Pennsylvania lawmaker pushes "Day of the Bible" resolution based on historical myth
From pushing religion in schools to denying climate change, Rep. Stephanie Borowicz is on a holy mission—truth be damned
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Republican State Rep. Stephanie Borowicz of Pennsylvania, a Christian Nationalist who has been in office since 2018, plans to introduce a resolution designating September 12 of each year as “The Day of the Bible” in her state.
Why that date? It’s significant, she says, because it commemorates the day Congress “officially authorized the publication of the first complete English-language Bible printed in America—the Aitken Bible.” She claims that book’s “endorsement by Congress and the Congressional chaplains illustrates how deeply rooted spiritual values were in the formation of our republic.”
But as usual, her facts are wrong.
The Aitken Bible is one of those props that Christian pseudo-historian David Barton has been using in his presentations for years. In his telling of the story, the Aitken Bible was printed by Congress and intended for use in public schools, and that’s why church/state separation shouldn’t exist.
That’s not true, though.
Aitken himself, not Congress, wrote the note that said it was for use in schools. Furthermore, Congress didn’t endorse his Bible; they merely said government chaplains confirmed it was an accurate representation of the Bible and could be published. Congress didn’t buy copies of it. They didn’t print it themselves. They didn’t pay for it to be published.
But because Barton has spent years promoting the Aitken Bible as evidence that we live in a so-called “Christian Nation,” it’s practically canon in the world of Christian revisionists. Last year, the Aitken Bible was designed one of Tennessee’s “official state books.”
This is par for the course for Borowicz, who has used her platform in the legislature to push Christianity whenever she can. She’s previously promoted bills declaring a “State Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” and calling for “In God We Trust” signs to be put in classrooms. (She also says she’ll introduce a bill to put the Ten Commandments in schools.)
She has also falsely claimed that 65% "of all of the founding documents" came "from Jesus' words and the Bible."
In March of 2020, she called COVID “a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins.” (She later pushed conspiracy theories and fake “cures” for COVID.)
In perhaps her most despicable attempt to promote her religion, in 2019, on the day that Pennsylvania’s first Muslim legislator was sworn into office, Borowicz delivered an invocation that was widely seen as a slam on her new colleague. In 90 seconds, there were 13 mentions of Jesus. It was so bad, so rude, and so disrespectful that the new lawmaker, State Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell, told reporters she expected to face discrimination as a Muslim woman “but I did not think it would come on the actual day of my swearing-in.” Borowicz’s invocation was neither uplifting nor universal. It was a Sunday morning sermon delivered from the driver’s seat of the State House.
And in 2023, when discussing a symbolic resolution to designate “climate week” across the state, she insisted climate change wasn’t a concern because the Bible said so.
When Democrats are pushing bills like banning gas-powered mowers and gas-powered stoves in New York City, all under the name of a climate control agenda, we can all see what is really going on here. The truth is, is in Genesis 8:22, it says, “as long as the Earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
I’ll say that again: “Will never cease.”
Of course, we are to be good stewards of God’s creation, but not through a forceful climate control global agenda.
That “forceful climate control global agenda” was regarding, I say once again, a symbolic resolution.
But this is who Borowicz is. Everything is about Jesus…which might be fine if she were a preacher since that’s clearly the job she wants. Unfortunately, it’s not the job she has. Her job is to represent her constituents—including non-Christians—instead of shilling for Jesus at a time when we need sensible lawmakers to use reason-based evidence.
What a waste of space in the Pennsylvania House.
Borowicz sits in a comfortably red seat, winning her 2024 race with 69% of the votes. Democrats maintain a slim one-vote majority in the State House, and there is a Democratic governor. Republicans, however, control the State Senate.
Update: It appears that Borowicz’s colleague (and failed gubernatorial candidate) Sen. Doug Mastriano, a fellow Christian Nationalist, will introduce the same resolution in his chamber.
I am glad to hear that Pennsylvania has solved homelessness, unemployment, understaffed and underfunded schools, overflowing prisons, that all roads and bridges are well maintained, and that lawmakers can now waste their time on futilities.
𝑆ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 65% "𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠" 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 "𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠' 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒."
Well, this may be technically true. You could probably find words like "we", "establish", and "people" in the bible. But in that way 100% of all the founding documents come from the Oxford English Dictionary. Instead of a "Day of the Bible", perhaps a "Day of the Dictionary".