Restorative Justice

Titanic Revelations

Sometimes we don’t know where certain messages come from as we muse, fingering some words to give our intuitions substance. I think this poem comes from the haunting reverberations of …

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Peace Conference 2012

Every Fall for the past five years more than 300 people have convened here for the Lake Junaluska Peace Conference. This posting is a report on that conference. This year’s …

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Contradictions in Cherokee

Last week we went over to Cherokee for the 16th Annual Trail of Tears Association Conference at the Cherokee Casino-Hotel. Cherokee is now effectively two towns – the traditional tribal …

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Re-visioning Justice

For some months I have been helping to prepare for a conference on restorative justice that will take place this weekend, September 30 and October 1. Entitled “Re-visioning Justice,” it …

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The Tucson Atrocity

Like you I have been trying to get hold of my emotions and order my thoughts in the wake of the atrocity last week in Tucson. Indeed, it was not …

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JustPeace and Chris Wiman

On November 12 and 13 I attended the 10th Anniversary Gathering of JustPeace, the United Methodist Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation. About 35 of us reflected on the first …

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Getting to the Table

The past few months in American politics brings this reflection to the fore for your reflection and response. In 2008 a majority of Americans expressed, through their votes, a longing …

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Bowl of Peace

My last few weeks have been consumed with preparations for the annual Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, for which I was Chair of the Worship and Arts Committee. This year’s theme …

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Invictus — The Sequel

As the US and Algerian soccer teams were resting up for their match in the World Cup, Sylvia and I watched the film Invictus, Clint Eastwood’s deft visualization of Nelson …

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On the Trail

Walking in his moccasins I felt a pain shoot up my leg. I tried to shift terrain, find smoother ground, a grassy place rolled flat. I shook my foot and …

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Darwin and Restorative Justice

The evolutionary perspective that Charles Darwin generated over a century ago continues to refocus, reframe, and reconstruct our views of everything from God to humanity, history to biology. Perusing the …

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The Trail of Tears Association

In 2003 Sylvia and I retraced, by car, the main overland route of the Trail of Tears, starting northeast of Chattanooga and proceeding across Tennessee, western Kentucky, into southern Illinois, …

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