Restorative Justice<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Restorative\nLove<\/strong>\nMonday, \u202fSeptember 7,\n2020<\/p>\n\n\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>As we read the Bible, God does not change as much as our knowledge of God <strong>evolves.<\/strong> I certainly recognize there are many biblical passages that present God as punitive and retributive, but we must stay with the text\u2014and observe how <strong>we gradually let God grow up<\/strong>. Focusing on divine retribution leads to an ego-satisfying and eventually unworkable image of God which situates us inside of a very unsafe and dangerous universe. Both Jesus and Paul observed the human tendency toward retribution and spoke strongly about the limitations of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biblical notion of justice, beginning in the Hebrew Scriptures with the Jewish prophets\u2014especially Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea\u2014is quite different. If we read carefully and honestly, we will see that <strong>God\u2019s justice is <\/strong><em><strong>restorative<\/strong><\/em>. In each case, after the prophet chastises the Israelites for their transgressions against YHWH, the prophet continues by saying, in effect, \u201cAnd here\u2019s what YHWH will do for you: God will now love you more than ever! God will love you into wholeness. God will pour upon you a gratuitous, unbelievable, unaccountable, irrefutable love that you will finally be unable to resist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>God \u201c<strong>punishes\u201d us by loving us more!<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0How else could divine love be supreme and victorious? Check out this theme for yourself: Read such passages as Isaiah 29:13\u201324, Hosea 6:1\u20136, Ezekiel 16 (especially verses 59\u201363), and so many of the Psalms. God\u2019s justice is fully successful when God can legitimate and validate human beings in their original and total identity! God wins by making sure we win\u2014just as any loving human parent does. The little \u201ctime outs\u201d and discipline along the way are simply to keep us awake and growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Love is the only thing that transforms the human heart.<\/strong> In the Gospels, we see Jesus fully revealing this divine wisdom. Love takes the shape and symbolism of healing and radical forgiveness\u2014which is just about all that Jesus does. Jesus, who represents God, usually transforms people at the moments when they most hate themselves, when they most feel shame or guilt, or want to punish themselves. Look at Jesus\u2019 interaction with the tax collector Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1\u201310). He doesn\u2019t belittle or punish Zacchaeus; instead, Jesus goes to his home, shares a meal with him, and treats him like a friend. Zacchaeus\u2019 heart is opened and transformed. Only then does Zacchaeus commit to making reparations for the harm he has done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Isaiah says\nof God, \u201cMy thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways\u201d (Isaiah\n55:8). Yet I am afraid we largely pulled God down into \u201cour thoughts.\u201d We think\nfear, anger, divine intimidation, threat, and punishment are going to lead\npeople to love. Show me where that has worked. You cannot lead people to the\nhighest level of motivation by teaching them the lowest. God always and forever\nmodels the highest, and our task is merely to \u201cimitate God\u201d (Ephesians 5:1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Restorative Justice<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Restoring\nRelationships<\/strong><br>\nSunday, \u202fSeptember 6,\n2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Not\neverything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is\nfaced.<\/em> \u2014James Baldwin (1924\u20131987)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost all religions and cultures that I know of have believed in one way or another that sin and evil are to be punished and that retribution is to be demanded of the sinner\u2014in this world and usually the next world, too. Such\u202f<em>retributive justice\u00a0<\/em>promotes a dualistic system of reward and punishment, good people and bad people, and makes perfect sense to the ego. I call it the economy of merit or \u201cmeritocracy.\u201d This system seems to be the best that prisons, courtrooms, wars, and even most of the church are equipped to do. The trouble is that we defined God as<strong> \u201cpunisher in chief\u201d <\/strong>instead of Healer, Forgiver, and Reconciler; thus, the retribution model was legitimized all the way down!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However,\nJesus, many mystics, Indigenous cultures, and other wisdom traditions show an\nalternative path toward healing. In these traditions, sin and failure are an\nopportunity for the transformation of the person harmed, the person causing\nharm, and the community. Mere counting and ledger-keeping are not the way of\nthe Gospel. Our best self wants to restore relationships, and not just blame or\npunish. This is the \u201ceconomy of grace\u201d and an operative idea of <em>restorative justice<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After being wronged, few human beings can move ahead with dignity without a full and honest exposure of the truth, as well as accountability. <em><strong>You cannot heal what you do not acknowledge<\/strong><\/em><strong>.