“If our desire for justice is not rooted primarily in the
pursuit of restoration, then reconciliation will be nearly impossible to
achieve. It is precisely because grace is undeserved that makes it grace… If
our social justice is guided by retribution, we will simply perpetuate the use
and abuse of power to inflict violence.
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
__________________________
That face, those eyes
The smirks
The lies
Some people are easy to hate
Or at least despise
And when we are in that place
We do not wish our antagonist well
If there is a hell
We hope there is a spot reserved for them
Way down deep
Where it is really hot
We want retribution
This day I went for a walk
And watched the sun rise above the trees
and thought about dark things
the air was filled with the
shards of fury
as I thought about ICE
and people brutalized,
as I thought about the machinations of evil
robbing people of agency
of the power
to flourish
How dare they
I hope they pay, dearly
There is a certain pleasure to retributive justice
To “owning” the other side
Getting even
We even make God that kind of God
Retributive
Angry
Who sent Jesus to the cross
To satisfy a need for retribution
This hurts me more than it hurts you
Retribution is necessary for restoration
Spare the rod spoil the child
But do we really have to punish to restore?
MAGA seems to think so
Support DEI?, We will make you pay!
Welcome LGBTQI+? No
grant for you!
Try to welcome the stranger?
We will put up walls
And kick out the infidels
Yeah! USA!
But I keep thinking of Jesus on the Cross
Saying
“Father forgive them”
I keep thinking of that other man
Hanging there beside him
Today
Today you shall be with me in paradise
Not because you have been punished and “paid your debt”
But because I am choosing to love you heaven
Reconciliation
Perhaps those who say God’s righteousness must be satisfied
Perhaps it is all about payment and punishment
But even if God turns God’s wrath on God’s self
There is still violence there
And violence leads to violence
Perhaps the cross was God saying
I could enact retribution
But I won’t
This stops here
This anger, resentment,
This need to hurt
To get revenge
Stops, here, right, now
Because I am about love
Because I am love
I am not that loving or kind
I am not that forgiving
I want to be
But I have to admit
There are people I hope “get theirs”
And soon!
But that will not solve anything
It will just perpetuate the cycle
Of violence
And then I (we)
Will be “them”
And we will never come together
We will never be able
To solve the real problems
Of hunger, homelessness, illness
Instead, we will spend our time and energy
Hurting and destroying
Not helping and healing
We will have to keep using and abusing power
For the moment we stop
The moment we dare give the other side an opening
They will use and abuse power on us
And on and on and on the pain goes
And that is no way to live
That is how we (all) die
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