For better or for worse, the prospect of insulting someone with impunity isn’t as easy as it used to be. In a professional setting, particularly when it comes to the public business of government, one of the fastest ways to find yourself out of a job is to start using hate speech.
However, it’s because of that when people do want to attack someone based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, they’ll look for a subtle way to do it that gives them plausible deniability.
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Unfortunately, this can also make it unclear in some cases whether a person speaking is doing exactly this or genuinely means no offense and just isn’t aware of how they sound.
And although it’s hard to say with certainty which of those is going on even after seeing the full video, one state representative’s prayer has attracted her colleagues’ suspicion.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai gave the floor to Republican representative Stephanie Borowicz.
She then begins a prayer, saying, “Jesus, I thank you for this privilege, Lord, of letting me pray, God that I, Jesus, am your ambassador here today.”
So far, this isn’t necessarily unusual for the Pennsylvania General Assembly, nor is the act of opening discussion with a prayer.
According to the Pennsylvania Capital Star , the house traditionally opens each session with a prayer.
They used to invite guest chaplains for this purpose, but representatives started handling the prayers themselves after a federal judge ruled that atheists, agnostics, and others who don’t follow a particular religion can make similar invocations.
Borowicz then mentions the past leaders that she said sought after Jesus, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
In particular, she mentioned that they did this in particularly trying times, like when Washington spent six months at Valley Forge when the British captured Philadelphia or when Lincoln had the Battle of Gettysburg to trouble him.
Throughout her prayer, she says Jesus’ name 13 times within less than two minutes, while also finding room to say “God” six times and “Lord” another four times.
Again, nothing is inherently wrong with this repetition, but what she said about halfway through the prayer gave her colleagues reason to think there was a more sinister reason for it.
Part of the issue was that she thanked God that President Trump stands “unequivocally” besides Israel.
However, they seemed to take the most issue with the part where she said, “Jesus, we’ve lost sight of you. We’ve forgotten you, God. And our country. And we’re asking you to forgive us, Jesus. And your promise and your word says that ‘if my people who were called by name’ will humble themselves and pray and seek your face and turn from their wicked ways, that you’ll heal our land.”
This traditional opening prayer is generally supposed to be welcoming and ecumenical, but that was only part of the issue here.
There was a suspicion among Borowicz’s colleagues that she deliberately chose this wording because Movita Johnson-Harrell, the first Muslim woman to serve in the House, was due to be sworn in during that very session.
As Johnson-Harrell told the Pennsylvania Capital Star , “I do not have a problem with religion. I do not have a problem with choice. I do not have a problem with Jesus. I have a problem with using religion as a weapon.”
In the interest of showing the expected purpose of the opening prayer, Speaker Turzai’s office released a video that took place right after Borowicz’s prayer.
It depicted a Muslim cleric giving a blessing that has been identified by commenters as Al-Fatihah, which is the first chapter of the Quran.
As for Borowicz, she said that what she said reflects how she always prays.
Although Johnson-Harrell called for a censure in response to Borowicz’s prayer, she also expressed a wish for an opportunity to speak with her about it.
As she said, “I intentionally came to the House to make friends on both sides of the aisle because we need to work together for everyone in the commonwealth.”