<\/strong> Hurt does not just go away on its own; it needs to be spoken and heard. Only then is there a possibility of \u201crestorative justice,\u201d which is what the prophets invariably promise to the people of Israel (as in Ezekiel 16:53-63; Isaiah 57:17\u201219) and Jesus illustrates in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11\u201232) and throughout his healing ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While\nI can talk about restorative justice from the framework of Scripture and theology,\nthis week I will rely on experts in the field. Teachers and practitioners\nElaine Enns and Ched Myers define restorative justice and peacemaking as \u201ca\nrange of nonviolent responses to injustice, violation, and\/or violence with the\naim of<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>reducing\nor halting the presenting violence in order that<br>\n <\/li><li>victims\nand offenders (as well as their communities and other stakeholders) can\ncollectively identify harms, needs, and responsibilities so that<br>\n <\/li><li>they\ncan determine how to make things as right as possible, which can include\ncovenants of accountability, restitution, reparations and (ideally)\nreconciliation.\u201d [1]<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>We all need to apologize, and we all need to forgive, for humanity to have a sustainable future. Otherwise, we are controlled by the past, individually and corporately. History easily devolves into taking sides, bitterness, holding grudges, and the violence that inevitably follows. No wonder that almost two-thirds of Jesus\u2019 teaching is directly or indirectly about forgiveness. As others have said, \u201cForgiveness is to let go of our hope for a different past.\u201d\u202f<em>Reality is what it is<\/em>, and such acceptance leads to great freedom, and the possibility of healing forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"263\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM-500x263.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19292\" srcset=\"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM-500x263.png 500w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM-768x405.png 768w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM.png 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Restorative Justice Restorative Love Monday, \u202fSeptember 7, 2020 As we read the Bible, God does not change as much as our knowledge of God evolves. I certainly recognize there are many biblical passages that present God as punitive and retributive, but we must stay with the text\u2014and observe how we gradually let God grow up. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19289"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19295,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289\/revisions\/19295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>As we read the Bible, God does not change as much as our knowledge of God <strong>evolves.<\/strong> I certainly recognize there are many biblical passages that present God as punitive and retributive, but we must stay with the text\u2014and observe how <strong>we gradually let God grow up<\/strong>. Focusing on divine retribution leads to an ego-satisfying and eventually unworkable image of God which situates us inside of a very unsafe and dangerous universe. Both Jesus and Paul observed the human tendency toward retribution and spoke strongly about the limitations of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biblical notion of justice, beginning in the Hebrew Scriptures with the Jewish prophets\u2014especially Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea\u2014is quite different. If we read carefully and honestly, we will see that <strong>God\u2019s justice is <\/strong><em><strong>restorative<\/strong><\/em>. In each case, after the prophet chastises the Israelites for their transgressions against YHWH, the prophet continues by saying, in effect, \u201cAnd here\u2019s what YHWH will do for you: God will now love you more than ever! God will love you into wholeness. God will pour upon you a gratuitous, unbelievable, unaccountable, irrefutable love that you will finally be unable to resist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>God \u201c<strong>punishes\u201d us by loving us more!<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0How else could divine love be supreme and victorious? Check out this theme for yourself: Read such passages as Isaiah 29:13\u201324, Hosea 6:1\u20136, Ezekiel 16 (especially verses 59\u201363), and so many of the Psalms. God\u2019s justice is fully successful when God can legitimate and validate human beings in their original and total identity! God wins by making sure we win\u2014just as any loving human parent does. The little \u201ctime outs\u201d and discipline along the way are simply to keep us awake and growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Love is the only thing that transforms the human heart.<\/strong> In the Gospels, we see Jesus fully revealing this divine wisdom. Love takes the shape and symbolism of healing and radical forgiveness\u2014which is just about all that Jesus does. Jesus, who represents God, usually transforms people at the moments when they most hate themselves, when they most feel shame or guilt, or want to punish themselves. Look at Jesus\u2019 interaction with the tax collector Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1\u201310). He doesn\u2019t belittle or punish Zacchaeus; instead, Jesus goes to his home, shares a meal with him, and treats him like a friend. Zacchaeus\u2019 heart is opened and transformed. Only then does Zacchaeus commit to making reparations for the harm he has done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Isaiah says\nof God, \u201cMy thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways\u201d (Isaiah\n55:8). Yet I am afraid we largely pulled God down into \u201cour thoughts.