Pennsylvania lawmaker wants to designate Sept. 12 as annual ‘day of the Bible’

Pennsylvania lawmakers once courted controversy by declaring 2012 the “year of the Bible.”

Now, one Keystone State legislator wants to honor the religious text on an annual basis, with a resolution that would designate Sept. 12 as the “day of the Bible.”

Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican from Franklin County, says the observance would “recognize the Bible’s longstanding influence on American and Pennsylvania culture, morality and civic life.”

He chose that particular date because it commemorates when the U.S. Congress, meeting in Philadelphia in 1782, approved the publication of the so-called Aitken Bible. That text was the first complete Bible printed in the new nation, and it’s also known as the Bible of the Revolution.

Mastriano wrote in a memo to his colleagues that the congressional decision “illustrates how deeply rooted spiritual values were in the formation of our republic,” and he said he’d like to highlight Pennsylvania’s involvement in the Bible’s publication.

After labeling 2012 the “year of the Bible” in an official resolution, Pennsylvania lawmakers faced legal action from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for atheists and agnostics.

A judge later tossed the lawsuit but faulted the resolution’s language for being “proselytizing and exclusionary,” the Associated Press reported.

Reporting by Bethany Rodgers, USA TODAY NETWORK / Erie Times-News