Source: (1998) Regent University Law Review 10, Spring 1998.
In this essay, Colson contends that a society will exchange personal liberty for personal safety when a lack of internal restraint causes crime to increase. The lack of internal restraint succeeds a loss of truth, justice, and peace. The loss of truth breeds moral relativity where no standard of right or wrong exists. Without justice, people have no example to follow and no standard to emulate. The absence of peace leaves a nation devoid of right relationships between individuals, communities, and God. For a remedy, Colson advances the Old Testament idea of restorative justice, requiring vindication of victims’ rights as well as restitution. This paradigm restores truth, justice, and peace and does not provoke people to alienate their liberties.
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