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Speaker Kent Williams as the prodigal son
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Tennessee House Speaker Kent Williams is once again trying to make his case that he should be readmitted to the Republican Party after being installed as Speaker by Democrats last year, rather than House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower:
"I just want to know where I stand," the Elizabethton restaurateur said. Williams was stripped of his Republican credentials earlier this year following his upset election as House speaker in which he banded together with all 49 of the chamber's Democrats to beat the Republican nominee by a single vote.
Lamar Alexander made the comparison to the prodigal son...but it should be remembered that the prodigal son apologized. Luke 15:20-24:
And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son. And the father said to his servants: Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: Because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: was lost, and is found.
The prodigal was welcomed back, but he said that he was sorry for what he had done, and he returned after having engaged in "riotous living." The prodigal did not listen, so he had to feel.
The scriptural lesson is twofold. The first and most obvious is that God is ready to welcome even the most wayward sinner back into the fold. The second is that the actions of the prodigal still merited an apology. Forgiveness of a great wrong and the purging of the sin associated with that wrong do not negate the consequences of the wicked deed. Those who do wrong still must make some kind of restitution for the thing they did-once the wrong is forgiven, they are obligated to then make it right as best they can.
Tennessee House Speaker Kent Williams (I-Elizabethton)
(Photo: Tennessee General Assembly)
There are those who say that after the events of January 13th, Kent Williams should be banned forever from the portals of the Republican Party. I will doubtless anger some when I say that our doors should never be permanently closed to anyone, including Kent Williams. However, for Williams to be let back into the party, he has to be sorry for what he did-ideally, he should apologize to the entire House Republican Caucus and to the party as a whole for his actions last January, and do so publicly. As part of the consequences of his actions, Kent Williams must be made to stand as an independent for at least one election cycle. If Williams survives, then he wants back in the GOP of his own accord after that, it ought then to be very seriously considered.
If Kent Williams is allowed to run as a Republican without having paid any consequences for what he did to become Speaker, that says to others that there are simply no teeth in party rules, or that we will simply bail on our leaders when we do not agree with them. That is not a message of true unity.
We should let Kent Williams back into the Tennessee Republican Party-when he demonstrates that he is sorry for what got him removed to begin with.
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