Part 1: Doing It Wrong

In the last post we looked at some of the biblical warnings about anger. This time I’ll note that sometimes, according to the same Scripture, anger is justified.

The Bible speaks of a good many angry persons. The person mentioned most is—God. And by definition, if God is doing something, it’s good. His anger is justified.

Why is his anger justified?

Note that he’s not angry out of frustration that his worldview has insufficient explanatory power. He’s not angry out of selfishness. He’s not angry out of lack of control.

He’s angry out of justice and out of love. His anger is a disciplined, perfect expression of his character, and particularly his commitment to the benefit of human beings, who are in his image.

He’s angry because injustice is being committed, to the deep damage of those whom he loves. And his anger yields not chaotic destruction, but resolution. His anger motivates him to address and resolve the problem.

We should be the same kind of people.

If you see injustice, you ought to be angry. And you ought to do something—constructive—about it.

I had an experience as a middle-school student that profoundly affected my thinking on this issue.

I was riding on a city bus in greater Boston—the MBTA—when I was in 7^th or 8^th grade. I was seated sideways on the bus, facing the center aisle, toward the back. Across the aisle from me and back a ways, seated facing forward, was an old man, probably in his 70s, looking fairly frail. Behind him, on the bench that spanned the back of the bus, was a group of 3 or 4 tough-looking 20-somethings. One of them placed his muddy boot up on the old man’s seat next to him.

After a bit the man turned and quietly asked the owner of the foot if he’d mind taking his boot off the seat. The fellow replied, “Yes, I mind, and if you ask me again, I’ll take this boot and put it through your face.”

The terror on the old man’s face was evident to all of us.

At that moment a young man sitting directly across from the old man rose to his feet and said with rising anger, “The **** you will.”

Almost immediately 2 or 3 other men in the area stood as well, glaring silently at the bully.

At the commotion, the bus driver pulled over and walked to the back of the bus. When he’d determined what had happened, he told the bully to get off the bus, and his friends went with him.

The old man looked gratefully at his defender and said, “Thank you.”

And in a few minutes, when the bus completed its journey up Mt. Auburn Street to Harvard Square, we all disembarked and went our separate ways.

That was more than 50 years ago. I remember it as though it were yesterday.

Four short, one-syllable, staccato words. And justice.

Well, some folks might think that real justice would have been doing to the bully what he had threatened to do to the old man. I won’t argue with that.

But this incident, and many more similar ones that all of us could cite, demonstrate conclusively that sometimes anger—constructive anger—is exactly the right thing. In the moment that he stood and spoke, the old man’s defender, though certainly, like all of us, a flawed human being, was being profoundly virtuous; he was in fact radiating the image of God.

It’s right to be angry at injustice. It’s right to be angry at evil of any kind. And in that moment it’s right to be motivated by that anger to move beyond frustration to constructive resolution of the injustice, while maintaining purposeful self-control.

Be ye angry, and sin not (Ep 4.26).

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Do we? Or don’t we?

Should we? Or shouldn’t we?

I’m seeing a lot of anger these days, and I suspect you are too.

Interestingly, I’m not seeing much anger in my face-to-face life. There’s busyness and the stress that comes with it, but nobody is losing it in my presence these days. Maybe your experience is different.

In writing, though, it’s another story. Communication on social media is just … furious.

I wonder if there’s a reason for the difference I’m seeing. When you’re looking someone in the face, there are consequences of rage that tend to discourage you from going there. Online, though, there’s some distance—sort of like the distance between you and other drivers on the road, where you feel free to let forth with the insults, because they’ll never hear what you say. Your friends on social media will hear what you say, of course, but still there’s a sense of distance there that we don’t feel in person, and we perversely feel a little more free to let loose.

Anyhow, lots of angry people around.

As I read and consider what they have to say, I see a fair amount of frustration. A lot of people are angry because the world and the people in it are broken—by whatever definition they use—and they’re angry that it all seems so senseless and unnecessary, that there seems to be no solution. I’m reminded of the Los Angeles riots of 1991, which resulted from a police beating of a black man, Rodney King, that was captured on video. (Sound familiar?) After several days of rioting, King spoke to the press, famously asking, “Can we all get along?”—to which the answer seemed—and seems— to be, “Well, no, we can’t.”

If your worldview isn’t robust enough to account for what we’re seeing all around us, then it makes sense to be frustrated and angry. Why won’t people listen? Why won’t they do the sensible—and virtuous—thing? Why?

The anger makes sense—but at the same time, it’s not moving anything toward a solution. It’s just a visceral expression of frustration. If only. If only.

The Bible warns against some kinds of anger, especially the prideful, the uncontrolled, and the destructive:

• Anger slays the foolish man (Job 5.2).
• A fool’s anger is known at once (Pr 12.16).
• He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly (Pr 14.29).
• A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute (Pr 15.18).
• A man of great anger will bear the penalty, for if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again (Pr 19.19).
• The pressing of anger produces strife (Pr 30.33).
• Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord (Ro 12.19).
• I am afraid that perhaps when I come … there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances (2Co 12.20).
• Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, ²¹ envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Ga 5.19-21).

And these verses could be multiplied.

But I’ll note that sometimes, according to the same Scripture, anger is justified.

More on that next time.

Part 2: Doing It Right

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash