HB70, the Gospel of Saint Luke, and Leviticus

I found myself in Frankfort yesterday seeking about the legislative corridors for evidence of some constructive work coming out of that building on the last scheduled legislative day. What remains, at least in the People’s Branch of the General Assembly, are some details in the budget to be worked out, a period for the governor to consider any items he might veto, and a few final days for the General Assembly to override any vetoes the governor might offer. I can not offer any insight as to the workings of the Senate led by Republican President David Williams.

The House, under the leadership of Speaker Jody Richards, finally convened around 4:30 in the afternoon with the news that the Democratic House caucus would be meeting again today to work out some details in the budget. Those details probably include finding a number of legislators willing to vote for it. Today’s papers indicate the Speaker believes it is passable, but it will take some work.

In non-budget business, there were introductions and pictures taken, as well as a somber remembrance of the man known as Mr. Wildcat, Bill Keightley, the long-time UK Basketball Manager, who died at the age of 81 attending an Opening Day game of the Cincinnati Reds. Mr. Keightley is pictured at right with UK Coach Billy Gillespie. The House adjourned in honor of the man who had served at the University for the last 48 years. Many, including me, were teary-eyed.

Following that and some other business was discussion of HB70, a proposal introduced by Lexington Democratic State Representative Jesse Crenshaw to amend the Constitution of Kentucky to allow, if approved by the voters, certain felons to regain their voting rights upon completion of the sentences (including probation and parole) imposed on them by the judicial system. Kentucky, Virginia, and Florida all have laws of some nature requiring pardons from the governor before reenfranchisment. The other 47 states do not. There are exceptions in HB70 for certain heinous crimes such as murder, manslaughter, or sexual crimes involving a minor.

This is a good proposed Constitutional amendment and one I support and have supported for many years. Of course, given that it arose on the last working day of the Session, it is unlikely the Republican end of the building will pick up the issue and run with it. Maybe - hopefully - Senator Williams will prove me wrong. He would do well to heed the comments of one Republican member of the House, State Representative Lonnie Napier of Garrard County. Up until yesterday, I do not ever recalling applauding anything Representative Napier has said or done. He and I differ on a number of issues.

That changed yesterday. In explaining his support of HB70, Representative Napier first identified the measure as one which wasn’t a Democratic or Republican measure, but rather was a Kentucky one. He then went on and quoted from the Fifteenth Chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke, and specifically the latter half of that chapter, which is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Many of us (who are Christians) first learned this story in Sunday School as little kids. For a non-rural kid like me, I always remembered the phrase “the fatted calf” which served as the main entrée of the feast served up by the father upon the return of his younger son who had sinned against both him and heaven. As someone who went “home” for family reunions, where “home” meant the countryside of rural western Franklin County, and reunions meant an abundance of “fatted calves” and other rural-type foods, I understood the importance of a feast featuring the “fatted calf.” In the parable, the father rejoiced, even to the point of arousing the ire of his older and loyal son, who protested against the joy the father found in the younger son’s return.

The parable, as Representative Napier explained, is a story of compassion. It is the type of compassion I write about in my profile attached to this blog, the kind I and others are seeking in our sometimes seemingly futile search for the social justice of Jesus Christ in our governments and in our personal lives. It is a true telling of hating the sin but loving the sinner. That is a line we liberals often hear when conservatives speak in describing why they vote for certain issues. They say they aren’t voting against the people who live with those issues day in and day out, they are simply voting against the issue itself. It is usually a hollow and frankly false argument.

Yesterday, however, Representative Napier’s use of the story as the explanation of his vote upon the measure proved that even some of the prodigal sons in the legislature – those who often wrap their legislative logic in and with the pages of the Bible, can indeed return to the true meaning to be found in the stories of the Bible, which generally speaking can be summed up in the golden rule, first explained in the Bible in the Old Testament verses of the Nineteenth Chapter of Leviticus, rather ironic since Leviticus, and in some instances this very chapter of Leviticus, serves many conservatives as a basis to ignore the golden rule in respect to certain people or groups of people. I’ve written on this before in an entry on immigration.

The King James Version of Leviticus 19:18 reads

“Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.”

Later, in the same chapter, the writer expands those included in this love of neighbor from just “thy people” to everyone, including strangers, which in some versions is translated as aliens. Leviticus 19:34 reads

“But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

Jesus expands on these ideas in Matthew 7 and especially in Luke 6. Luke 6, Verse 36, begins “Be ye therefore merciful.”

Yesterday, with their passage of HB70, the House of Representatives proved their capacity to be merciful. Thanks Be to God – and especially, yesterday, to Representative Napier and his use and living out of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.