Search results for: scapegoating

Scapegoating The Sex Offender

WN: This was written 16 years ago, but is ever pertinent. An excerpt: Can one hope that some Canadian communities will refuse to scapegoat, and develop safe ways of working with sex offenders in their midst? In fact, that is what has emerged in the past four years through Correctional Services Canada funded community agencies. […]

Reconciliation–WN Contribution to:

illustration above: The rescue by (Anabaptist) Dirk Willems. Engraving by Jan Luiken in Martyrs Mirror, v. 2, p. 387 of Dutch edition. Scan provided by Mennonite Library and Archives WN: Reconciliation is a key term in the New Testament. The article excerpted below was written in 1989 at the invitation of The Mennonite Encyclopedia (Volume […]

Rwanda Dispatches May 18 to July 12, 2018

At 30 years on to this day, April 7, 2024, the Rwanda Genocide broke out, that saw more than 1 million Rwandans murdered. CBC did the interview you see below. 30 years after Rwandan genocide, Roméo Dallaire feels ‘rage’ amid global crises | Watch (msn.com) Roméo Dallaire led the UN’s peacekeeping mission when more than […]

The Great Sumas Lake Heist: A Guilty Little Secret in Plain Sight

Sumas Lake until a century ago covered about 10% of the Fraser Valley’s fertile farmland. Then it was ‘disappeared.’ Whatever happened? And what to do about it? NOTE: There are several footnotes that add related material to the article, that for some may be of interest. NOTE 2:It was exactly a year ago that the […]

Why I Oppose the Death Penalty

WN: I was invited to dialogue with Dr. Richard Land of (later) “The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission” of the Southern Baptist Convention. The dialogue was organized by the Presbyterian Church in Alaska because debate was heating up in a state with no death penalty on the books. (Since the death penalty’s abolition in 1957, […]

The Mumbai Bombs, July 2006

July 12, 2006 Dear Editor: Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter MacKay predictably was the pot that called the kettle black in (otherwise legitimately) condemning the bombing horror in Mumbai this week. Last July Prime Minister Tony Blair likewise as hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote […]

Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins, November 19, 2004

WN: Some of the papers on Restorative Justice are understandably repetitive, though I culling the obviously such. image above: sikhnet.com Restorative Justice and Spiritual Origins, November 19, 2004 By Wayne Northey In 1974 two youths who had been drinking and had been “talked to” by the police already, took out their frustrations on the small […]

Is Violence Master of Us All?: Fight, Flight or Just Peacemaking

WN: The host was the affable lawyer Gerry Palmer, quite well-known in Abbotsford for his work with numerous non-profit organizations, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business at the University of the Fraser Valley. Is Violence Master of Us All?: Fight, Flight or Just Peacemaking Philosopher’s Café: Legal Grounds Coffee House, Abbotsford, April […]

Paper and Story: “The Sex Offender as Scapegoat”

 John 12:20 – 33; John 11:49-52: 49But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” 51Caiaphas did not say this on […]

States of Incarceration

by Emily Widra and Tiana Herring   Tweet this September 2021 WN: My strongest statement about the horrors of worldwide incarceration and penal abolition is here: Restorative Justice: Peacemaking Not Warmaking; Transformative Justice: Penal Abolitionism Not Prison Reform. It was done for The Kenarchy Journal, Volume 2, Article. For the full PDF, please click on the […]

9/11 was a test:

Essay by Carlos Lozada Illustration above: by Patrik Svensson Sept. 3, 2021 WN: Below are excerpts from an outstanding essay by a Pulitzer Prizer winner for criticism in 2019. But the last lines, though intended to be hopeful, ring perversely hollow–especially given what one can read on this website about the horrors of American Expansionism/Exceptionalism/Empire: […]

This entire country is haunted

By Alicia Elliott July 12, 2021 photo above: The Mohawk Institute Residential School, referred to by former students as ‘the Mush Hole’ (Photograph by Alex Jacobs-Blum) WN: This statement from the article highlighted below haunts me: These acts were done on behalf of every non-Indigenous family who proudly calls themselves Canadians, because this is what […]

Signs of a Need to Hate

By Community last July 11, 2021 image above: David G. Brown / Flickr WN: The article highlighted below asks why Conservatives (not all) have such a need to hate. Sadly, Liberals (not all) evoke such a question too. The answer for puzzling Liberals according to the author is: Trump’s supporters love him, this hypothesis declares, […]

The war inside the Canadian Armed Forces

By Marie-Danielle Smith July 8, 2021 illustration above: by Anna Minzhulina WN: Military. Police. Prisons.1 All are rife with abuse within. As the article states: The Canadian Armed Forces, as an institution, has a necessarily coercive culture. Leaders must have a high degree of authority and control over their subordinates in order for the military […]

Inside the Capitol Riot: An Exclusive Video Investigation

By The New York Times June 30, 2021 WN: While video images can be selectively strung together, they are real images just the same. And this was anything but the proverbial walk in the park–or a tourist visit to the Capitol. Søren Kierkegaard wrote: The crowd is untruth. Anthropologist René Girard spent a career explicating […]

