Need to challenge our culture of violence

Edmonton, Alta.

In our world, violence is the dominant spirituality. The invariable response to violence, terror and hatred is more of the same.

But the Gospel challenges us to risk our lives and set ourselves free from systems of injustice that make offenders' lives worse and victims' lives more painful, systems that rub salt in our communities' wounds instead of healing them. According to Wayne Northey, those systems perpetuate "the very state violence that put Jesus on the cross."

Northey, the director of M2/W2, a prison visitation ministry in British Columbia, spoke at the annual celebrations of Community Justice Ministries (CJM), a program of Mennonite Central Committee Alberta.

Northey spoke in Edmonton, Tofield, Calgary, Rosemary and Didsbury in October. He congratulated CJM's staff, its over 200 volunteers and its hundreds of supporters, for their engagement in justice work. They are the living fulfillment of the suffering servant prophecy in Isaiah because they are helping to "bring justice to the nations," said Northey.

One of the bitter ironies of western civilization is that our legal system imitates the church's treatment of heretics, he said. Instead of recognizing the needs of victims and communities for healing, the impersonal machinery of the state names itself as the victim and metes out punishment.

One victim of rape, reacting to the fact that the Queen is cited as the victim on court dockets in criminal cases, reported her fantasy of phoning the Queen on the anniversaries of her rape to ask how she is doing.

As a simple example of restorative justice, Northey told the story of what happened when he and a friend as young boys kicked out a neighbour's basement window. His mother made him empty his piggy bank and give all his money to the neighbour, with an apology.

'Tears later, I discovered the truth about the deeper restorative justice at work that day," he said. "Mrs. Robinson quietly returned every cent."

As Christians, forgiveness does not mean to forget but to "remember, let go, and be free."

Community Justice Ministries includes prison visitation, support for released sex offenders and other prisoners, and ongoing support for lifers, both while they are in prison and on parole.-Gary Garrison