\u201d We think\nfear, anger, divine intimidation, threat, and punishment are going to lead\npeople to love. Show me where that has worked. You cannot lead people to the\nhighest level of motivation by teaching them the lowest. God always and forever\nmodels the highest, and our task is merely to \u201cimitate God\u201d (Ephesians 5:1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Restorative Justice<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Restoring\nRelationships<\/strong><br>\nSunday, \u202fSeptember 6,\n2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Not\neverything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is\nfaced.<\/em> \u2014James Baldwin (1924\u20131987)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost all religions and cultures that I know of have believed in one way or another that sin and evil are to be punished and that retribution is to be demanded of the sinner\u2014in this world and usually the next world, too. Such\u202f<em>retributive justice\u00a0<\/em>promotes a dualistic system of reward and punishment, good people and bad people, and makes perfect sense to the ego. I call it the economy of merit or \u201cmeritocracy.\u201d This system seems to be the best that prisons, courtrooms, wars, and even most of the church are equipped to do. The trouble is that we defined God as<strong> \u201cpunisher in chief\u201d <\/strong>instead of Healer, Forgiver, and Reconciler; thus, the retribution model was legitimized all the way down!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However,\nJesus, many mystics, Indigenous cultures, and other wisdom traditions show an\nalternative path toward healing. In these traditions, sin and failure are an\nopportunity for the transformation of the person harmed, the person causing\nharm, and the community. Mere counting and ledger-keeping are not the way of\nthe Gospel. Our best self wants to restore relationships, and not just blame or\npunish. This is the \u201ceconomy of grace\u201d and an operative idea of <em>restorative justice<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After being wronged, few human beings can move ahead with dignity without a full and honest exposure of the truth, as well as accountability. <em><strong>You cannot heal what you do not acknowledge<\/strong><\/em><strong>.<\/strong> Hurt does not just go away on its own; it needs to be spoken and heard. Only then is there a possibility of \u201crestorative justice,\u201d which is what the prophets invariably promise to the people of Israel (as in Ezekiel 16:53-63; Isaiah 57:17\u201219) and Jesus illustrates in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11\u201232) and throughout his healing ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While\nI can talk about restorative justice from the framework of Scripture and theology,\nthis week I will rely on experts in the field. Teachers and practitioners\nElaine Enns and Ched Myers define restorative justice and peacemaking as \u201ca\nrange of nonviolent responses to injustice, violation, and\/or violence with the\naim of<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>reducing\nor halting the presenting violence in order that<br>\n <\/li><li>victims\nand offenders (as well as their communities and other stakeholders) can\ncollectively identify harms, needs, and responsibilities so that<br>\n <\/li><li>they\ncan determine how to make things as right as possible, which can include\ncovenants of accountability, restitution, reparations and (ideally)\nreconciliation.\u201d [1]<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>We all need to apologize, and we all need to forgive, for humanity to have a sustainable future. Otherwise, we are controlled by the past, individually and corporately. History easily devolves into taking sides, bitterness, holding grudges, and the violence that inevitably follows. No wonder that almost two-thirds of Jesus\u2019 teaching is directly or indirectly about forgiveness. As others have said, \u201cForgiveness is to let go of our hope for a different past.\u201d\u202f<em>Reality is what it is<\/em>, and such acceptance leads to great freedom, and the possibility of healing forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"263\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM-500x263.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19292\" srcset=\"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM-500x263.png 500w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM-768x405.png 768w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2020-09-07-at-9.54.51-AM.png 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Restorative Justice Restorative Love Monday, \u202fSeptember 7, 2020 As we read the Bible, God does not change as much as our knowledge of God evolves. I certainly recognize there are many biblical passages that present God as punitive and retributive, but we must stay with the text\u2014and observe how we gradually let God grow up. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19289"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19295,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19289\/revisions\/19295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}