Italy for Christ (Jim and Caranita)

CARANITA’S “CARATS”
Dear Jim,

Recently we wrote about the traffic roundabouts and the Italian culture of getting around laws. Keeping in the same lane, did you know that Italy holds the world record for having 150,000 government-generated laws? How can the most law-full nation also be famous as the most law-less? My counseling colleagues explained the paradox with this Italian proverb, “Establish the law, and then find the way to cheat.” My friends qualified this quote by suggesting that Italians believe in personal interpretation of the law and call it the “spirit of the law.” Each citizen has the right to interpret the law to guarantee the survival of his family. This justifies the game of deception which in turn feeds the raging war between Rome and her citizens. For example, the Italian work force has chaotically defied government regulation for years. Rome recently lowered the boom to control small businesses. The new laws forbid volunteers to do certain jobs in their own facilities. Rome assumes that paid workers disguise themselves as volunteers to avoid income taxes. Consequently, volunteer associations should establish small businesses and pay all workers’ benefits, even to paint just one room. While I am not an anarchist, maybe Italian loop holing (let’s not call it deception) truly is a matter of survival. After all, Italy probably qualifies for the Guinness Book of Records as the nation with the most laws! Freely yours, Caranita

JIM’S “GEMS”

Dear Caranita,

I don’t know about Guinness’ book, but historians agree that the Romans had a legal mind and perfected human law like no other nation. Their jurisprudence became the foundation for the civilization of Europe. I find interesting, however, that the apostle Paul addressed the inability of the conscious mind to distinguish right from wrong in the epistle to the Romans. Roman literature confirms such incapacity. So does history, since the immorality of the people accounts for the collapse of the Roman empire. Thus, the law-full-ness and law-less-ness of Rome has deep roots. Yet the battle between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law raged even before ancient Rome. A war against divine law has torn at the fabric of the human soul since the dawn of time. We can feel Paul’s frustration when he writes, “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war… what a wretched man I am.” But oh, the victory chant we can shout with that same Paul, because “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Under God’s grace we find freedom to volunteer our services to Him, trusting Him to provide the way and the means to submit to the governing authorities without resentment, deceitfulness, loop holing, or cunning interpretation.

Lawfully Yours, Jim