Living Restoratively

It is one thing to embrace the idea of restorative justice and another to live it. The following articles explore this problem and suggest ways to do both.

By No Means Easy: Responding to Conflict in Personal Life

“I’m glad we went through that process before he died,” I recently told my pastor. Jay had been speaking of the death of a long-time member who had participated in a number of church conflicts over the years. The process I referred to was a series of meetings with the individual to discuss the impact of letters he had sent during the past two years to the entire congregation on several contentious issues. These letters created various harms to individual church members as well as to the church family in general. In reflecting on the loss of Mr. M., I couldn’t help but feel that the meetings provided an avenue for church leadership to both express care for him and be open to listening to his positions and the concerns behind them.

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.

Ballot, Jordan J.. To reform or to abolish? Christian perspectives on punishment, prison, and restorative justice.

In this Essay, I will attempt to fill in a gap in preceding studies of restorative justice by paying special attention to the religious, most specifically to the Christian, perspectives on restorative justice. I will show that it is more accurate to speak of a plurality of restorative justice movements than of a unified and univocal restorative justice movement, particularly with respect to the variety of Christian approaches. (7) In delineating the various Christian perspectives on restorative justice, I will use as a primary litmus test the various figures' attitudes toward government coercion and punishment, most particularly with regard to incarceration, detention, and imprisonment. Attitudes toward prison provide an excellent way to map out the restorative justice landscape. Other types of punishment, such as the death penalty, are less helpful in getting at the crux of the disagreements and distinctive elements of each position, simply because there is so much agreement about the non-restorative nature of such sanctions. An expression representative of the general consensus is given by Howard Zehr: "'Restorative' has become such a popular term that many acts and efforts are being labeled 'restorative,' but in fact they are not. Some of these might be rescued. Others cannot. The death penalty, which causes additional and irreparable harm, is one of the latter." (8) Imprisonment can be seen both as the most serious regular form of non-capital punishment and as the factor that undergirds the efficacy of the entire criminal justice system, and therefore makes a most useful point of reference. (excerpt)

Stassen, Glen H.. Living the Sermon on the Mount: A Practical Hope for Grace and Deliverance.

In Living the Sermon on the Mount, theologian and award-winning author Glen H. Stassen helps us to see that the revolutionary ideas in the sermon on the Mount about loving and caring for each other, living in peace, and acting justly are not unattainable ideals but a recipe for wholeness and healing in our human relationships and deliverance from the vicious cycles that we get stuck in. (publisher's description)

. How to forgive...when you don't feel like it.

When someone hurts us, our natural response is to strike back. Rather than forgive, we want to return the pain and suffering. Rather than let go, we cling to our rocks of resentment, our bitterness. The result? We struggle under the weight of our grievances -- all because we find it too hard to forgive. (publisher's description)

Marsh, Charles and Perkins, John. Welcoming justice: God's movement toward beloved community.

Historian and theologian Charles Marsh partners with veteran activist John Perkins to chronicle God's vision for a more equitable and just world. Perkins reflects on his long ministry and identifies key themes and lessons he has learned, and Marsh highlights the legacy of Perkin's work in American society. Together they show how abandoned places are being restored, how divisions are being reconciled, and what individuals and communities are now doing to welcome peace and justice. (Publisher's description)

Johnson, Kenneth D. Enemies, Foes, and Retributive and Restorative Justice in the Domestic and International Context

In this paper, Kenneth Johnson responds to James Johnson’s paper, “Can force be used justly? Questions of retributive and restorative justice.â€? Both papers were contributions to the 2001 Kuyper Lecture at Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts. K. Johnson states he is largely in agreement with J. Johnson’s criticism of an uncritical Christian pacifism. Thus, K. Johnson believes that the Bible morally permits, and even commands, the use of force under certain conditions, though he readily admits the moral ambiguities of force may make matters worse despite good intentions and extensive planning. In this framework K. Johnson examines the moral aspects of the use of force in relation to the administration of justice, domestically and internationally, with particular attention to retributive and restorative justice.

