VIDEO: AZ House Censures Dem Rep. Caught Hiding Bibles ‘in Response to the Weaponizing of Religion in Politics’

The Arizona legislature censured state Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D) Tuesday after security cameras caught her hiding a Bible under a couch cushion in a Capitol lounge.

Legislators began to notice Bibles placed in the lounge for members’ use were going missing, Breitbart News reported.

House security installed cameras to discover who was responsible. The cameras showed Hamilton, an ordained Presbyterian minister, hiding a Bible under a couch cushion “in what her own pastor described as an ‘ill-advised prank,’” NPR reported.

Another Bible was found under a cushion, and one in the lounge refrigerator, though the placing of these were apparently not caught on camera.

Stahl Hamilton claimed she hid the Bibles as “a protest against the weaponization of religion in politics,” according to the outlet: “In her formal, written response to the ethics complaint against her, Stahl Hamilton’s attorneys wrote that her actions were a peaceful protest ‘in response to the weaponizing of religion in politics.’”

However, many of her colleagues did not find her ‘prank’ amusing.

“It is just very disturbing and offensive to me that I may have been sitting on a Bible, and I just want to say if it had been a Quran and a Muslim member sitting upon that I would be able to empathize with them about how that would be the same amount of disturbing to them,”  Republican Rep. Rachel Jones told the Fox affiliate. “I believe many of the Christian members in here would be able to empathize with other members of different religions if that had occurred in this way.”

The House Ethics Committee found Hamilton guilty of violating House rules, calling her behavior “disrespectful” and “disorderly,” Fox 10 Phoenix reported. The House voted on expelling her but failed with a 30-28 vote. The legislature needed a two-thirds majority vote to remove her.

“Now they respect all religions when it’s only the Bible that I’ve ever seen in that lounge. It’s never been the Quran or the Torah or the Bhagavad Gita,” Democratic Rep. Nancy Gilbert told Fox 10 Phoenix. “And so the righteous indignation is misplaced. I wouldn’t like to speak to Representative Stahl Hamilton’s character. I have known her for many years. She has been a volunteer. She’s a mother. She’s a minister. And she is one of the most character [sic] people I know.”

However, a seven-page report found that “many members of this committee do not view this as an act of jest.”