A Christian lawmaker’s assembly-chamber prayer evoking Jesus’ Name 12 times and exalting the gospel, Israel, Trump and the founding fathers triggered Pennsylvania’s Democrats into a frenzy.
The state’s first female Muslim lawmaker, Democrat Movita Johnson-Harrell, said the prayer as worded demonstrated that Republican Stephanie Borowicz is Islamophobic and divisive.
House Minority Whip Democrat Jordan Harris accused Borowicz of weaponizing her religion to intimidate, demean and degrade Johnson-Harrell for being Muslim.
The prayer, lasting only a minute and 55 seconds, even drew an audible objection from one assembly person, and made for a note of discord at the start of the assembly’s ceremony for swearing in Johnson-Harrell.
(Johnson-Harrell recently won a special election to represent the state’s 190th district, replacing Vanessa Lowery Brown, who resigned because of a conviction on bribery charges.)
Conservative commentator and author Todd Starnes said that a look at the entire prayer word-for-word should indicate to anyone that it is not politically different from so-called prayer exalting left-wing views.
According to Starnes, Johnson-Harrell, who was sworn into office after the prayer, said it was “highly offensive to me, my guests, and other members of the House.”
“It blatantly represented the Islamophobia that exists among some leaders — leaders that are supposed to represent the people,” Johnson-Harrell said in a statement published by the Pennsylvania Capital Star.
“In other words, Borowicz prayed the way the Bible commands us to pray: for the peace of Jerusalem, for our elected leaders and in the name of Jesus,” Starnes said.
“But Pennsylvania Democrats were clearly triggered by the name of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” he added.
“It’s hard to imagine that praying in the name of the Almighty is beneath the dignity of anyone – much less a bunch of Jesus-hating Democrats.”
The prayer is quoted in its entirety here
