“Be angry, and don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath, and don’t give place to the devil.” (Ephesians 4: 26-27).
The violence, looting, and arson that has followed in the days since the grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown, has shaken and divided our country once again.
Yes, emotions are running hot in both camps, and yes, people have a right to express their feelings and vent their anger, but we as a nation and as a world, need to recognize that there are two different kinds of anger: There is mortal anger and then there is divine anger.
How can we be angry, but not sinful? These are the big moral dilemmas each and every one of us faces each and every day of our lives.
Most of us have never been taught godly ways of expressing anger. We haven’t learned to say what we mean, mean what we say, without being mean about it. We’ve been taught to stuff down our feelings so much, that by time push comes to shove, and we let out this emotion, we do it in highly destructive, explosive, and over-the-top ways. This kind of expression of anger usually backfires on us, and we come across looking like a lunatic. This is mortal anger.
Godly anger or divine anger, when properly executed, becomes an instrument that can lead to God’s righteousness on earth, whereas mortal anger can only lead to heartbreak, bloodshed, vengeance, and more bloodshed. We’re asked to be God’s instruments of peace, through the vehicle of divine anger. Properly thought out, planned, and executed, this kind of divine anger becomes a reflection of God, and we execute the kind of justice that God would expect us to do.
Mortal anger is powered by fear and by the scarcity principle, which gives humans the false belief that there isn’t enough abundance or love on this planet for all of us. This creates a dog-eat-dog mentality in which humans revert back to their animal nature. Mortal anger is greedy, selfish, and narcissistic, and this thinking translates into actions which reflect that each man must be out for himself. Mortal anger is unfair, impulsive, intolerant, and highly judgmental. Mortal anger judges not only the actions of people, but it judges the people as well.
Divine anger is powered by love of self, love for others, and love for all of humanity. Divine anger is based on agape love which is the unconditional love of all of humankind and of all of God’s creation. Therefore, divine anger is fair, patient, tolerant, and nonjudgmental. Divine anger is inspired by people’s unjust, unkind, or unfair actions, and it’s these actions that are being judged, not the people. Divine anger, by its very nature, brings us to a mind-set of humility, and this humility allows us to be compassionate and understanding of others. Divine anger is egalitarian in nature, and therefore, when we are in a state of divine anger, we do not find some people more lovable and worthy of fair treatment because of their race, creed, or color, but every human by the very fact that they are human, are entitled to fair and just treatment. Because divine anger is patient, this patience allows us to wait when necessary to win over our opponents, and it allows us to be tolerant and merciful in the meantime. Mahatma Gandhi epitomized this kind of thinking when he said, “Hate the sin. Love the sinner.”
Characteristics of Mortal Anger –Anger without Conscience or Consciousness
1) Mortal anger is fear-based and therefore, when push comes to shove, anything goes. This kind of anger is out of control, filled with outbursts, screaming, shouting, expletives, temper tantrums, impulsive violence characterized by hair-trigger reactions and temporary insanity.
2) Mortal anger is child-like in its need for instant justice. We’ve all seen these hot-headed people in action, and it’s not a pretty picture. These people are all for taking an eye for an eye in an instant, and giving little thought to the fact that too much of these kinds of actions would create a world of regretful, blind people. An example of this kind of anger can be seen on our highways and byways, and we refer to this as “road rage.”
3) Mortal anger is crazy anger filled with vengeance and retaliation, without any regard for later consequences. Television loves to show this kind of blind rage and violence on an hourly basis, despite the fact that numerous studies have linked violence in the media to the increase in violence in the outside world.
4) Mortal anger is taking justice into your own hands, even if it means placing bombs in a public place, and killing innocent people in the name of your cause. Think of all the suicide bombers and of the Boston Marathon explosions on April 15th, 2013, that killed and maimed so many innocent bystanders.
5) Mortal anger can create vigilantes, who truly feel that the end justifies the means.
6) Mortal anger is big anger and seeks to be larger than life in its display. The more people hurt and the larger the media coverage — the better.
7) Mortal anger is one-sided, myopic, and self-serving.
8) Mortal anger is unrelenting and without end. It’s highly destructive and spares no one. It takes prisoners and will destroy anyone or anything that gets in its way.
9) Mortal anger is fueled by ignorance, prejudice, and a need to oppress others to ensure one’s own superiority.
10) Mortal anger is highly destructive to all parties involves, since it is vigilant and militant.
11) Those, who are proponents of mortal anger, walk in the footsteps of the likes of men who are guilty of massive crimes against humanity, such as: Hitler (Germany), Stalin (USSR), Mussolini (Italy), Mao Tse-Tung (China), and of self-appointed vigilantes such as: Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City), Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Boston); and other senseless killers, including: Adam Lanza (Newtown), James Holmes (Aurora), and Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold (Columbine). The list of angry killers from the past could fill the rest of this book and way beyond. As technology and easy access to information concerning the building of weapons of mass destruction grows, I shutter to think of the death toll in the future, if we as a species do not evolve toward a collective state of higher consciousness.
Characteristics of Divine Anger –Anger Driven by Conscience and Executed with Consciousness
1) Divine anger is love-based. Courage fuels this kind of anger and keeps us steadfast in our mission.
2) Divine anger has respect for the law and tries to work within the context of the law to achieve its ultimate goal, which is justice.
3) If a law is unjust or amoral, such as the laws in the United States which once allowed slavery and discrimination against blacks, then we must work within the context of existing laws to change unjust ones. There’s a time for peace and a time for war, and sometimes, a war becomes a necessary evil, a way to a means, to see that justice is done. Our own American Civil War was a reflection of this thinking, as was WW II, a war that was necessary to end Nazism, Fascism, Japanese militarism, and the resultant consequence of these three oppressive forces — genocide.
4) Divine anger is controlled anger. It’s not about outbursts, explosions, and tirades. Divine anger is strategic, calm, patient, and thoughtful.
5) Divine anger “walks a mile in my shoes.” This kind of anger is founded in truth, fairness, and justice for all. Divine anger sees the whole picture, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
6) Divine anger does not judge people, but it does judge their actions, and holds them fully accountable for these actions.
8) Divine anger can be compromising when necessary, but divine anger does not compromise on the core moral issues in which there can be no compromise. It’s a lot like the expression: you can’t be a little bit pregnant. You either are with child or you aren’t. When it comes to sexual abuse or violence committed against innocent human beings, a line of zero tolerance must be drawn in the sand
9) Divine anger asks that we confront the person or persons who have hurt us. We’re asked to do this as quietly and discreetly as we can at first. We do not seek to publicly humiliate or castrate others. We save the heavy artillery for when these people give us no other choice.
10) Divine anger recognizes that there are people, times, and circumstances in which we can do all that we can mortally and morally to right a wrong, and yet, injustice appears to have won. At these times, we’re asked to accept that divine justice will intervene, in this lifetime, or in the after life, and we must find solace in that knowledge. We must leave these times to the wrath of God and go in peace, knowing that we have done all that we can for now.
11) Divine anger is ultimately altruistic and constructive.
12) When executing divine anger, you walk in the divine footsteps of Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King.
This Thanksgiving is a good time to reflect on the kind of anger you‘re putting out there in the world, and vow to act and speak in ways that show others that you are trying to be a pro-active instrument of God’s peace on this planet.
Cindi Sansone-Braff is the author of Grant Me a Higher Love and Why Good People Can’t Leave Bad Relationships. Like her Facebook page: Why Good People Can’t Leave Bad Relationships, and visit her web site at: www.grantmeahigherlove.com.
����