Resurrection After Rape Community Group
Discussion, question-and-answer, general social support, and journal processing for progress-oriented rape survivors. No crisis, no damaging or triggering conflicts--this is for individuals who want to contribute to collective, cooperative action toward the goal of making actual PROGRESS through rape trauma. Much of this work is based on the book "Resurrection After...
I was thinking about the term recently, and I find it very useful in expressing concepts of peace, justice, social change, and relationship harmony in ways that no English word can quite do.
Instead, the Jewish concept of Shalom gives us a better model for justice. Shalom describes the recovery of wholeness and resolution of debt. Carried to a spiritual context, this means that there must be a preferential consideration for Wounded People in society, and that the whole community is a party of aggrieved allies to the Wounded Person in her effort to recover her status and peace. Biblical prophets did not see injustice as instances of personal misconduct by individuals toward individuals, but as the responsibility of the entire society collectively; the nation itself is judged by God on the basis of its treatment of the poor, the vulnerable, the oppressed. Justice is a social movement on behalf of all, not a series of independent and disconnected rulings about specific cases. To utter the word "justice" in a scriptural context, then, means subscribing to a radical call for social change, activism, even upheaval, to ignite cultural, legal, spiritual, and economic changes that specifically empower Wounded People. Shalom does not define crime as an offense against rules, but as a breaking of wholeness in a relationship. This concept of justice is less about reinforcing the power of rule-makers over the offender, and more about reinforcing the rights of the harmed person, including her right to full participation in the interconnected hoop of life.
In a shalom society, the rights of vulnerable or wounded people are upheld. I often ask my groups to collaborate and produce a list of what they regard to be a person's rights in a relationship. I remind them that the word "rights" means they do not have to ask permission from anyone for them (which, by contrast, would fall under the definition of "privileges"), and that these could include either their rights to do certain things (or have certain treatment guaranteed to them), or the right to not have to tolerate certain treatment.
Our society typically thinks of justice as the enjoyment of individual freedoms, not the pervasive presence of shalom in which Wounded People are not treated as outcasts. For a culture to be righteous has nothing to do with individual piety, but with a place made for every human gift. Justice is not defined by returning harm for harm, but by restoring the Wounded Person's rights and status. Justice as restoration rather than retribution allows a culture to evolve toward true shalom. We are prevented from accomplishing it, however, because of propagandistic rhetoric from political leaders that falsely promotes the notion that advocating for victims' rights is achieved by becoming increasingly aggressive toward offenders. In a mad effort to "prove" their loyalty to victims, policymakers become increasingly strident in defense of a system that actually ignores most victims' needs, a neglect that is busily concealed beneath the fanfare of "I'm tougher on crime" bleating. If this approach worked, we wouldn't be seeing multi-generational patterns of abuse, battering, neglect, sexual trauma, and emotional violence worsening. The notion that we can transform society simply by imposing harsher penalties on the infinitesimal number of perpetrators who are actually convicted fails to permeate our culture with the rights of Wounded Peopleâwhich includes the right of Wounded People to speak up, identify themselves, and become activists with broad support.
One thing I like about "shalom" is that it derives from words that mean "to be paid" for "to end a debt." Injustice is seen as a debt that is owed to the injured person, which is different than our cultural view of trauma as a personal shame to be borne by the victim. The wounded person is not rendered foul or broken by the injury, but is seen as a person who is owed a debt. This is a fantastic concept because means that I, as the wronged person, can still have shalom in my life. It is the person who owes me resolution who has lost their shalom. As long as their debt to me remains unresolved, it is THEY, not I, who are obstructed from true shalom.
Instead, the Jewish concept of Shalom gives us a better model for justice. Shalom describes the recovery of wholeness and resolution of debt. Carried to a spiritual context, this means that there must be a preferential consideration for Wounded People in society, and that the whole community is a party of aggrieved allies to the Wounded Person in her effort to recover her status and peace. Biblical prophets did not see injustice as instances of personal misconduct by individuals toward individuals, but as the responsibility of the entire society collectively; the nation itself is judged by God on the basis of its treatment of the poor, the vulnerable, the oppressed. Justice is a social movement on behalf of all, not a series of independent and disconnected rulings about specific cases. To utter the word "justice" in a scriptural context, then, means subscribing to a radical call for social change, activism, even upheaval, to ignite cultural, legal, spiritual, and economic changes that specifically empower Wounded People. Shalom does not define crime as an offense against rules, but as a breaking of wholeness in a relationship. This concept of justice is less about reinforcing the power of rule-makers over the offender, and more about reinforcing the rights of the harmed person, including her right to full participation in the interconnected hoop of life.
In a shalom society, the rights of vulnerable or wounded people are upheld. I often ask my groups to collaborate and produce a list of what they regard to be a person's rights in a relationship. I remind them that the word "rights" means they do not have to ask permission from anyone for them (which, by contrast, would fall under the definition of "privileges"), and that these could include either their rights to do certain things (or have certain treatment guaranteed to them), or the right to not have to tolerate certain treatment.
Our society typically thinks of justice as the enjoyment of individual freedoms, not the pervasive presence of shalom in which Wounded People are not treated as outcasts. For a culture to be righteous has nothing to do with individual piety, but with a place made for every human gift. Justice is not defined by returning harm for harm, but by restoring the Wounded Person's rights and status. Justice as restoration rather than retribution allows a culture to evolve toward true shalom. We are prevented from accomplishing it, however, because of propagandistic rhetoric from political leaders that falsely promotes the notion that advocating for victims' rights is achieved by becoming increasingly aggressive toward offenders. In a mad effort to "prove" their loyalty to victims, policymakers become increasingly strident in defense of a system that actually ignores most victims' needs, a neglect that is busily concealed beneath the fanfare of "I'm tougher on crime" bleating. If this approach worked, we wouldn't be seeing multi-generational patterns of abuse, battering, neglect, sexual trauma, and emotional violence worsening. The notion that we can transform society simply by imposing harsher penalties on the infinitesimal number of perpetrators who are actually convicted fails to permeate our culture with the rights of Wounded Peopleâwhich includes the right of Wounded People to speak up, identify themselves, and become activists with broad support.
One thing I like about "shalom" is that it derives from words that mean "to be paid" for "to end a debt." Injustice is seen as a debt that is owed to the injured person, which is different than our cultural view of trauma as a personal shame to be borne by the victim. The wounded person is not rendered foul or broken by the injury, but is seen as a person who is owed a debt. This is a fantastic concept because means that I, as the wronged person, can still have shalom in my life. It is the person who owes me resolution who has lost their shalom. As long as their debt to me remains unresolved, it is THEY, not I, who are obstructed from true shalom.
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