http://www.restorativejustice.org Faith communities are touched by restorative thinking and practice in a number of ways. They may use restorative processes to resolve their own conflicts. Their members may be victims, offenders and/or family members of both. They may seek to influence their communities to support restorative programmes. They may sponsor, or their members may participate in, those programmes. And they may advocate for systemic change to make restorative justice a more prominent part of their community's response to crime. Or they may do none of those things. The following articles consider the challenging and sometimes complicated relationship between faith communities and restorative justice. daily 1 2009-02-06T08:08:54Z http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/the-measure-with-which-we-measure from the article by Andrew Skotnicki in Baylor's Christian Reflections issue on Prison: The decisive factor in overturning not only the ordeal, but the fear of Christians to will the punishment of others, was the inauguration of systems of law—first canon law which began its development in the late eleventh century and, in its wake, secular legal systems. With this epic turning of the moral tide, a third factor was brought into the equation of viewing human weakness: an offense was not only an affront to God and to the victim, it was also an affront to the law. In light of this legal revolution, perhaps the most influential revolution in Western history, the meaning of human acts against their fellows took on a new appellation and gravity. They were not only sins that required forgiveness by a priest in confession, they were also crimes, and the offender had to be punished because he or she had broken the law. No publisher dvanness Religion Community Biblical 2012-02-07T01:39:08Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/christian-critiques-of-the-penal-system from the article by L. Lynette Parker in Baylor's Christian Reflections issue on Prison: ....While approaching the issues from different theological and philosophical traditions, the above authors nevertheless agree on the problems with contemporary criminal justice and together begin to trace the outlines of a solution. The problems: institutional forces benefit from a destructive status quo; the public view of prisoners makes citizens indifferent to their plight; and an emphasis on individual responsibility fails to take seriously the systemic injustice that prisoners face. The solutions: remember that prisoners, too, are made in the image of God; address the systemic causes of crime; and learn to love the people touched by crime. No publisher dvanness Religion Correspondent:Lynette Parker Community Biblical 2012-02-07T19:53:37Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/intervention-in-church-conflict from the entry by Alexandria Skinner in JustPeace: There is no such thing as a church without conflict. If your church has a conflict, that is something to be thankful for! Conflict means that people are engaged in the life of the church and that they have interests they care about. It is healthy for a church to acknowledge that it has some conflict, for then the causes of conflict can be brought to light and addressed, hopefully in a way that leaves people feeling like they have a better understanding of each other, of each other’s goals, and happy about the end result. Indeed, the goal of peacemaking in a congregation is not to snuff out conflict and pretend that it doesn’t exist. Nor is it to go to war to route out various factions. In between these two options is a middle ground. No publisher dvanness Religion Community 2011-12-21T21:35:50Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/church-vandals-apologise-to-congregation from the article by Rene Gerryts on Bridport News: Four of the youngsters responsible for vandalising a Bridport church stood before its congregation on Sunday to apologise. The quartet – whose images were captured on CCTV – agreed to take part in the new Restorative Justice scheme. ....Mr Evans said: “It is the first time I have been involved in this sort of system and it was terrific. No publisher dvanness Region:Europe Country:England&Wales Community Religion Victim 2011-04-17T10:40:13Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/restorative-justice-1 from Susan Lee Giles' article on My Roseville: When he joined the congregation for a Sunday service they saw a quiet, shy young man barely past boyhood. As they listened to him they finally understood what had happened and at last knew that the church had not been the target of a hate crime. A nagging fear vanished. Now it was clear that the fire was an accident and the boys had emptied every fire extinguisher trying to put it out and left not knowing that an ember would ignite and burn down the building. The young man listened quietly as each person told him what the fire had meant to them personally. When every person had finished he told them that until that moment he had only thought of it as an empty building but now he saw faces of people, a community, whose lives had been impacted by the fire. He said he was truly sorry and ashamed and offered to come back and work for the church. No publisher dvanness Media Story Community Religion 2010-08-31T23:52:00Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/churches-grapple-with-whether-to-welcome-convicted-sex-offenders from the article by Adelle M. Banks in the Washington Post: "All are welcome" is a common phrase on many a church sign and Web site. But what happens when a convicted sex offender is at the door? Church officials and legal advocates are grappling with how -- and whether -- people who have been convicted of sex crimes should be included in U.S. congregations, especially when children are present: No publisher dvanness Community Religion Region: North America and Caribbean Case:Sexual Policy Country:USA 2010-07-25T21:24:08Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/helping-victims-of-clergy-sexual-abuse-suggestions-for-pope-benedict-xvi from Robert M. Hoatson's post