Abstract
Many restorative justice programs, however, do have religious dimensions. A circle sentencing session, for example, may open or close with a prayer or other group religious ritual. Victim-offender mediations may be structured in accordance with theological concepts such as forgiveness, repentance, or atonement, or on sectarian versions of secular ideas like apology, remorse, restitution, or reconciliation. Many would argue, in fact, that even these ostensibly secular ideas were once religious. Participants in such mediations may explicitly invoke a God or a religious belief system as the source of ethical obligations owed by offenders or victims. For instance, a mediation involving abuse between spouses who belong to a church that commands women to be subject to their husbands, as do some evangelical denominations, or a church that rejects divorce, as does the Roman Catholic church, is likely to take a different direction under the influence of such beliefs than a similar mediation affiliated with denominations that lack such beliefs, or who are not adherents to any religious tradition.
Recommended Citation
Gedicks, Frederick Mark
(2003)
"Restorative Justice and the Two-Track Establishment Clause,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 2003:
No.
1, Article 17.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2003/iss1/17