Touchstones

Italian Perversions Condemn Us All

First, the story (courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald):

Italy's highest court has overturned the conviction of a 60-year-old man for having sex with an 11-year-old girl, because the verdict failed to take into account their "amorous relationship".  Pietro Lamberti, a social services worker in Catanzaro in southern Italy, was convicted in February 2011 and sentenced to five years in prison for sexual acts with a minor. 

The verdict was later upheld by an appeals court.  But Italy's supreme court ruled that the verdict did not sufficiently consider "the 'consensus', the existence of an amorous relationship, the absence of physical force, the girl's feelings of love".   The court's October 15 decision to order a retrial was made public in December by Il Quotidiano della Calabria and slowly spread to social media networks, where it sparked heated reactions against the Italian justice system.  According to Il Quotidiano, the girl came from a poor family who had known and trusted the social worker.

From the perspective of the Christian Gospel both the original crime and the reasoning of the Italian supreme court are evil.  But our challenge to all who are not Christians is to declare where they stand on matters such as this.
  And not only where they stand, but why.  No doubt there are many, even a majority at the present time, who would condemn as evil and morally wrong a man having sex with an eleven year old girl.  But here is the rub: does this common judgement reflect the echoes of God's image still within the soul, or does the Unbeliever's condemnation reflect some principled position?  If the latter, by what standard? 

There will be those who would rush to assert that an eleven year old is still a child and is too immature to make reasonable decisions about whom she loves so that her consent to sex cannot be informed in any reasonable way.  Our rejoinder: by what standard do you presume to make such a judgment?  Who are you, after all, to dictate morality or anything to another human being?  Who gave you the authority?  The right? 

Recall that our society solemnly tells us that children are their own best teachers.  They must control their own curricula, discover at their own pace, experiment and learn to do by doing.  Teachers must beware of hegemonic overlordship which can do great harm to a child; they must act as facilitators and guides, not rulers of ethics, morals, or conscience.  So, if valid in the classroom, why not in the bedroom? 

Recall also that the predominant cosmology is evolutionism which makes life and existence subject to chance.  In a world subject to, and existing by means of,  brute chance upon what ground or standard can one make judgements about an eleven year old girl? 

At best such judgements can be nothing more than preferences, likes, dislikes--or conditioned prejudices.  Amorality cannot identify, let alone condemn, immorality.  It has no standards by which to do so. 

Jean-Paul Sartre pointed out that unless a data point or truth has an infinite reference point, it has no meaning at the end of the day.  To deny this is cowardice and self-deceit.  Thus, in his famous thought experiment, should the driver of the car avoid the old lady crossing the road, or run her down?  It matters not which he chooses--only that he chooses to do something. 

It is true that many Unbelievers recoil at such notions.  They insist upon meaning, truth, significance, and principles by which they are entitled to judge right and wrong, morality and immorality.  But they are utterly lost, even though their pride and vanity cannot allow them to admit it.  They buttress their moral judgements and their ethical decisions by high sounding principles which hang from nothing and are built upon ether. 

In the case of the eleven year old girl and the Italian supreme court our challenge to all who deny their God and Creator is this: either repent and return to Him, or stop fooling yourself that you have any foundation or ground whatsoever to condemn the 60 year old social worker, the Italian supreme court, or the eleven year old girl.  The fact that you do recoil from such sinfulness serves as a witness against you.  It condemns you first and foremost, for you cosset your rebellion against your Creator and Sustainer by appealing to morals and truths for which you have no foundation at all--yet you know are right. 

And if you do, indeed, recoil in horror at the aforementioned crime and the perverted decision of the Italian supreme court, then you can have but one course of integrity, truth, and honesty left open to you--repent of your rebellion and return to your God and Father, and believe upon His Son, Jesus Christ, picking up your cross and following Him.  If not, the only alternative is to embrace the degradation and the sin.