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I've been thinking of writing this for a while.
When G-d created the world he realised that if he ruled the world with strict justice it could not continue to exist. For the world to exist required G-d to set aside strict justice. This sounds like a very sweet and twee promise of G-d's forgiveness when you don't really understand it, when you don't understand that setting aside strict justice means allowing injustice exist.
I realised how hard and yet how incredibly necessary this is whilst listening to radio 4. It was a piece about the victims of the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda. There is a terrible dilemma for the inhabitants of Uganda. Everyone wants peace. Everyone wants the massacres and the atrocities to end. However, the leaders of the LRA have committed hideous crimes and the International Criminal Court to face charges for them, as is only just. These are crimes that even the most woolly, liberal could not forgive. However, the leaders of the LRA will not make peace if they know that they will face prosecution for their crimes. So the people of Uganda are faced with a similar dilemma to G-d. Uganda will be torn to shreds unless justice is set aside. It's not cute or fluffy in the least.
I was reminded of this yesterday when listening to Law in Action (again on radio 4). A woman whose sister was murdered by the Wests was talking about her work in restorative justice. She goes into prisons and talks to prisoners about her experience. The idea is that that by opening up to them and allowing herself to be vulnerable she will encourage prisoners to open up and be vulnerable so that they can heal. She sees criminal justice as about healing both the victims and the perpetrators of crime rather than about punishing. She quoted the poem "There is a place beyond right and wrong. I will meet you there." I like the idea that the afterlife would be like a laid back party where you schmooze with everyone who was ever involved in your life and realise that all of your arguments and hurts were not as important as they seemed at the time. A place where the fact that you played the game together is more important than who cheated and who won. A place beyond right and wrong. Perhaps it would be good to bring a little of the feel of the place to my life now.
When G-d created the world he realised that if he ruled the world with strict justice it could not continue to exist. For the world to exist required G-d to set aside strict justice. This sounds like a very sweet and twee promise of G-d's forgiveness when you don't really understand it, when you don't understand that setting aside strict justice means allowing injustice exist.
I realised how hard and yet how incredibly necessary this is whilst listening to radio 4. It was a piece about the victims of the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda. There is a terrible dilemma for the inhabitants of Uganda. Everyone wants peace. Everyone wants the massacres and the atrocities to end. However, the leaders of the LRA have committed hideous crimes and the International Criminal Court to face charges for them, as is only just. These are crimes that even the most woolly, liberal could not forgive. However, the leaders of the LRA will not make peace if they know that they will face prosecution for their crimes. So the people of Uganda are faced with a similar dilemma to G-d. Uganda will be torn to shreds unless justice is set aside. It's not cute or fluffy in the least.
I was reminded of this yesterday when listening to Law in Action (again on radio 4). A woman whose sister was murdered by the Wests was talking about her work in restorative justice. She goes into prisons and talks to prisoners about her experience. The idea is that that by opening up to them and allowing herself to be vulnerable she will encourage prisoners to open up and be vulnerable so that they can heal. She sees criminal justice as about healing both the victims and the perpetrators of crime rather than about punishing. She quoted the poem "There is a place beyond right and wrong. I will meet you there." I like the idea that the afterlife would be like a laid back party where you schmooze with everyone who was ever involved in your life and realise that all of your arguments and hurts were not as important as they seemed at the time. A place where the fact that you played the game together is more important than who cheated and who won. A place beyond right and wrong. Perhaps it would be good to bring a little of the feel of the place to my life now.