Righteous anger

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divinefaith

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I was reading another thread currently on our forums which talks about yelling. It raises the question: what is righteous anger? What makes it OK?
 
The desire of vengeance. Its ethical rating depends upon the quality of the vengeance and the quantity of the passion. When these are in conformity with the prescriptions of balanced reason, anger is not a sin. It is rather a praiseworthy thing and justifiable with a proper zeal. It becomes sinful when it is sought to wreak vengeance upon one who has not deserved it, or to a greater extent than it has been deserved, or in conflict with the dispositions of law, or from an improper motive. The sin is then in a general sense mortal as being opposed to justice and charity. It may, however, be venial because the punishment aimed at is but a trifling one or because of lack of full deliberation. Likewise, anger is sinful when there is an undue vehemence in the passion itself, whether inwardly or outwardly. Ordinarily it is then accounted a venial sin unless the excess be so great as to go counter seriously to the love of God or of one’s neighbour.
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When we have anger out of jealousy, or become wrathful it’s a sin. Catholic Encyclopedia: Anger
 
divinefaith said:
Thanks for that. So anger really depends on our intentions (in determining whether its sinful or not)?
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On our intentions and on our reaction. Being angry because someone slapped your daughter for no apparent reason is not a sin. Being angry because someone got the Iphone you wanted is. Being upset because a child broke your favorite vase is not a sin. Beating the child for doing so, is.
 
bmullins said:
On our intentions and on our reaction. Being angry because someone slapped your daughter for no apparent reason is not a sin. Being angry because someone got the Iphone you wanted is. Being upset because a child broke your favorite vase is not a sin. Beating the child for doing so, is.
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Jesus had a big reaction towards those making a market in the temple.
 
divinefaith said:
Jesus had a big reaction towards those making a market in the temple.
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Yes he did. He also had a very just cause for doing so. There was no sin in being angry or even zealous for God’s temple. The people there knew they were doing wrong.
 
divinefaith said:
I was reading another thread currently on our forums which talks about yelling. It raises the question: what is righteous anger? What makes it OK?
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Greetings Divinefaith,

No where have I read, now there may be an obscure writing out there somewhere, have I read in the Desert Fathers where they encouraged the practice of righteous anger. That is quite telling. I also believe [and note this is my opinio and belief] that none of the Church Fathers encouraged or advised one to practice righteous anger.

I think perhaps we should focus and turn our eyes to Jesus and not even indulge in righteous anger. [notice I said I think, this is my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the Church’s stance on this.]

God Bless.
Anathama Sit
 
So if someone crushes our rights, what is the right way to go about that? Using the story of Jesus, it seems as if we can surely act on our anger thru some form of agression :confusion:
 
divinefaith said:
I was reading another thread currently on our forums which talks about yelling. It raises the question: what is righteous anger? What makes it OK?
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Righteous anger is the anger that is right+eous. It is the anger that has run out of options to get it right.
Righteous anger is the anger that works. That makes a point solving a problem. The anger that solves problems.
Righteous anger is the one that you control and not the one that controls you. It is done consciously.
Righteous anger is difficult. In Odysee Homer says: To get angry is easy. But to get angry with the right person, on the right time, with the right mood, on the right place and with right intensity is divine.
Let’s pray for that
 
divinefaith said:
So if someone crushes our rights, what is the right way to go about that? Using the story of Jesus, it seems as if we can surely act on our anger thru some form of agression :confusion:
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It will be situational. There are times we should be silent, for in our silence the sin will be exposed. There are times when a controlled response that keeps the dignity of the person who is guilty yet at the same time, lets them see that you are angry and hurt by what he or she has done.

Prayer and guidance by the Holy Spirit are essential.
 
divinefaith said:
I was reading another thread currently on our forums which talks about yelling. It raises the question: what is righteous anger? What makes it OK?
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Rightous anger is specific to a situation; in which the majority of good and wise people viewing this anger would agree, that it was appropriate giving the circumstances.

