WHAT ABOUT ANGER?

Whew. Okay so I didn’t mean to start publicly walking through my journey of beliefs but here we go. As my last official disclaimer, this is me thinking through life. I am not the authority. There are other gifts in the church body as well. These might be my beliefs because of what I am called to bring to the party and I am okay with that.

So I got a fantastic message from a friend yesterday opening up some discussion on anger and I’m sharing it here, with her permission.

Liked your blog post! Do you think there is a place for anger? A line that when crossed requires action? An unequivocal “this is wrong and needs to stop now”? Because I think we are there, sadly. I love gray, personally, comfortable tension... but in extraordinary times in history, gray doesn’t lead to change because you know who resides there? The people who are empathic and kind hearted and considerate of other people and want to understand and communicate and reach a compromise. Who’s not there? The people intentionally attacking the very freedom this country so values, human dignity and self-expression. I think right now, gray folks need to step up and speak out and share Jesus and vote. All of this is so hard. Love that you are thinking about it and sharing your thoughts.

Judging from a lot of the responses I got to my post yesterday, this is one of the larger questions when dealing with this pattern of thinking. (Which, by the way, turns out more than 7 people read my blog! So hello to the 13 of you today!) So what about it? What about “good” anger? What about crying out for change? Isn’t that important?

I wrestled with this. We talked about it. My husband and I talked about it. I looked to my limited knowledge of Jesus and his life as an example. And after a while, I came up with what I thought to be my answer. I have a feeling it won’t be popular so with much humility, I submit that the answer is “no.”

No, there is no place for anger. Here’s why I think that.

The only time I can remember Jesus getting angry was at the religious oppressors. Those who were making money off those who were coming to him (like at the temple). His disciples for not listening to him. The leaders of the church for being hypocrites. He was never angry at the oppressors. He was never angry with those who were committing evil. He was never angry at the actual Roman warlords and politicians. He was heartbroken.

It’s not wrong to want to overthrow oppressors. I mean, Jesus lived in a VERY oppressed state. At that time, you had to give up your God and acknowledge Caesar. Your money was taken from you as taxes at knifepoint.  It was your land... sort of... until the lord demanded all of your crops to feed his army and your daughters to makes wives for his sons.

But when I look at Jesus, he never passed a law. He never rallied for revolution. In fact, when he was with his oppressors, he healed their children. He told them how great their faith was. My husband brought up that we forget how countercultural and revolutionary it was for Christians in the first century to say “Jesus is Lord” when their Lord was Caesar. For us, it would translate to “Jesus is my president.” “Jesus is my congressman.” “Jesus is my Prime Minister.”

When I think of the great people that enacted change in more recent times, people like MLK JR, Rosa Parks, Ghandi, etc, it was never out of anger. It was an outpouring of love and the heart of God that all men and women are created equal. It wasn’t an anger at the oppressors. It was a call to self worth to the oppressed.

When they came for Jesus in the garden, Peter cut off the soldier’s ear. He was angry. He was angry at the injustice of them coming for Jesus. He was innocent. He was loving. Peter had to act! Yet Jesus healed the soldier’s ear.

Not even those who mocked and murdered Jesus received his anger. It was “Father, forgive them. They have no idea.” There is nothing more oppressive and evil than torture and murder. Yet, we find Jesus loving and forgiving OUT LOUD.

You see, I don’t necessarily think being “gray” means being quiet. I don’t think that not being angry means being apathetic. I just think it all operates on an entire other plane. I think our radical act of pressing for change is being heartbroken. It’s being LOUDLY full of countercultural love and forgiveness. It will be weird. But then again, Jesus was so weird, they killed him.

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires”. James 1:19-20