Slow to Anger

I don’t often weigh in on political controversies with Bible verses. Part of it is my own disinclination to controversy, but I also think that there has been too much bashing with the Bible in our history. In a way that’s too bad. Jesus certainly had no qualms about quoting Scripture to critique the social and political situation of his time.

This week, however, the letter from James fits right in with what has been happening in many town hall meetings on health care reform, and generally with how anger has become so prevalent in the U.S. (as in this Hawk Eye story. “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger,” James writes, “for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness...If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.” (Jas 1:19,26) Strong stuff!

But what about righteous anger? Didn’t Jesus have that when he tossed the moneychangers out of the temple? Yes, he did, but then he was Jesus Christ. As I reflect on the times I have called my anger righteous, I see that mostly I was deceiving my heart. I was more eager to speak than listen, more anxious to be right than to admit I might be wrong. It was really self-righteous anger. In many cases this is the kind of anger I see expressed in the health care debates. If it is indeed orchestrated anger coming from those who wish to see reform or even the President fail, then it is even farther from God’s righteousness.

It is not surprising that the old desert monks of Egypt regarded anger as something to be overcome. They knew how hard it is to discern the source of one’s anger, and so viewed it as a sign of turning away from God. We should be more attentive to that lesson. Health care in this country is complex. Some aspects relate to James’s “pure and undefiled religion” providing for those who are in distress. Others simply derive from greed. We will not know which is which unless we are slower to anger, slower to speak, and quicker to listen.