Organizers of a Bible Reading Marathon at the Capitol wanted elected leaders to take a turn reading the holy book, and their hopes were realized on Wednesday.

Gov. Kevin Stitt joined the marathon before it reached its conclusion, reading several chapters of Ecclesiastes while a crowd of about 40 people gathered on the Capitol’s south plaza.

The event began on March 9 as part of the Capitol Bible Reading Marathon ministry, an initiative of Seedline International, a Brazil, Indiana-based organization. The group has held the faith-themed effort in several states and Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, Coalgate preachers David and Carol Unsell, the marathon’s Oklahoma hosts and organizers, said they viewed the inaugural event as a success. They said the readers did not encounter any problems as they read the Bible, with no commentary added.

“People were coming through word-of-mouth — they just kept coming by ― from times like midnight to 2 in the morning, and everybody was so pleasant,” David Unsell said.

He said the goal of the event was to simply read the Bible at the Capitol, “let it go out and let him bless this place, this state, and everybody seemed to be really touched by it.”

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has participated in several Christian-themed events as governor

That Stitt decided to participate is not a departure from the norm. The governor has made public avowals of his Christian faith since he began his first term as governor. He has participated in the Christian-themed National Day of Prayer service at the state Capitol at least once. In the last year or so, however, Stitt has come under fire for his statements of faith, most notably in 2022 when he was captured on video claiming “every square inch” of Oklahoma for Jesus.

Wednesday, the governor took to the podium set up on the south plaza with little ceremony and began reading. He gave a simple farewell to those gathered before leaving the event.

“Thanks everybody for being out here. God bless y’all,” Stitt told the crowd.

About 150 people signed up to read the Bible in 15-minute segments before the marathon began. The Unsells predicted it would take roughly 360 people to read the sacred text from Genesis to Revelation if it were read in the 15-minute increments.

David Unsell said people read from the Book of Psalms and other parts of the Bible on Wednesday morning because the Bible had been read from cover to cover, night and day, by then. The closing ceremony featured a brief sermon by Joe Bavor, the marathon ministry’s national director, and the crowd was asked to read the last chapter of Revelation — which concludes the Bible ― together.

More: With the words ‘In the beginning …’ a group kicks off Bible Reading Marathon at state Capitol

The Rev Tim Morlan and his wife, Lori, said they heard about the marathon on a radio broadcast and ended up taking several reading stints on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, sometimes very early in the mornings.

“We kind of heard through the grapevine about this because we didn’t know much about it,” Tim Morlan said. “But then we were just intrigued and thought the Scripture tells us that we’re to devote ourselves to the public reading of Holy Scriptures. So, we thought, what a great time to do that in a public setting in front of the Capitol.”

Lori Morlan said she felt that she was “right there in Scripture” as she was reading the text.

“I’m super emotional over it,” she said. “It just was the most exciting, wonderful thing. What a privilege to be able to speak God’s Word in public, and so it was just an expression of my faith.”