,500, has counted Pruitt as a member for nearly three decades. Pruitt is also a deacon at the church.
Throughout his career, he has relied on the church for both spiritual and political strength.
While Pruitt is probably best-known now for his aggressive attempts to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations — and perhaps for the increasing number of investigations into alleged ethical misconduct — much of his career has been driven by faith-based issues like abortion and religious freedom. Pruitt and the EPA did not respond to several requests for comment over nearly two months, including a four-page list of questions from NPR. But an examination of Pruitt’s public statements and his record shows that his faith continues to inform his views of the environment and climate change.
Pruitt was elected to the Oklahoma State Senate in 1998, and an NPR review of legislation he sponsored shows a strong focus on faith-based issues.
Early on, he sponsored a state Religious Freedom Act. He also sponsored legislation to provide state funding to faith-based organizations working in juvenile justice.
Most years he was in the state Senate, he also sponsored legislation to restrict abortion, including what’s known as an “informed consent” bill. Such bills mandate language that doctors have to use before performing an abortion.
“[Women] need to know that there’s a link with breast cancer,” Pruitt said in 2003. “They need to know that there’s a risk with infertility; they need to know that there are emotional risks attendant with abortion procedures.”
Leading medical groups say all of those claims are either false or misleading.
While voting for another abortion restriction measure in the Oklahoma Senate, Pruitt said, “I’m voting to say that an unborn child from the moment of conception should be considered a legal person under the 14th Amendment.”
Read the full story at NPR