Opinion: It’s ‘The Code’ of the NHL, and it has no cure for stupid

Opinion by Ken Dryden May 27, 2021 photo above: Toronto center John Tavares is taken from the ice on a stretcher on May 20 after being injured during Game 1 of the Maple Leafs’ first-round playoff series against Montreal. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)  Ken Dryden, a former goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens and […]

René Girard, Conversion, and the Present Media Moment

WN: This is immensely helpful in this historical moment. Lumen Christi Institute René Girard, Conversion, and the Present Media Moment Grant Kaplan Saint Louis University Carly Osborn University of Divinity Fr. Steve Grunow Word on Fire Catholic Ministries Cynthia Haven National Endowment for the Humanities This event is co-sponsored by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries […]

America Must Understand How Bad Trump Truly Was in Order to See What’s Coming

By Jake Jackson March 24, 2021 image source: Blog for Arizona WN: The situation in the U.S. continues to be dire, as it teeters on the brink of fascism. excerpts: Seldom do you come across a man who changed so much in so little time. His efforts normalised authoritarian tendencies, legitimised fascism, and shaped the […]

Reckoning with the Toxicity of Christian Nationalism

By Bill Berkowitz February 8, 2021 WN: The article highlighted below is very disturbing for followers of the one Mark Lewis Taylor dubs The Executed God (book review here, with the subtitle: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America). I stand in perpetual amazement at how the New Testament Jesus is read to be […]

The Unraveling of America

by Wade Davis August 6, 2020 Wade Davis holds the Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. His award-winning books include “Into the Silence” and “The Wayfinders.” His new book, “Magdalena: River of Dreams,” is published by Knopf. WN: This is an exceptional article! There is however a […]

RJWorld eConference, August 22 – 31, 2020: Robbie Robidoux & Wayne Northey

RJWorld eConference, August 22 – September 6, 2020: Robbie Robidoux & Wayne Northey RJ World 2020 was a 17-day (extended by 7 days) online showcase of more than 100 inspiring presenters from around the world – facilitators / practitioners / teachers / researchers / artists – who are passionate about sharing insights and ideas in […]

He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus

He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus by Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger, Maggie Haberman, Michael D. Shear, Mark Mazzetti and Julian E. Barnes of . photo above: © Erin Schaff/The New York Times “Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion,” President Trump said […]

‘You’re excluding people that look like me’: Megan Rapinoe’s message to Trump

US soccer captain again rejects White House visit, saying team does not want to be ‘corrupted’ Sarah Marsh Wed 10 Jul 2019 photo above: Megan Rapinoe and team during the Broadway ticker tape parade. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters  WN: Bottom line: Trump is Scapegoater-in-Chief — the Ultimately Deplorable Ugly American — as are unwittingly or cynically […]

Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism

Christchurch, the White Victim Complex and Savage Capitalism March 15, 2019 by Ben Debney drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair WN: There is much on “savage capitalism” on this website. This expression likely references Rudyard Kipling’s famous line “The savage wars of peace” from his classic pro-American Empire poem: “The White Man’s Burden: The United States […]

On the Record: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Devastating Testimony on the SNC-Lavalin Scandal

On the Record: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s Devastating Testimony on the SNC-Lavalin Scandal Trudeau tried to pressure justice minister to cut deal to let corporation avoid bribery prosecution, she says. By Tyee Staff February 27, 2019 | TheTyee.ca photo above:Jody Wilson-Raybould: ‘I come from a long line of matriarchs and I am a truth teller in accordance with the […]

Justice That Transforms — Book Series

First 3 Volumes Fall 2018; Volume One Republished January 2020; two more projected late 2023 SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. WN: I’m pleased to add this page about three books produced fall 2018. They are of my writings on Restorative Justice over the years, including (in Volume One) […]

Trump’s Pantheistic Temptation

February 06, 2017 by Vern Redekop WN: Anything my friend and scholar Vern Redekop writes — and he is prolific! — is invariably thoughtful/thought-provoking. To understand a greater context for his article copied in full below, please see: René Girard. Vern is a noted Girardian scholar. ********** In the book, René Girard and Creative Mimesis, […]

Billy Graham and the Gospel of Fear

February 21, 2018 byCecil Bothwell Photo above by Richard Bromley | CC BY 2.0 [NOTE: For a differing view with my reflection on it, please also see my February 23, 2018 post about Billy Graham.] WN: Billy Graham’s passing (February 21, 2018) will occasion countless eulogies the world over; he will be touted as the […]

Hellrazed? — edited by Kevin Miller

WN: Kevin Miller produced the movie Hellbound? five years ago to look at changing views on the doctrine of hell. As he began “exploring” hell, partially motivated by having read his friend Brad Jersak’s book, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell and the New Jerusalem, he was alerted to the publication of Rob […]

Restorative Justice Then, Now and A Dream

WN: A massive body of Restorative Justice literature has emerged. A superb early study is Restoring Justice (Strong and Van Ness, 1997). A great early overview of the wider context is The Expanding Prison (Cayley, 1998). The first major study was Changing Lenses (Zehr, 1990) – considered a classic. The two best Christian theological studies […]

