I am a progressive Democrat, with liberal Constitutional views in some areas and very strict interpretations in others (like consent of the governed means just that, and technically all conflicts especially regarding religious beliefs or differences in values should ideally be resolved by consensus before any policies are made in order to respect equal protection, representation and due process).
Because I believe in relative and subjective truths and consequences,
I believe you get the justice you enforce.
Yes, I personally believe in restorative justice, and prefer that over retributive justice.
However, for those like Bin Laden who may believe in and/or order killing without due process, and for other militant jihadists who do run around executing people by their own judgment decisions without a fair trial and defense, they tend to get back exactly what they live by and issue unto others; you reap what you sow, and you are judged by how you judge others by the law.
In general I do not agree with this kind of retribution, but I understand, by natural laws, that is what happens, like the laws of karma or cause and effect.
I believe these examples are opportunities to teach the difference between retributive and restorative justice, so people can have an informed choice as to which path they want to live by. If you believe in justice with mercy, corrections with accountability and forgiveness both, and also restitution to restore good faith relations after damage or violation has occurred, that is the way of Restorative Justice that I believe Christ Jesus represents and fulfills. If you live by the letter of the law, and excuse one party while accusing the other, back and forth to compete politically for authority over law to judge and rule by force or by majority-rule bullying, that gets into retributive justice which has its place (when dealing with relentless bullies) but I prefer for that cycle of retribution to break and wars to end.
I personally do not want to contribute to any more unresolved conflicts, wars or retributive actions; I prefer correction and restitution in order to establish justice and peace.
However, as long as there are bullies who respond to conflict by oppressing and attacking instead of respecting civil due process and conflict resolution, I do accept the use of force as defense and also to answer to these bullies using their own language and methods.
I hope this is clear. I believe people are meant to learn by free will and reason, including trial and error and being responsible for mistakes and consequences. I believe we always retain the "choice" of war and retribution, in order to fully appreciate the differences with restorative justice, so that we use "informed consent" in how we interpret and apply laws.
(Instead of relying on outside church or state authorities to dictate our choices for us.)
We have to learn ourselves the consequences of and responsibilities for our own actions, in order for society to become self-governing and to have consistent respect for laws by free will and reason, by the consent of the governed, and not merely by force or by fear.
ethics-commission.net
