It’s no secret the Wyoming Freedom Caucus wants to slash the state Department of Health’s budget. Now, thanks to a Wyoming Public Radio interview with Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, we know precisely why.
Opinion
As “chairman emeritus” of the far-right Freedom Caucus that controls the House, Bear’s religious roadmap to change some of the Department of Health’s core missions is frightening.
Bear is also co-chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee, the powerful panel that oversees the state budget.
He apparently thinks there’s no wall of separation between the church and state that’s guaranteed in the First Amendment, at least not in Wyoming. Bear believes the Legislature would benefit from more Christian lawmakers who think alike and share his moral values.
Bear wants churches to lead some aspects of state government, like mental health and welfare programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. He also thinks churches would do a bang-up job on other government responsibilities such as unemployment benefits.
“When I look at the secular effort for suicide prevention today, it is woefully inadequate,” Bear said. “Woefully inadequate. The reason is because it’s never bringing in that truth that creates hope. Suicide comes from hopelessness.”
Bear voted against a 2021 bill that would have required schools to adopt suicide prevention training. He also opposed a 2023 bill that established a trust fund for the new “988” suicide lifeline.
I’m not suggesting that churches don’t have an important role in helping people who are considering taking their own lives. Churches also distribute food to those who need it, and that’s a great use of their resources.
But the religious community shouldn’t have control over SNAP, unemployment benefits or mental health programs. The fact that Bear and so many members of the Freedom Caucus voted against putting more mental health counselors in schools is outrageous, especially in light of his comments to WPR.
Bear said in an ideal world, he’d like Wyoming to focus less on mental health programs and psychiatry. He claimed the latter takes “a Marxist view of humanity.”
I don’t know why Bear has it in for the Department of Health. He appointed a three-person JAC subcommittee to examine the department’s budget at a series of public meetings and report back to the full panel.
The subcommittee was chaired by a Freedom Caucus member, Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, and had a Senate ally of the caucus, Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell. With the department’s $2.2 billion biennial budget targeted by Bear, I shudder to think about potentially devastating cuts to health services.
There will be time to focus on the Appropriation Committee’s version of the budget from now through the next session, which convenes Feb. 9. Wyomingites should share any concerns to the committee and their legislators.
But voters should pay attention to how Bear views Wyoming’s government and how it could be improved if only more people would go to church (as long as it’s a Christian church with God-fearing people) to keep the devil at bay.
“Number one, we need to draw a line in the sand,” Bear said. “We’re not going to go down this path any further.”
What guides his decision-making?
“Number one is morality,” Bear explained. “And then if it’s not a moral issue, then I go with the constitution. Is it constitutional or not?”
If there’s no issue with those two, he said he goes “with the preponderance of my constituency.”
Does Bear give any weight to the concerns of anyone but Christians who share his views? According to him, it’s the Freedom Caucus members’ alignment on moral values that gives the group its power.
“You need to have good Christians in office,” Bear said. “Not that to be in office, you have to be a Christian, but as Christians, we should try to get as many Christians in office as possible.”
When Bear describes state government, he sees a straight path to the Freedom Caucus obtaining the ability to pass its conservative agenda, and it begins with more people attending church.
“From my point of view, we’ve taken 100 years to get to this point,” Bear said. “That’s not going to be an easy, quick solution, because basically you’ve got to cut taxes and put the money back in people’s pockets, right? Those people have to actually start going to church. So there needs to be revival.”
How about a revival of the separation of church and state? The United States was not, as Bear and many others believe, founded as a Christian nation. Freedom of religion guarantees the right to freely exercise one’s faith and to be free from government imposition of religion.
What former President Jimmy Carter said gets to the heart of the influence of the Freedom Caucus: “There’s no doubt that the Christian right has gone to bed with the more conservative elements of the Republican Party. And there’s been a melding in their goals when it comes to the separation of church and state.”
And from constitutional scholar and comedian George Carlin: “I’m completely in favor of the separation of church and state. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”
Is it constitutional or not?
I am prone to asking questions of people to gauge “hypocrisy” and the one I like to use is this. Q “Do you have the right to manage your neighbors cows?” A. “Only if they step on my land”. Q “Do you have the right to manage your neighbor’s womb?”
If your answer to that question is yes then you clearly misunderstand the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Representative Bear has Jonathon Lange laying some ground work for dismantling the Health Department in his current opinion published in the CSD. https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/12/05/jonathan-lange-we-need-a-realistic-approach-to-teen-suicide/
I politely, for me, instructed Pastor Lange on his overlooked assertions in his article and he asked me for clarification, but I am not holding my breath in hopes that Lange or Bear will change their minds about what may work for society as a whole.
“woefully inadequate” So lets vote against doing anything that would make it any better. Really hating this “if it doesn’t fix everything then we won’t fix anything” thinking that seems to be the foundation of Republicans these days.
The idea that anyone should be forced to seek mental health support or advice from any individual or organization supported by John Bear would be laughable if it were not so disgusting.
Drake quotes Bear to say;
“When I look at the secular effort for suicide prevention today, it is woefully inadequate,” Bear said. “Woefully inadequate. The reason is because it’s never bringing in that truth that creates hope. Suicide comes from hopelessness.”
And from where does hopelessness come?
In Wyoming it comes from children and adolescents seeing their parents and pastors are hopelessly out of touch with what is important to them.
It comes from a macho culture that normalizes bullying, a culture that makes girls and women second class citizens. It comes from one of the highest domestic violence rates in the country. It comes from sometimes violent rejection of LGBTQ community and family members.
Hopelessness comes from the social and legal wall around the family that protect perpetrator family members from the help they need.
It comes from “my religion is everyone’s religion.”
Hopelessness comes from a tacit acceptance that alcohol abuse is ok. It comes from a cop following the mayor’s drunk driving kid home and arresting the Native kid for the same behavior.
The deepest, most pervasive cause of hopelessness and absence of hope amongst Wyoming’s citizens is the myth based belief that the family and church can solve social problems that all America’s citizens share. This stopped being true when the industrial revolution transformed commerce.
But mostly hopelessness continues because people like Rep. Bear are part of making decisions about how to deal with personal suffering, poverty, substance abuse, violence and – hopelessness.
Wyoming has the people who want to end the epidemic of hopelessness that leads to persons killing themselves. The family and church can’t do it, and haven’t for centuries. The Dept. of Health needs far more financial support to help communities take care of their own, not less.
The last thing this world needs is more fake christians. Stay the heck out of our lives.
Gordon, you frequently use the term “fake Christians”. Are all Christians “fake” or just the ones you disagree with politically?
How about the ones that lie about who they are. And yes, a trump voter is a fake christian.
Chad Guenter: Not all Christian’s are fake. Just the ones who violate Matthew 6:5-7 “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men….
“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”
Which church are you talking about universal triumphant.or how about heavens gate , Wyoming couldn’t be lucky enough for the freedom caucus to be apart of that one.
Beware of churches. Period.
Beware of big government. Period.
They love Big Government when they agree with its agenda.