The Banality of War

WN: Below is the first footnote of an essay for a possible chapter in an upcoming book slated for fall publication, Hellrazed, edited by Kevin Miller, of Hellbound? (the documentary) fame. I look at the issues of war and hell together from a Christian perspective. I periodically update the essay, then upload the revised version […]

Trump Revives a Shameful Tradition: Targeting a Minority Group with Crime Reports

February 8, 2017 What the author is describing is scapegoating, ubiquitous in human cultures and history. René Girard, recently deceased, is the dominant modern theorist in this regard. For more on scapegoating violence and Girard on my website, please see amongst others this and this. (You will also see below each article  related posts highlighted.) […]

Of Lethal Drones and Police Shootings

Friday, 08 July 2016 00:00 By Kathy Kelly, Consortium News | Op-Ed photo above: Demonstrators record a crowd of police officers on hand in New York’s Times Square, where a large crowd protested after fatal police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota on July 7, 2016. (Christopher Lee / The New York Times) WN: Police brutality […]

The London Bombs, July 2005

By Wayne Northey July 9, 2005 Dear Editor: Prime Minister Tony Blair hypocritically called the London bombings “barbaric attacks.” On September 1, 1939, President Roosevelt similarly wrote to the major powers that aerial bombing of civilians had “profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity” and was “inhuman barbarism.” He later as disingenuously referred to the December 7, 1941 […]

“Pardon Me?!”

“Pardon Me?!” A one-time friend, Lloyd Billingsley, years ago confidently told me that “the left” by definition is ideological, “the right” by contrast normal/normative. Such in turn ideological blindness still gobsmacks me. Lloyd is an intelligent man but profoundly doctrinaire, and like a close acquaintance, Lloyd sadly is highly unloving – even hateful – towards […]

Spirituality Evaluation of Restorative Justice

Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice, “Best Practices in Restorative Justice”, June 4, 2003 WN: I attended and presented at a few such Conferences over the years, especially in the years I worked for Mennonite Central Committee (MCCC): 1989 to 1998. an excerpt: I thought I’d look at a Christian Spirituality of Restorative Justice through […]

Restorative Justice and M2/W2 Ministry

M2/W2 (Man-To-Man/Woman-To-Woman) is the Restorative Justice agency with which I was associated for forty years. An excerpt: A few years ago, at a VOMA (Victim Offender Mediation Association) conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I saw a plaintive note on a bulletin board: DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY RESTORATIVE JUSTICE VIDEO RESOURCES THAT ARE NOT RELIGIOUS?! […]

The Sports Crowd is Untruth

WN: This was written in response to the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot in 2011. An excerpt: Søren Kierkegaard wrote “The crowd is untruth.” René Girard saw it in the hidden uncouth: Scapegoating violence, originary, in all human cultures. It is all innocent fun say dominant culture vultures Of every sports win. Yet there lurks deeper […]

Is Paul the Father of Misogyny and Antisemitism?

WN: This paper highlighted below answers in the negative the question posed in the title. It was written by Pamela Eisenbaum, Pauline scholar, practising Jew, feminist, and professor at a Christian seminary. She subsequently wrote Paul was not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle. I delivered a sermon inspired by her, entitled […]

Bloomfield Avenue

A Jewish-Catholic Jersey Girl’s Spiritual Journey, Linda Mercadante, Cambridge, Massachussets: Cowley Publications, 2006; 211 pages Linda was a friend from way back in 1975/76 while we were a students at Regent College. We produced a book with some other students of photographs of our year at Regent, entitled Reflections. She has taught theology for many […]

Against The Death Penalty

Christian and Secular Arguments Against Capital Punishment, Gardner C. Hanks, Herald Press, 1997; 208 pages After this review was published in 1998 in a local Christian newspaper, I received a phone call from a then M2/W2 volunteer with a curious surname: “Bullett”. He needed to talk with me immediately! When he came to my office, […]

Restorative Reintegration

Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice, “Best Practices in Restorative Justice”, June 1, 2003 photo above: reintegrationaustralia.com.au An excerpt: For over 25 years, the terminology of “Restorative Justice” has had increasingly wider acceptance and resonance within criminal justice jurisdictions around the world. As has come widely to be acknowledged, Restorative Justice is more than an […]

René Girard and Violence

WN: The paper below was (re)written just for my own joy in 1997, with subsequent rewrites. A version was prepared for a Fraser Valley BC “Christ and Violence” conference in 1998. It almost got me fired before hired! One of the interviewers for my (new) position as Executive Director of M2/W2 Association had taken exception […]

Spirituality Evaluation of Restorative Justice

Sixth International Conference on Restorative Justice, “Best Practices in Restorative Justice”, June 4, 2003 An excerpt: A few years ago, at a VOMA (Victim Offender Mediation Association) conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I saw a plaintive note on a bulletin board: DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY RESTORATIVE JUSTICE VIDEO RESOURCES THAT ARE NOT RELIGIOUS?! Restorative […]