Heise, Evan. The Roots of Restorative Justice in the Christian Faith Tradition

Evan Heise states that restorative justice practice in Canada and the United States is firmly rooted in the Christian faith tradition. This tradition arise from the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament, the teachings of Jesus, and the understanding and practice of the early church. On this basis, Heise presents and examines several roots of restorative justice in that tradition: covenant law; true worship; the wrath of God, suffering, and forgiveness; God’s community; and community justice and biblical justice.

Heise, Evan. Spiritual roots of restorative justice- A Christian perspective

In this essay, Evan Heise states that restorative justice practice in Canada and the United States is rooted in the Christian tradition. This tradition is rooted in the Law and Prophets of the Old Testament, the teachings of Jesus, and the understanding and practice of the early Church. To explicate the sources of restorative justice in this tradition, Heise examines the covenant law of the Old testament and the teachings of Jesus; God’s wrath, punishment, and retribution in relation to the gospel of grace; and secular and Biblical conceptions of community, with emphasis on community in relation to restorative justice and the Kingdom of God.

Oxford Youth Works. Restoring justice

In discussing restorative justice, this article begins with the claim that for Christians their relationship with God -characterized by repentance and forgiveness- should be the model for their relationships with others. Yet this is often not the case, especially in relation to people who commit crimes. With this in view, and to develop an argument for restoring justice, the writer of the article looks at crime and punishment, Biblical justice and a Biblical model for a justice system, and the practical work of Oxford Youth Works, a Christian youth work organization in England.

Mackey, V. Doing justice

To assist churches and church people to respond faithfully to those hurt by crime and those who perpetrate crime, Mackey explores the Jewish and Christian faith traditions. In particular she reflects on Scriptural perspectives of justice in terms of certain visual images – scales, rods, compassionate intervention, and prevention of violence. She continues by discussing Scriptural perspectives on justice and restorative values. This leads to comments on restorative justice and the roles of people of faith, with specific attention to basic criminal justice issues such as the death penalty, victims’ issues, expansion of prison, and sentencing issues.

. Social justice handbook: Small steps for a better world.

Mae Elise Cannon provides a comprehensive resource for Christians committed to social justice. She presents biblical rationale for justice and explains a variety of Christian approaches to doing justice. Tracing the history of Christians in social engagement, she lifts out role models and examples from the Great Awakeings to the civil rights movement. A wide-ranging catalog of topics gives background information about justice issues at home and abroad. (publisher's description)

Northey, Wayne. Transformative Justice Vision and Spirituality.

The defining religious ethos of Western spirituality historically has been Christianity. Christianity has also being the reigning ideology in the West until into the nineteenth century. While it is salutary to discuss other world spiritualities with reference to Western penal law, no other religion or spirituality has remotely impacted the formation of the Western Legal tradition like Christianity. Harold's Berman's magisterial Law and Revolution (1983/1997) describes this interaction of law and Christianity as centrally formative to the Western Legal system. The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice (Hadley, 2001) points towards a vision of penal abolition and transformative justice. It presents a religious pluralistic vision and is highly recommended. But given the unmatched dominance of Christianity in influencing the development of the Western penal law tradition. I shall concentrate my attention on Christian spirituality and penal abolition. Not to mention that this is a church Sunday School class. While one cannot wish away past, can it be too much to hope that the twenty-first century for Christian spirituality world-wide will be marked but a profound renewed impulse towards peacemaking? Such a world-transforming spirituality has never been more needed. It is the contention of this paper that the Christian story offers a dramatically alternative narrative to that of resort to violence, seen unfortunately so predominantly in Christianity's long history. The story the Christian faith tells is eternal wellspring for the spirituality of nonviolence and penal abolition, however massively unfaithful Christian adherents have been to the plot-line down through the ages.

Church Council on Justice and Corrections. Justice for the Soul.

For people of faith, the subject of crime brings up other related, and quite profund , matters. Crime, and our responses to crime , can get us thinking about suffering, sin, evil, punishement, healing, forgiveness, and so on. Our ideas and experiences of God and church will probably greatly influence our views on criminal justice. (excerpt)

Pasewark, Kyle A.. Restoring Forgiving Power.

