Slow to Anger?

My Bible study group has been studying James recently and the subject of anger has been on my mind some. Specifically the verse where James says, "...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) Now it seems to me that this is saying something that I have observed independently for many years. Namely that most anger and fighting can be traced back to miscommunication.

Everyone knows that "communication is the key to a successful relationship" and that is one of the truest and most easily disregarded statements in the world. I can't tell you how many arguments or fights I've observed from the outside knowing that if the two people involved would just slow their anger train and understand what is actually being said they'd realize that they are actually on the same side (or very nearly). Of course other times, it's just inadequacies in our own language or even our own ability to wield it accurately. In short, nothing to get angry over.

How many times have you realized this yourself? Or how many times have you been fighting with someone and not known yourself why you were angry? Or that you were upset about something/someone else? Or even that you were really mad at yourself? How many times are your real motives selfishness and pride? How often after you get angry about something do you realize that it was petty and silly later? Even anger over legitimate hurt is often an issue of miscommunication or someone unjustifiably taking anger out on you. I submit to you that a vast majority of human anger falls into these categories. I also challenge you (and myself) to answer the following; Is any of the anger in these categories just?

No. It's not. Period. James doesn't pussyfoot around with it either because he is directly addressing these situations. He says "...human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires." Not that it is not conducive to it. Not that it doesn't always. Strict and clear, human anger is utterly flawed and leads to sin. When you look at the root, I would even go so far as to argue that all human anger is, in and of itself, a sin. "But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander..." (Col 3:8).

People sometimes talk about how "It's ok for a Christian to get angry. There is nothing inherently sinful or wrong with it. Even Jesus got angry at the money changers at the Temple. So it's ok to get angry with someone as long as you don't sin." And that is true. Anger is not inherently evil. In some circumstances it can be quite beneficial even. Now this may sound like a contradiction but remember what I said about language inadequacies. We need to recognize that there are three different things that we use that word for and for which there is no other word in our language; Holy Anger, Human Anger and Anger in the general sense that encompasses the emotional and physiological reaction without any deference to cause. Human Anger is inherently wrong. Holy anger, and by association anger in general, are not.

I think we need to look a little more closely at this example of Christ's anger before we start using it as justification for our feelings/actions/outbursts though. Jesus got angry because humans had turned his "Father's House into a den of thieves". They had profaned a holy thing. And I think it is here that we find the truth that separates Human Anger from Holy Anger. The things that we should be angry about are things like injustice, ignorance, hatred and greed. The true wrongs of this world. Real evil. These are some of the things that should provoke a righteous anger in us. And you know what I'm talking about because this kind of anger really does feel different.

Here are just a few contemporary examples of things I believe God wants us to be angry about:
- There are people in this country that stole billions of dollars and ruined the world economy, leaving many millions without jobs. Not one of those people have seen the inside of a jail cell. They likely never will (talk about a den of thieves).
- 681 miles away from American soil is Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
- There are over 60 million orphans in Africa.
- There are more slaves in the world today than at any other time in human history. While we'd like to pretend that America is past that, there are in fact still tens of thousands of slaves in America today.
- Currently, across America, between 100,000 and 300,000 minors are victims of sex trafficking. A majority are American citizens. (btw, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsY93C8cm54)
- Minnesota alone saw a 55% increase in sex trafficking in 2010.

That's what we should become angry about (though there are certainly smaller things to be angry about too). Not the human anger that flashes hot and hurts the people around us (as well as ourselves) and that James beseeches us to avoid (the slow allows for human failure, it doesn't excuse it). The kind of anger that is deeply ingrained in us. Because anger that is burning in our core lasts (this is not to say that all anger we put in our heart is just, only that it is where just anger naturally lives) and anger that lasts motivates us to change (does anything else?). It was that kind of anger that drove change during the civil rights movement.

I think that God wants our hearts to be broken by the things that break his heart. And I think that many of the things that break God's heart should make us angry. Sadness brings about pity and apathy. You're sad about things you feel are out of your control. With things like acts of nature (the earthquake in Haiti and devastating Tsunamis in the Pacifc) or one time events (terror attacks, tragic death), sometimes that is the only response because things really are out of your control.

But anger brings about change. You're angry because something needs to be stopped and isn't. Did Jesus see the money changers and say "Oh, that's so sad. If only I could do something about it. But it's so big, what can I do." No! He got angry and did something about it.

I'll leave you with these verses...
"If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." James 4:17
And if you don't know the good you ought to do...
"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." James 1:5