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 […]
Church program offers hope to released sex offenders
CATHOLIC VANCOUVER JUL 17, 2017 BY AGNIESZKA KRAWCZYNSKI photo above: Maureen Donegan heads the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s prison ministry, including the COSA program for released sex offenders. (Agnieszka Krawczynski / The B.C. Catholic) WN: I had the good fortune for many years of helping lead CoSA with Maureen Donegan. I also am fortunate to now serve on […]
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. […]
Harry Nigh started groundbreaking sex-offender support group
The Circles of Support and Accountability model has spread worldwide By Julie McGonegal October 22, 2019 WN: Last week in Canmore Alberta, CoSA Canada held a celebration of 25 years of work with sex offenders returning to the community, and deemed high risk to reoffend. We had a small reception Wednesday October 16 in the […]
The New Report on Sexual Abuse in the Southern Baptist Church Is Proof of an Ongoing Crisis
The New Report on Sexual Abuse in the Southern Baptist Church Is Proof of an Ongoing Crisis A devastating report from two Texas newspapers has found at least 380 credibly accused church leaders and volunteers, and over 700 victims. Posted on February 11, 2019 WN: Safe to say, rampant sexual abuse is a profound Church […]
“Prison, Sexual Assault, and Editing John Howard Yoder: One Man’s Story” by Andy Alexis-Baker
WN: In January 1975, I read John Howard Yoder’s The Politics of Jesus at an Inter-term course taught by Clark Pinnock 1 at Regent College, University of British Columbia. Though a (“quintessential fundamentalist” (Ernest Sandeen)– Plymouth/Christian Brethren initially) Christian all my life, thanks to Yoder and Pinnock I went through two Gospel conversions while at […]
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 […]
Circles of Support and Accountability
Needless to say, I believe in Restorative Justice and CoSA!
Interaction With “The CIA: 70 Years of Organized Crime”
September 22, 2017 by Douglas Valentine – Lars Schall photo above by Tom Thai | CC BY 2.0 WN: Welcome to America the Beautiful. As kids, my brothers and I loved the highlighted song, as sung by George Beverly Shea–who performed in front of more people than any other singer in history. We played it […]
Restorative Justice: Peacemaking Not Warmaking; Transformative Justice: Penal Abolitionism Not Prison Reform
by Wayne Northey for The Kenarchy Journal, Volume 2. image above: cccu.org PLEASE NOTE: Below are excerpts of my paper for the above-noted Journal. At the very end of this post, one may click on the highlighted text, and read the full article in PDF. And of course one may also read it on the […]
Houses of hate:
Dangerous, racist and falling apart. By nearly every metric, the nation’s penal system is not just failing, it’s making things worse. By Justin Ling February 28, 2021 photo above: Medium security range at Stony Mountain Institution in Stony Mountain, Manitoba (Correctional Services Canada/Flickr) WN: The article highlighted does not sugar-coat the reality: Canadian prisons (and […]
Gustavo Gutiérrez and the preferential option for the poor
Nov 8, 2011 by John Dear Blog | On the Road to Peace WN: What can one say? The highlighted article is deeply humbling. I could have cited the entire article, so full of wisdom and insight–and great challenge! As well, the overwhelming opposite juxtaposition leaps out in light of the just-released McCarrick Report: The […]
The case for capping all prison sentences at 20 years
The case for capping all prison sentences at 20 years America’s prison sentences are far too long. It’s time to do something about it. By German Lopez; @germanrlopez; german.lopez@vox.com Feb 12, 2019, 7:30am EST image above: Christina Animashaun/Vox WN: The article highlighted is eminently reasonable, the evidence-based research solid, the way forward worldwide hopeful in […]
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) […]
Enemy Love As Core Gospel
WN: I wrote this in the context of M2/W2 ministry. Ironically, the Board and one contractor displayed profound enmity towards me just as I was moving towards retirement from M2/W2. The enmity began October 2013 that led to a contractor’s filing a “WorkSafeBC” complaint against me December 2013. It was rejected by WorkSafeBC, but there […]
About Me
SEARCH and ARCHIVES options are at the bottom of all website pages. I retired as Director of Man-to-Man/Woman-to-Woman–Restorative Christian Ministries (M2/W2) in British Columbia, Canada in 2014. I have been active in the criminal justice arena and a keen promoter of Restorative Justice since 1974. I’ve also published in this field for many years, including: […]
Restorative Justice
NOTE: Some of what follows is excerpted from Chapter One of Justice That Transforms: Volume 1 WN: From a Canadian vantage point, Dr. Herman Bianchi, a Dutch criminologist, is one of the three “grandfathers” (if one must use that term) chronologically of Restorative Justice, together with Mark Yantzi and Dave Worth, the first and longstanding […]
The McCarrick Report: The Vatican Owns Up To Enabling Abuse
The McCarrick Report: The Vatican Owns Up To Enabling Abuse November 10, 2020 by Mary Pezzulo WN: The article highlighted is powerful! It also points to exponential pain, horror, and abuse of those reporting their abuse by priests–by the wider Church which gaslighted/gaslights/revictimized/revictimizes victims beyond imagining . . . One reads and weeps all over […]
Tribunal Declares Trump and Duterte Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity
Tribunal Declares Trump and Duterte Guilty of Crimes Against Humanity By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout Published March 14, 2019 photo above: CNN Politics WN: The article highlighted below describes a continuing horror story… Lord, have mercy. Then, I must confess that this article makes me hopping furious for another reason! I’m livid about the majority of […]
Why today’s criminal justice reform efforts won’t end mass incarceration
Why today’s criminal justice reform efforts won’t end mass incarceration WN: The article highlighted below is outstanding commentary on the horror and bankruptcy of mass incarceration. John Pfaff December 21, 2018 excerpts: Even with all the attention it receives, the scale of incarceration and punishment in the United States can still be hard to comprehend. […]
Former New York Times reporter slams grand jury report on clerical abuse
Former New York Times reporter slams grand jury report on clerical abuse Jan 11, 2019 by Thomas Reese, Religion News Service Accountability Opinion photo above: Attorney General Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania speaks at a news conference in the state Capitol after legislation to respond to a landmark grand jury report accusing hundreds of Roman […]
America just won the world’s hardest math contest. Again.
by Mahbub Majumdar August 1, 2018 Mahbub Majumdar is the national coach for the Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad and a professor at BRAC University in Bangladesh. photo above: (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) WN: I’m not anti-America! I am though anti-bullying, bullying of which America is Ultimate Example, Ultimate Offender. Just as Trump is of all Americans, […]
“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 […]