[1] Traditionally, theology and religious thought has thought of love and justice as the poles between which human interaction must move. Justice punishes or repays, love heals. The relatively recent phrase “restorative justice” attempts something different, which is to think about the ways in which justice might restore. I would like to explore the old polarity a bit more, however, and consider whether when we talk about restorative justice, we are instead talking about justice that is infused with a certain kind of power which exposes the limits of justice itself. I want to suggest this by talking about the act of forgiving, which of all things, should be the most restorative and refreshing of acts. It often is not, however, and I think that is because it is set in a too-narrow framework of the polarities of justice and love, rather than in the broader context of a power within which justice and love are sometime moments.

Anonymous. The Two Most Important Commandments and Crime.

I want to reflect today on how discovering the essential humanness of the other is discovering Jesus, is encountering our true selves, is finding God, is what a Christian response to crime is about. Now that was a mouthfull! In short, I want to look at the two "most important commandments" in light of crime. (excerpt)

Kidd, Michael. Restorative, and Maori Justice and the New Testament

This essay will look at the commonality and differences between Maori and Christian responses to restorative justice in the spirit of 1 Cor 13 :5 - love is not rude. The history of race relations between European (Pakeha) and Maori in NZ has been one of forced Maori assimilation up until comparatively recently, but the case exists for a new paradigm of biculturalism where the two cultures learn from each other. Thus the less dominant culture, the Maori, can have input and a sense of belonging even though different in many fundamental respects:1) Traditional societies depended on ...feelings of obligation...it was gifts that bound people together...such networks...are the safety net that sees an individual through the crises of life 2) The Maori constitute the tangata whenua (people of the land) which has basis in the Bible recognition of man's dignity and rights to expression of cultural identity.3) In the area of criminal justice this has been the reverse situation for Maori, however the Gospels have much to say which celebrates difference and praises cultural expression. (excerpt)

Johnston, Bradley M. Justice that Heals: The Ten Words and Restorative Justice: Towards a Strategy for Compassionate Absolutes

As Bradley Johnston writes, the ancient Hebrew Scriptures record that, around the mid thirteenth century B.C., at Mount Sinai God gave Moses and the Hebrew people the "Ten Words",that is, the Ten Commandments. In an earlier paper written for a seminary class, Johnston had also noted the trend in Biblical history and much Christian thought toward the perspective that the civil magistrate should govern society according to the Ten Commandments. This raises a significant question, claims Johnston. Namely, the question has to do with enforcement. If law establishes what justice is, as is commonly understood in Western societies, then the enforcement of law establishes justice in society. But what is the relationship between law as spoken at Mount Sinai (verbal law) and reality as experienced by human beings (created or moral law) in the modern world? Are the Ten Commandments just a creed for one religious group, or are they the fabric of social harmony as envisioned and designed by the Creator himself? Johnston argues for the latter. He does so by exploring the Ten Commandments and criminal justice theory, restorative justice theory in relation to the love-law vision of a gracious God, and specific issues pertaining to the use of restorative justice to heal harm.

Classis B.C. North-West. Overture 1: Adopt a Study Report on Restorative Justice.

This overture to the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in North America seeks adoption of the British Columbia North-West classis' study report on restorative justice, included as the appendix. The report gives a background to the study, and goes on to cover the following topics: III. Restorative justice: what it is. A. Biblical-theological concepts and their relationship to justice. B. The central significance of restorative justice and crime, forgiveness, and grace. C. Societal values and crime. D. Justice, crime, and our Christian responsibility. E. What restorative justice does. IV. Why the church should be involved in the discussion and facilitation of restorative justice V. Practical matters and benefits of the restorative justice approach

Church Council on Justice and Corrections. Justice for the soul: Shaming

As indicated in this article by the Church Council on Justice and Corrections (a coalition of faith-based individuals and organizations involved in oversight of the Canadian justice and corrections system), shame is something we all have likely felt at one time or another in life. For example, shame can result from embarrassing incidents in life, or from unkind comments directed at us by others. This is not the kind of shame or shaming promoted in certain restorative justice approaches, including conferencing. This article goes on to explain a restorative approach known as positive or reintegrative shaming - oriented around condemning an action but seeking to reintegrate the wrongdoer back into the community - and its use in conferencing processes.