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#Post#: 12112--------------------------------------------------
Lovingkindness
By: Kerry Date: May 5, 2016, 5:52 pm
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Have the Italians gone mad? I read this and it made me
wonder. From the BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36190557:
Stealing small amounts of food to stave off hunger is not a
crime, Italy's highest court of appeal has ruled.
Judges overturned a theft conviction against Roman Ostriakov
after he stole cheese and sausages worth �4.07 (�3; $4.50) from
a supermarket.
Mr Ostriakov, a homeless man of Ukrainian background, had taken
the food "in the face of the immediate and essential need for
nourishment", the court of cassation decided. Therefore it was
not a crime, it said.
A fellow customer informed the store's security in 2011, when Mr
Ostriakov attempted to leave a Genoa supermarket with two pieces
of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket but paid only
for breadsticks. In 2015, Mr Ostriakov was convicted of theft
and sentenced to six months in jail and a �100 fine.
The case went through several stages, then:
Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation, which reviews only the
application of the law and not the facts of the case, on Monday
made a final and definitive ruling overturning the conviction
entirely.
Stealing small quantities of food to satisfy a vital need for
food did not constitute a crime, the court wrote. "The
condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the
seizure of merchandise took place prove that he took possession
of that small amount of food in the face of an immediate and
essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of
necessity," wrote the court.
This is surely going to encourage the poor and homeless to
steal, perhaps it will encourage the not-so-poor to steal.
People who work in stores may decide to stop prosecuting thefts
and raise their prices for the customers who do pay.
Meanwhile the real problem is being ignored. What is it that
someone of Ukrainian extraction can be homeless and hungry?
I'd think a civilized country would provide some kind of
housing for people who find themselves unable to provide
shelter for themselves and food too. While doling out such
help, they should be helping these people find jobs so they can
support themselves with dignity. It seems the Italian
government is not doing this, and now their Supreme Court says
it's the duty of grocery stores to allow poor people to steal
from them. This is not compassion for the poor in my opinion,
it's passing the buck.
I also think the original sentence fine was harsh. Six months
in jail and a fine of twenty-five times the worth of the food
stolen?
Proverbs 6:30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy
his soul when he is hungry;
31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give
all the substance of his house.
Would anyone pay for anything in stores if the poor are allowed
to steal? Stores would stop trying to stop thieves, figuring
nothing would happen anyway; and when people see others stealing
without being stopped, it means they can steal with impunity
too.
Again from the BBC:
An opinion piece in Corriere Della Sera says statistics suggest
615 people are added to the ranks of the poor in Italy every day
- it was "unthinkable that the law should not take note of
reality".
To me, it is unthinkable that 615 people a day are added to the
ranks of the poor and the Italians think legalized theft is a
solution. What is the government doing about the problems of
homelessness? What is the Catholic Church and other churches
in Italy doing about it? Why aren't the non-religious people
starting charities to help the poor? So it's pass the buck --
"we don't want to do anything to help the homeless, and if they
steal from you, let them and don't complain." This sort of
false compassion corrupts society. Thus Solomon also wrote (if
correctly translated):
Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but
lovingkindness is a sin to any people.
Make no mistake about it, it is mistranslated. The translators
changed the words and the order of the words. The KJV reads:
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any
people.
They changed the word "checed" which means "lovingkindess" and
then reversed the word order so it reads "sin is a reproach"
when it really says "lovingkindness is a sin."
The word "checed" meaning "lovingkindness" in Hebrew usually
does mean something good; it refers to "feeling good." Most of
the time when we "feel good" about something, it is good -- but
not always. Thus incest is also condemned as "lovingkindness."
This idea was also so foreign to people, the KJV mistranslated
that verse also, changing "lovingkindness" into "a wicked
thing."
Leviticus 20:17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father's
daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and
she see his nakedness; it is a [s]wicked thing[/s]
<lovingkindness>; and they shall be cut off in the sight of
their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall
bear his iniquity.
How could incest be lovingkindness? Easy enough. Brothers and
sisters often love each other. That by itself is a good thing.
I feel sure that if you met a brother and sister who were
having sex, they would tell you they loved each other -- and
that would probably be true. But they ought not take that
"good feeling" and corrupt it into a sexual relationship. That
is a "weak form" of "love" which can lead to disaster. The
higher form of love, known as "charity" in the New Testament
takes everything into account.
"Lovingkindess" without "justice" or "righteousness" can corrupt
us. This is how parents can spoil their children and turn
them into monsters. Of course, "justice" without "lovingness"
is also corrupting, satanically so -- accusing and condemning
without taking mercy or compassion into account. I'd say the
original sentence of the thief in Italy being so harsh was
satanic. Then the Italian courts swung the other way and lost
all concept of justice. We need to have both mercy and
justice.
All that being said, if I caught a homeless person stealing food
from me, I probably wouldn't call the police. No, I don't
think I would call the police. I'd probably tell him to stop
stealing, just ask me for the food. I might even let him move
in with me if he said he wanted to get a job and needed a home.
(I live alone so I'd be risking only myself -- I wouldn't advise
people with a family to put their families at risk since that
wouldn't be loving them.) Yes, I have caught people stealing
from me; and only once did I call the police. The other times I
tried to talk to the people figuring I could do more good by
talking to them than by calling the police and having them
dragged off. I'm not obliged to ask the government to protect
my property rights; but if I did, they and the courts should do
their job. If they don't protect property rights when called,
society begins to break down. Society can descend into anarchy
if the police and courts do not punish theft and other crimes.
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