In
my last post I made the point that law in the Bible was always a flexible
feature because it was meant to stand in support of a people who were
continually changing. Therefore, when there was a violation of a law it was a
violation against a person more than an arbitrary breaking of rules. The
function of justice was then to make it right.[1]
Restorative Justice
This
gives way to the needed alternative to retributive justice as it only seeks to
assign guilt, inflict pain one “deserves” (which is measured by the process)
and define the offense based solely on the law broken.[2] The alternative is restorative justice which
centers on the victim’s needs and asks the offender to face what they caused. This comes by asking:
1.
Who has been hurt?
2.
What are their needs?
3.
Whose obligations are these?
4.
What are the causes?
5.
Who has a stake in the situation
(primary is victim, but secondary can include family and community)?
6.
What is the appropriate process to
involve stakeholders in an effort to address causes and put things right?[3]
I also recall Zehr
pointing out that this model has to be flexible enough to know that it is not
always good idea to reunite victim and offender especially when the victim is
not comfortable with it, or if the offender is completely uncooperative.
However, this raises the question what is it that is inherently wrong with
the prison system as punishment? When the crime is violent in nature,
confinement is often necessary. Yet, Zehr also points out, the prison system
and the distorted worldview of domination that exists on its inside only
reinforces the mindset that put them there in the first place and it never holds
them accountable to see the people and harm they caused. Moreover, anybody who has spent significant
time in prison will tell you they can come to exist within the prison system
as-well-as they do on the outside and sometimes better which makes the
punishment of little threat.[4] But, like
I said, I see little alternative for those who are not “mentally ill” and only
succumb to violence as means to get their way.
Alternatively, community conferencing for offenders has been a surprisingly
effective solution even within the prison system. This is where they are given the opportunity
to talk with mediators and the victim(s) and/or family members which make them
face questions from the victim’s side like “why them”, “for what purpose” and
so on.
These
meetings are often harder for the offender than just sitting in a cell, and yet
it has also contributed to a large decrease in repeat offenders. When the victim can ask questions and get
answers, and also when the offender faces what they caused and in some cases
can help make things right, or at least offer a symbolic gesture of remorse and
compensation, it re-empowers both in a positive way. It offers a little bit of control back to the
victim who had it stolen and it empowers the offender to be part of the
rebuilding process. Though many assume they are getting off easy, they are
not. They are having to make new choices
in contrast to their toxic behavior that not only devastates people and community,
but reveal the obligations to persons injured they would otherwise be shielded
from. Through this process many victims
feel justice has been served even more so than in the criminal justice process.
While I leave a lot out, this is the essence of restorative justice.
Biblical Justice
So
to bring this back together with the first part I want to say this is
Biblical. What I see is the overall
narrative of God’s reconciliation and restoration within the setting of broken
covenant. Covenant, Zehr reminds us, is
an agreement between two parties that implies personal relationship with
reciprocal responsibilities and mutual commitments.[5] This is something that exists, to greater and
lesser degrees, within all societies and communities simply because we are
relational creatures. The difference is
God refuses to play the game of scapegoats, marginalization and elimination. Think of how we brand ex-cons as criminals
and refuse to see past that; when that is all you are defined as what else can
a person do but embrace it, but God says no to that. God confronts Adam and Eve, Cain, Moses, David
and Israel, but does not destroy them. God
does allow Israel to finally be exiled, but even then he goes with her so to enable
the correction process instead of throwing the clay out altogether and labeling
her hopeless (Jer. 18:1-11; Rom. 9). His
request was always that we begin by taking responsibility for the other (Lev.
19:18; Deut. 14:29; Lk. 10:27).
Jesus
further rejects our one-sided thinking and expulsion toward another when he
comes as the physician/reconciler not as judge or attorney, prosecuting or
defending (Mk. 2:16-17). Jesus does the
work of making the sinner face that dark part of the self and does not lessen
the offense, but he does not leave them there either. Though no one can take back the offense they
committed Jesus permits them to cut ties with it and work to help make things
right in the earth under a new covenant and relationship with God and neighbor (Mt. 19:16-22; Lk. 19:1-10; Jn. 8:1-11).
God
and human has been the victim of human harm and yet scripture tells of God
entering in to make it right rather than destroying it. To then bear witness to God’s act we are asked
to participate in it, so I believe more Christians would do well to understand
and enact restorative justice where it is possible. While I have no interaction with law and
courts, I did realize I disciplined my children in a way that looked like punitive
justice by grounding, or taking away possessions or spanking as punishment.
This only created children who obeyed out of fear of punishment not out of responsibility
to do what was right because they understood the damage. I have had infinitely better results (though
I have had to get creative) when I hold them accountable and enable them to see
what they did and make it right. The big take away here is not that I am now a
superior parent (because I certainly still have lots to learn and still fail) but
start where you can (home, schools, workplace etc…).
To
me this is how we can thwart the tendency to interpret God based on our own
criminal justice system in judgment, punishment and penal atonement theories and
finally allow God to form our lens in a modern age for the return of shalom.
[1] Something
also to keep in mind, since we tend to link “justice” with “punishment”, is
that the Hebrew word for “punish”, rsy (yasar), means
“to teach” and “to discipline”, but it does not mean “to hurt” or “to injure”
(those got their own word). See William
L Holladay. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic
Lexicon of the Old Testament Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing
1988), 137.
[2] Howard Zehr.
Changing Lenses: Restorative Justive for
Our Times (Harrisonburg, VA: Herald
Press 2015), 69.
[3] Ibid, 237.
[4] Ibid, 40-45.
[5] Ibid, 136.
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