Rightous anger directed at an individual encourages change in a positive direction.
 
bmullins said:
On our intentions and on our reaction. Being angry because someone slapped your daughter for no apparent reason is not a sin.
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Strictly speaking you should first investigate whether it was for a valid reason or not before becoming visibly angry. In practice that can be hard, I agree. And suppose the daughter was slapped for no reason, will getting angry help the situation, or will it escalate the problem and lead you or others in sin? Perhaps punches will fly and someone will end up killing someone else, perhaps even an innocent? What do you think?
 
But Jesus is Jesus. Can we hold ourselves to be as perfect as He is? Or do we presume too much?
 
Greeings (name removed by moderator),

Yes I do not deny this. However think a bit on this. Jesus perfectly was in control of his emotions at all times, and he was not rules by passion.

However we humans are not always in control of our emotions and are at times ruled by our passions.

Again why go for righteous anger? Because in our own imperfect human natures, we will never have 100% righteous anger without something trying to overtake us. We are subject to the vices and pride.

God Bless.
Anathama Sit
 
But disordered psyche is not a sin. If you’re autistic or a psychopath you can’t help not feeling anger. You can still be taught what is right and wrong.

Anger clouds reasoning. I agree it comes anyway, but perhaps we should quickly channel it into something productive - for a greater good. Right?
 
Agree.

Sorry. I guess I had a mental image of a 19th century pastor raging about fire and brimstone and sexual sin to a group of innocent children who had no interest in sexual sin. That would not necessarily be righteous anger. 🙂
 
Anger, to paraphrase Aquinas, is action directed at percieved injustice (note that ‘actio’ included thought).

God’s perception is always true, so all action God directs at injustice is both true and virtuous.

For humans, anger as virtue depends on our depth of practice of the virtue of Prudence. If the injustice is a true one and our response measured and approprite to the magnatune of the injustice, then anger is a practice of virtue.

If the injustice is ill percieved, or our response is not prudent, then anger can tend towards sin. The root of sinful anger is Pride, were we consider ourselves to be more knowledgeable or perceptive of what constitutes injustice than we truely are, or where we falsely beleive our power to impact the situation is more greater than it is.

If we allow pride to impact our perception, such as when we percieve an injustice done to ourselves that is truely not an injustice, or we have such a prideful opinion of ourselves where the magnitute of injustice is falsely inflated, then the anger is sinful.
 
For me, anger is a state of mind, and does not necessarily mean that it will result in my taking any particular action.

Be angry but do not sin (Ephesians 4:26)

We can be angry but make a concious decision to act or not to act on that anger in any given way.

One sign of a person who has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him is peace and calm in the face of trial and tribulation. The more Christ dwells in me, the more the peace of Christ comes over me and the less angry, upset or offended I get. We all know the guy who goes about his daily routine with a sense of peace while other people are freaking out over trivial things. I want to be that guy. I want to have the peace of Christ dwelling in me.

***And let the peace of Christ control your hearts…(*Colossians 3:15)

I want the peace of Christ - the Peace of God - to control my heart, and not get angry in the first place. That, I think, is a sure sign that the spirit of God dwells in us.

Which leads me to my real point… Nowhere in John 2 does it say that Jesus was angry. It says only that he saw the money changers, that he made a scourge of cords, that he drove them out, and that he told them to leave. The Gospel tells us what Jesus did, not what his emotional state was. Jesus could have very calmly walked in, overturned the tables while everyone stood there stunned at his action, and might even have raised his voice, but it does not say that he was angry or that he acted out of his anger. The angry Jesus is from the movies. It is possible, but I think it unlikely, and here is why.

When anger leads to a certain action, that’s called having a bad temper. That’s slavery to anger and no one can accuse Jesus of having a bad temper. When anger is the catalyst for making a decision to take some action, and the decision to take that action is a rational decision which is not a sin and in conformity to God’s will, then it is righteous anger.

Again, for me, I would rather not have any anger. Being esily angered is not sign of good spiritual health and progress IMO.

-Tim-
 
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