The 'Jesus Method'

Guest editorial by Peter Collett, Ecumenical Chaplain at the Otago Corrections Facility.

Day after day, we are bombarded with the latest tragedies from here and abroad - whether it is more bombings in Iraq, the troop build up in Afghanistan or the alleged sins of Tiger Woods.

All these stories speak to me of a very fractured society seeking solutions in all the wrong places.

Revenge and retaliation is what I hear about every day in my work as chaplain at the Otago Corrections Facility.

The public seems to have very fixed opinions about prisoners.

When I get asked about my job, the response I get is either, "Good luck with what you are doing down there", or "You are wasting your time with those deadbeats".

Believe it or not, most of the men at this prison are not much different to the people that live in your street.

They, like many of us, have made some very bad decisions in their life, and so are now suffering the consequences.

However, it doesn't stop there.

They leave behind victims, disappointed family members - and a more broken society.

Eventually, they get released but, sadly, many return, some within a very short period of time.

So how does one break this cycle?

More therapy sessions, more intervention from the various agencies out there? Tougher and longer sentences maybe? Sadly, it hasn't worked in the past, and will not work in the future either.

So what will break this cycle? Recognising that the real problem is a spiritual one.

Whether we like to accept it or not, the message of Jesus at Christmas is the answer to our broken and fragmented world.

He came among us preaching love, forgiveness and reconciliation.

But here's the problem with all this: none of it is easy.

What Jesus is asking goes against all our instincts of getting even, of crushing whatever stands in our way.

I read recently the story about Corrie ten Boom.

She was a women caught up in the Holocaust where many of her family perished.

Fortunately, she survived.

After the war, she made it her mission to preach forgiveness to those who tortured her people.

All was going well until one day she looked down and there she spotted the guard who was instrumental in killing most of her family.

What was she to do? The guard came forward, now a committed Christian, and he asked her forgiveness.

Initially, she felt she couldn't do it, but something deep within demanded that she forgive this man.

Finally, she held out her hand in forgiveness and the power of God swept over both of them.

Neither of them were ever the same again.

As one writer put it so clearly: "It is better to forgive and forget than to resent and remember."

Forgiving prisoners is not in vogue these days, but as one prisoner told me recently, doing restorative justice is much harder than doing time.

It is so very easy to point the finger at the prisoner.

Their sins are well known.

Some even make it to the evening news.

As one commentator put it to me once, they all sinned against the 11th Commandment.

"You shall not get caught."

However, what about the little acts of selfishness we commit each day that no-one knows about and will never get you a prison sentence - but still causes our world to be more broken?

We sit in judgement on the prisoner, expecting them to sort out their lives while we do nothing about our own.

The message of Christmas challenges each one of us to face our demons.

To be honest, humble and forgiving; firstly with one's self and then with others.

The message of Christmas is a message of peace and goodwill to all people.

That peace and goodwill must start with us, and then we take it out to the wider community.

If we can forgive ourselves then it will be easier to forgive others.

This will lead to inner peace.

That peace in turn will bring us a happiness that will change us forever.

One of my all time heroes is Nelson Mandela.

He spent all those years in prison, often in solitary confinement, and yet when he speaks today it is always with love and compassion.

The world stands still when he speaks.

He lives the Christmas message every day.

Guns, knives, bombs and hatred will never bring peace.

Anyone who has read a history book will know this.

Jesus Christ gives us the blueprint for peace.

I challenge you, as I do with the prisoners I deal with every day, to try the "Jesus Method".

It never fails, and it is what this world so desperately needs today.