on Road to Recovery: Based on Road to Recovery’s on-the-ground experience helping the abused cope with the effects of their abuse, we offer to Pope Benedict and his colleagues in the hierarchy the following suggested action steps that will help restore clergy abuse victims to fullness of life (these steps do not preclude the necessary and/or statutory reporting of all crimes to local and/or national law enforcement): No publisher dvanness Religion Victim Community Case:Sexual 2010-05-30T22:49:06Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/religion-conflict-peacebuilding-an-introductory-programming-guide from the introduction to the toolkit by USAID: Connecting religion and violent conflict is easy to do. Many of the world’s violent outbreaks, both present and past, are couched in religious terms, ranging from the 1st century Jewish-Roman War, to the 11th century Crusades, to 17th century Thirty Years War to the 20th century Irish civil war to contemporary conflicts in Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Iraq, and Israel/West Bank/Gaza. Connecting religion and peacebuilding is equally easy to do. Human history includes many examples where the religiously motivated acted in extraordinary ways to bridge divides, promote reconciliation, or advocate peaceful coexistence. It thus becomes clear that understanding the dynamics of conflict—both the sources of discord and the forces of resilience—requires an understanding of the connections between conflict, religion and peacebuilding. And yet sensitivities and uncertainties surrounding the mere mention of religion frequently stand in the way of that understanding. No publisher dvanness Religion National Reconciliation Community 2010-05-10T00:36:33Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/peace-studies-programmes from the entry on PCPJ Blog: Michael Westmoreland-White compiled this.... As a service, I thought I would list all the U.S. colleges and universities that have programs with names like “peace studies,” “peace and global studies,” “peacebuilding and conflict resolution studies,” etc. I found there were enough that I decided just to list the church-related ones and do the others in a separate post. Typically, such programs are multi-disciplinary involving faculty from several departments including international studies, history, philosophy, religious studies, international law, economic development, and/or political science or sociology. The earliest such programs in the U.S. were in institutions related to the “historic peace churches” (Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Friends/Quakers), but it has spread beyond them. No publisher dvanness Religion Community Biblical 2010-04-07T15:33:45Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/feb-7-2010-national-day-of-prayer-for-criminal-justice-reform Encourage your church to participate in the National Day of Prayer for Criminal Justice Reform and contact Bill Mefford for more information. Churches throughout the United States will spend either part or all of their prayer time during their Sunday worship services on Feburary 7th to focus on criminal justice reform. Specifically they will lift up the need for a fair criminal justice system based on restorative principles that do not sentence people to unjustly long sentences or target certain racial groups, so that the families of the incarcerated can be strengthened and local communicates safely restored. No publisher dvanness Religion Community 2010-01-30T17:33:07Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/why-is-it-important-for-people-of-faith-to-be-involved-in-domestic-violence-work from the Renewal House blog entry: A reporter from the Boston Herald asked me that question yesterday afternoon. The reporter is working on an article highlighting the Restorer’s Ministry, a new hotline led by three women from the Grace of All Nations Church in Dorchester. We have been supporting the training needs of the three as they seek to live out their call to serving individuals and families struggling with issues of domestic violence in their community. No publisher dvanness Policy Religion Case:Domestic Violence Community 2009-11-09T11:32:08Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/they-are-not-scum No publisher dvanness Religion Region: Africa Community Country:South Africa 2009-10-13T19:44:21Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/a-pilot-study-of-a-faith-based-restorative-justice-intervention-for-christian-and-non-christian-offenders from the journal article by Armour, Windsor, Aguilar, and Taub in Journal of Psychology and Christianity: Restorative justice and faith-based programs are receiving increased attention as innovative ways to help change offenders' internal motivations as well as external behaviors (Rockefeller institute of Government, 2007). The purpose of the present pilot study is to examine change in offenders' pro-social responses after participation in an in-prison faith-based program that draws from the principles of restorative justice. No publisher dvanness Community Religion Other Victim Prison 2009-10-06T19:29:31Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/servant-leadership-restorative-justice-and-forgiveness from Shere McClamb's blog The Webmaster's Corner: The terms of servant-leadership, restorative justice, and forgiveness depend on one another, they are all interdependent but not interchangeable. To be a Servant Leader one must believe that justice must be restorative, and must have the capacity to forgive those who trespass against others. Being a servant to those you serve is paramount to evolving into a servant leader. Restorative justice requires the capacity for forgiveness on levels only those who choose to serve their fellow man can embrace. No publisher dvanness Living Community Religion 2009-10-22T16:30:03Z News Item http://www.restorativejustice.org/RJOB/a-justice-that-reconciles-new-study-guide-from-caritas-aotearoa-new-zealand No publisher dvanness Region: Pacific Biblical Bible Study Community Religion Country:New Zealand 2009-09-03T10:59:56Z News Item