What is the difference between anger and righteous indignation?

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How does one know if what they feel in their heart is sinful anger or righteous indignation or zeal?

The obvious examples that come to mind is sinless Jesus driving out the merchants in the temple, or calling the Pharisees and Scribes hypocrites, or saying to them “woe to you” – which seems pretty close to saying “damn you”.

Just trying to strengthen the ol’ conscience here and interested in your opinion.
 
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milimac:
How does one know if what they feel in their heart is sinful anger or righteous indignation or zeal?

The obvious examples that come to mind is sinless Jesus driving out the merchants in the temple, or calling the Pharisees and Scribes hypocrites, or saying to them “woe to you” – which seems pretty close to saying “damn you”.

Just trying to strengthen the ol’ conscience here and interested in your opinion.
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Dear Milimac,

Perhaps reflecting on the source of the feeling is best. Are you angry because you yourself are offended, or because God has been offended?

Remember that peace and compassion are part of righteous indignation. God is the only one who can justly weild anger for wrongs committed, and He shows mercy instead.

I find myself getting mad when grave sins are being flaunted quite often. It isn’t easy to see how others can offend God so easily. Every time, however, I am forced to realize that I too offend God every day, and I haven’t the right to be upset. Instead of showing anger, I pray, and possibly correct in a quiet and compassionate way the offense that is being given.

Hope this helps. 🙂

God bless,

Agricola
 
I think Agricola hit the nail on the head by talking about our rights compared to God’s rights. God has the right to be angry at a person. I’m not sure whether or not we have that right, but I know it’s next to impossible to have truly righteous anger toward a person. I think it’s Psalms or Proverbs that says man’s anger doesn’t accomplish good.

We can definitely be angered by an act, though. Our indignation should be directed toward that act, not toward the person committing it. When I feel myself starting to get angry at a person, I try to remember that sinning hurts the sinner, too. They are harming themselves, and we should have pity for them.
 
First, anger is an emotion which was created by God, so it must have a good purpose. We use anger in a good way when we use it to oppose an evil or wrong doing. Anger becomes bad when we act primarily to hurt (physically, emotionally, etc.) a person who does the evil or wrong doing. Therefore, our anger can not be vengeful or damaging to the perpetrator. So we are to hate the sin and love the sinner.

We also must guard against rash judgments in a situation on which we do not have first hand knowledge of the evil. e.g. a friend tells us he heard that so-and-so did such-and-such, but until we can verify that such-and-such really happened, we should not act on the second-hand information.

So our anger must be directed against the evil not the evil-doer.
 
Someone once told me in a class, IF we refuse to ALLOW ourselves to get angry, no one can force us to become angry.

You have to permit yourself to become upset before anyone or anything will bother you.

No circumstance or irritant can make you angry if you do not LET it get to you.

But as far as your question goes, rightgeous indignaion occurs if we are offended by some grave injustice done to the poor (or general public) or to some undeserving other party. Anger occurs if we personnally are injured or irritated by some situation or wrong doing.
 
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volzcpa:
Anger becomes bad when we act primarily to hurt (physically, emotionally, etc.) a person who does the evil or wrong doing. Therefore, our anger can not be vengeful or damaging to the perpetrator. So we are to hate the sin and love the sinner.

So our anger must be directed against the evil not the evil-doer.
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So Jesus driving the merchants from the temple, although some may have received a sting from the whip or have been emotionally hurt was not anger because hurting them was not his primary motive? Jesus calling the Pharisees hypocrites, although possibly emotionally hurtful to them, was more to call them to look at their own lives and change themselves than to hurt them?
 
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wcknight:
Someone once told me in a class, IF we refuse to ALLOW ourselves to get angry, no one can force us to become angry.

You have to permit yourself to become upset before anyone or anything will bother you.
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Was Jesus upset about how the temple had become a marketplace? If so, was it right for him to be upset?
 
Jesus was both angry and filled with righteous indignation. HE personally as God was offended by the money changers, and he as Son of God was indignant that people would absuse His Father’s house.

Jesus allowed Himself to get angry, and he was right to do so.

I guess the difference really is in whether or not you have a right to allow yourself to get angry. IF a grave injustice or wrong is being committed, you may have that right.
 
I’ve always felt that righteous indignation could motivate one even more to stand up against evil in the world.

Here, we’ve all been expressing what appear to be our own personal opinions on the matter. Is there any Church teaching (either in Sacred Scripture/Tradition/etc.) which might help us here?

Some have suggested that only God has the right to be morally indignant. Any further justification of this? Any arguments against this? (again, from Scripture/Tradition?)

Others have suggested that it is not right to be angry when something evil happens to you. FOr me, when I get angry (again, I would argue, indignant) about something bad, even when it happens to me, I feel that it is anger/indignation more directed toward the act itself than toward the person. Well, perhaps, more precisely, it is directed toward that aspect of the person who is engaging in the evil act, but certainly not at the whole person, ifthat makes any sense. Indeed, at least insofar as God is concerned, this might be the gist of that troublesome passage in (I believe it is) Sirach which says that God hates both the sinner and his sin. I hate all this not because of any pride on my part because I have been hurt. It is more a hatred of the fact of the wrongness of the action and that it hurts me, yes, but also that such actions also hurt other people. Is such anger/indignation Christian?

After all, I think Paul tells us somewhere to, yes, be angry, but not to sin. Perhaps righteous indignation is what he means here?

Getting back to the basic question which I think is posed in this thread: Is indignation (on the part of man) Christian?
 
OK, just realized that this post was very, VERY old. Should I start a new thread?

(Again, new here and am not always sure how old is too old and in what context…)

Thanks.
 
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