# Accountable Faith: Karen Sheu, MRPL '25, on the Path of Restorative Justice June 23, 2025 Karen Sheu - [ Profiles ](/news-categories/profiles) ![Karen Sheu, MRPL '25](/sites/g/files/omnuum8216/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-06/Karen%20Sheu%20Headshot%20cropped.jpg?itok=FA3vxW_z) Courtesy Karen Sheu Karen Sheu, MRPL ‘25, recently completed her Master of Religion and Public Life (MRPL) degree. Reflecting on her experience at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) and in the Religion and Public Life (RPL) program, Sheu shares how her work in restorative justice has been enriched over time. **What inspired you to join the MRPL and what informed your particular project?** My project, *The Little Book of Accountable Faith: Writings on Clergy Sexual Abuse, Restorative Justice, and Lived Religion*, examines how restorative justice can be applied to prevent and respond to sexual harm within religious institutions. I first got the idea for this project back in 2018 when the #ChurchToo movement first emerged. Although I was raised religious, my background is in social work, and I didn’t feel like I had quite enough theological education to do this project well. I knew if I were to pursue this project, I would have to do it with a lot of care and intention to do it justice. However, I always hesitated to apply for more traditional programs like the master of divinity or the master of theology because they felt too broad for my project, which is so specific. The MRPL ended up being perfect for me because of its project-based structure. I was especially inspired to join the MRPL because of Harvard Divinity School’s – and in particular, RPL’s – commitment to building a just world at peace. At the end of the day, my project is about finding the courage to pursue just peace within our communities, even when (especially when) it goes against the status quo. I believe that building a just world at peace will require disrupting cycles of violence, which in turn requires a willingness from our institutions to offer a pathway out of shame, through accountability, for those who cause harm. Restorative justice is one such pathway, and one with great potential in religious contexts. **How has the MRPL impacted you and your work? For example, what elements, people, or experiences were particularly important for you?** I have learned so much from my classmates’ expertise. I came into the program with my project proposal mostly baked, and there is probably a scenario where I could have researched and written my project on my own. However, I know my project is stronger because of the diverse perspectives and thoughtful feedback of my classmates, as well as the opportunity to learn by doing. It was very exciting to be able to test my ideas and hypotheses in a supportive environment. For example, I hope to hold restorative justice workshops for faith leaders in the future, and I had the opportunity to test my earliest workshop ideas with my cohort. Most of all, I have been profoundly impacted by the leadership of Associate Dean for Religion and Public Life Diane Moore and Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life Hussein Rashid, as well as the work of the entire RPL team. The heart of my project is about moral courage, and I came into the MRPL program with big questions about how individuals can practice moral courage and lead with integrity despite our proximity to harmful institutions and systems. I hoped I would find the answers to my questions from the curriculum of course, and I often did, but beyond that, I found the answers to my questions in witnessing the courage and leadership of the RPL faculty and staff. It has been immeasurably powerful and an inspiration to watch Diane and Hussein practice what they teach about justice and peace, and lead with such integrity and moral courage this past year. They have forever changed how I look at the world and think about leadership, courage, justice, and imagination, and it has been a true privilege to learn from them. **How has the RPL method—whether that is concepts like moral imagination, typologies of violence and peace, religious literacy, situatedness, power analysis, coloniality, cultural studies, or secularity—impacted your thinking and your approach to just peacebuilding?** I always felt like something was missing from my original project idea, which focused on direct and structural peace. Typologies of violence and peace showed me that cultural peace was the missing piece in my work. The RPL method was crucial for helping me think more expansively and critically about justice and the role of cultural change in peacebuilding. I discovered that centering cultural change is what will sustain and enable the direct peace and structural peace that I am working towards. I have also been inspired by the concepts of religious literacy and secularity. One of the reasons I wanted to work on my project was because, as a social worker, I struggled to find restorative justice resources for sexual harm with the necessary religious literacy to support people who experienced harm in religious or spiritual contexts. The RPL method, with its focus on religious literacy and understanding secularization, has helped me become a better translator of religious concepts in my work as a social worker and restorative justice practitioner. For example, it led me to consider how the concept of lived religion – which considers the practice of religion in everyday life and the role of gods, presences, and spirits in a person’s life—can be incorporated into restorative justice practices. It led me to consider things such as whether Jesus, or God, or Allah, or the saints, needs a seat in a restorative justice circle. Finally, the RPL method has taught me the importance of recognizing the internal diversity of religious traditions. My original MRPL project was very narrow, and would have been difficult to apply broadly in religious or faith communities that are different from my own. The RPL method inspired me to change my project from a prescriptive toolkit to an original framework for implementing restorative justice and cultural change. My framework is intentionally designed to recognize the internal diversity of religious traditions so that faith leaders can apply it in ways that are appropriate for their own communities, and is also intended to push back against the harmful binaries that are present in so much of the current organizing to end sexual abuse in religious institutions. **What's next for you? What are your hopes for how your work will continue to impact your life and others?** I was honored to have been selected as a Cheng Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation + Change Initiative this past year—thanks to this program, I received year-long coaching and programming, plus $30,000 in seed funding to launch and scale an organization. I will be using this funding to build my organization, Accountable Faith, which will serve as the scaffolding to support the work of my MRPL project beyond graduation. Accountable Faith is committed to breaking the cycle of clergy sexual abuse by equipping faith leaders and communities with the resources and support they need to prevent abuse, respond to harm in restorative ways, and create lasting cultural change. I am excited to be spending the rest of the year piloting my restorative justice workshops and turning my MRPL project into a continuing education series for faith leaders. My hope is that this project, and my work more broadly, will challenge people (including myself) to think more expansively about justice, repair, and harm prevention—and more importantly, about the strategies we use in pursuit of these things. **Where can people find you or learn more about your work?** You can find future updates about my work at [AccountableFaith.org](http://accountablefaith.org/). If you or your organization are interested in participating in our pilot program and receiving a free or low-cost restorative justice workshop, you can fill out the interest form on our website or email me at . See also:- [ Religious Literacy and the Professions ](/news/religious-literacy-and-professions) - [ MRPL ](/news/mrpl)