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Berzins, Lorraine. 'Criminal justice': What does it mean for a people who believe they are called to overcome evil with love?

Speaking at a Restorative Justice Week gathering in Canada, Lorraine Berzins explores what it means for Christians to respond to evil in love in view of the hard realities of crime. As she says, we want a compassionate and merciful justice for ourselves when we do wrong, but we often want a swift and strict justice for others when they do wrong, especially when they do wrong to us. The criminal justice system reflects and expresses this latter sense of justice, a retributive justice applied to people construed as different from us. Yet Berzins questions this retributive approach to justice and crime. She argues that our way of doing justice needs healing. She relates her own experiences as a social worker and minister in prisons to explain and illustrate the changes in her perspectives, and she weaves into all of this what it means to love those who do us wrong as God loves them and us.

Davis, Fania. Ghandi's Justice and Restorative Justice

Remarks Delivered At The 10th Annual Howard Thurman Convocation. Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples 2041 Larking Street,San Francisco, California 94109. October 16, 2005

McElrea, F W M. Address to the Auckland District Law Society’s Annual Church Service

This speech given by Judge FWM McElrea of Auckland, New Zealand, contrasts secular and Biblical views of justice.

McElrea, FWM. A Christian Approach to Conflict Resolution

In this paper, McElrea considers restorative justice as a New Testament or Christian approach to conflict resolution.

Payot, Jean-Pierre. Fécondité de la violence ou quand la parole de Dieu s’en mêle

Voici la méditation proposée par Jean-Pierre Payot aux aumôniers lors de leur rencontre à Rennes les 2 et 3 octobre 2003. Elle se présente sous la forme de ces notes très riches qui constituent une base solide sur laquelle nous pouvons fonder notre méditation et poursuivre une réflexion théologique. (extrait) (excerpt)

Sample Sermon on Restorative Justice

Matthew 21:1-11, 25:31-46 Why would you give a sermon on the problems in our prisons? Simple. God's actions on our behalf on the cross have to do with justice. The cross is, in fact, God's plan for justice that restores. We can apply the restorative justice of the cross to the lives of prisoners and to our own lives.

Scott, James V.. Justice As If People Mattered

The Reverend James V. Scott gave this address on November 16, 2003, at Saint John the Evangelist Anglican Church (Ottawa, Canada) during Restorative Justice Week. He has spent almost two decades working in the criminal justice field to promote and demonstrate a restorative justice approach to justice, an approach he believes to be consistent with the values of the Christian faith. At the beginning of Restorative Justice Week 2003, he explains his own views and faith experience, as well as what he believes the Christian faith teaches about God’s justice. He discusses the nature of crime, Biblical justice, the criminal justice system, and the application of all of this in terms of restorative justice.

Thorburn, Stan. The Ministry of Reconciliation

Judge Stan Thorburn offers this sermon on relationships and the importance of reconciliation.

Van Ness, Daniel. Forgiveness. Good Friday Meditation.

In this Good Friday meditation, Daniel Van Ness reflects on forgiveness, love, and restorative justice.

Van Ness, Daniel. Today salvation has come

In December 2001, Daniel Van Ness preached a sermon at Wesley Church in Perth, Australia. The text was Luke 19:1-10, in which is recounted the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus, a Jewish tax collector in Israel for the Romans. As a tax collector, Zacchaeus was almost certainly corrupt and despised by his own people as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers.