{"id":21816,"date":"2019-04-18T12:57:02","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T12:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/?p=21816"},"modified":"2019-05-17T13:46:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T13:46:29","slug":"seven-deadly-sins-sources-and-results-of-anger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/seven-deadly-sins-sources-and-results-of-anger","title":{"rendered":"Seven Deadly Sins: Sources and Results of Anger"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anger is a complex sin.\u00a0(Did I mention earlier that sins intermingle and build on each other in many ways?)\u00a0<\/span>Saint John of the Ladder quotes anger as saying, \u201cI come from many sources, and I have more than one father:\u00a0<\/span>My mothers are pride, greed.. and lust, too. My father is named conceit.\u00a0<\/span>My daughters are remembrance of wrongs, hate, hostility and self-justification.\u201d The Ladder of Divine Ascent<\/i>,\u00a0Step 8<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Anger may result from indulging in other sins which, of course, do not fulfill their promises. For example, modern consumer culture tells us that happiness comes from grabbing as many material things for ourselves as we can \u2013 the sin of greed.\u00a0<\/span>We are told sometimes that we will be fulfilled by unfettered sex \u2013 the sin of lust.\u00a0<\/span>Our culture has long encouraged us to \u201clook out for #1\u201d, to believe that we deserve to have our every desire fulfilled, because \u201cI\u2019m worth it!\u201d \u2013 which is the sin of false pride.\u00a0<\/span>Political idealism, whether of the right or the left, sometimes gives us the hope that we have the ability to build the perfect world, or totally defeat evil, and have complete worldly security \u2013 which is a collective sin of pride.\u00a0<\/span>We put our faith in politicians or religious leaders, and they fail us.\u00a0We also fail\u00a0ourselves:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI can do it!\u201d\u00a0<\/span>And then when we get our expectations up and don\u2019t get all we desire, or when we do and we\u2019re still not fulfilled, we can get frustrated and angry and lash out.<\/p>\n

2. C.S. Lewis (here we go again with my Anglican \u201cspiritual godfather\u201d) wrote in\u00a0Screwtape Letters<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>(chapter 21) that\u00a0anger can be caused by a \u201cfalse sense of ownership\u201d, the idea that my time is my own, my life is my own.\u00a0(To the left: an image of one of the gates in Dante\u2019s Inferno.)\u00a0<\/i><\/span>I claim that this is \u201cmy body\u201d or \u201cmy gun\u201d or \u201cmy property\u201d, and nobody should interfere with my right to do what I want when I want to with what is mine, with no moral regard to how it affects others. It\u2019s an absurd, even juvenile, idea. We did not create the world \u2013 time or existence or our selves. Nothing is truly \u201cmine\u201d.\u00a0And even if we have legal rights, are there no moral obligations? The effect?\u00a0<\/span>Lewis says, \u201cThe more claims on life that [a man] can be induced to make, the more often he will feel injured, and as a result ill-tempered.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>When anyone or anything intrudes on what I think is mine, I feel I have a right to be aggrieved and angry. Does this explain the anger of talk radio? of the pro-abortion people? of the gun lobby? and more? I think we should be open to talking about any topic, but one cannot have a rational discussion with anger.<\/p>\n

3. <\/span>Being angry at other people may be caused by the spirit of false judgment:\u00a0<\/span>I assume that when I am slighted or people don\u2019t do right by me, they are doing this on purpose \u2013 while of course my motives are always pure as the driven snow!\u00a0<\/span>When I was a young priest I was sent to be pastor of a church where, for reasons I won\u2019t go into, the people had good reason to be very suspicious of clergy.\u00a0<\/span>How did I handle it?\u00a0<\/span>In my pride and naivete, I took it all personally.\u00a0<\/span>I thought they were purposely out to get me, poor innocent me, and so I got angry \u2013 which then gave some of them good reason to be angry at me in return!\u00a0<\/span>God can heal these things and he did, but my spirit of judgment and anger towards them did not help that situation.\u00a0<\/span>The obvious fact is we do not know why other people act as they do.\u00a0<\/span>We can\u2019t enter into their minds. Over the years I have become convinced that most hurts and slights are unintentional.\u00a0<\/span>Usually people are preoccupied with and upset about their own problems, and we just happen to be in their way at the wrong time.\u00a0Then w<\/span>hen we judge them or\u00a0<\/span>take it personally and get angry, they wonder why we\u2019re mad at them!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. The Antiochian Prayer Book calls anger \u201cunworthy irritation\u201d \u2013 but can there be \u201cworthy irritation\u201d, justifiable anger?\u00a0<\/span>Yes.\u00a0<\/span>There can be \u201crighteous anger\u201d at injustice and evil, such as Christ showed when he cleansed the temple. Were\u00a0decent people right to be angry when an innocent man, or even a guilty one, was lynched\u00a0(<\/em>below)<\/em>?\u00a0<\/span>Also, anger is often the natural result when people are mistreated.\u00a0<\/span>Children who are unloved or abused, the poor and needy who suffer because nobody cares, ordinary people cheated out of their pensions and savings by well-paid CEOs and financial manipulators, those who suffer racial injustice, people who are\u00a0tortured, parents whose innocent children, families, houses and livelihoods are destroyed in pointless wars, or (forgive me) refugees who are turned away by their wealthy, uh\u2026 \u201cChristian\u201d neighbors.\u00a0All these have good cause to be angry.\u00a0<\/span>One reason Psalm 69 is in the Bible is to show us how a mistreated man reacts.\u00a0<\/span>Listen to him: \u201cI looked for pity but there was none; and for comforters but I found no one.\u00a0<\/span>They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i>T<\/span>he result?\u00a0<\/span>\u201cLet their own table\u2026become a snare, \u2026let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, \u2026add to them punishment upon punishment\u2026 let them be blotted out of the book of the living\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Injustice causes anger.\u00a0<\/span>(This Psalm is, of course, also a prophecy of another innocent Man who would have no one to comfort him, who would be given vinegar to drink, but who did not get angry.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5. I wonder if there could be another source\u2026 Heredity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

6. And ultimately anger like all sin is demonic.\u00a0<\/span>The devil plays on our weaknesses.\u00a0<\/span>But (I\u2019ve said this before) we can never say \u201cthe devil made me do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>We have free will to resist,\u00a0b<\/span>ut we give in to it.\u00a0<\/span>We let him have his way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the Results of Anger?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

1. We may lose our temper.\u00a0<\/span>Anger boils over, and we lash out and do things we should not do, say things we should not say, things we do not really mean, but which can never be taken back.\u00a0<\/span>Even if we apologize, those words will hang in the minds of those who heard them, maybe forever.\u00a0<\/span>If we have lashed out in anger, even if they genuinely forgive us and we get on with our common life, they will always wonder:\u00a0<\/span>Which words did we mean the most, the words of the apology or the words spoken in anger?\u00a0(I can think of some things\u2026. no, I won\u2019t tell you. It will only pointlessly stir up old wounds again. I know he didn\u2019t mean it. I\u2019m sure. But for a long time I wasn\u2019t quite sure. That\u2019s how this works.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity \u2026it is set on fire by hell, \u2026it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.\u201d\u00a0James 3:6<\/em>\u201cMy beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. \u201d\u00a0James 1:19<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>Christ spoke forcefully on this: \u201cWhoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment.\u00a0<\/span>Whoever says to his brother \u2018Raca!\u2019 [an extremely nasty thing in Aramaic] shall be in danger of being taken to court, and whoever says \u2018You fool!\u2019 shall be in danger of hellfire.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Matthew 5:22\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

2. Anger may result in a more calculated action called vengeance, \u201cgetting even\u201d, which is forbidden to us.\u00a0<\/span>Christ commanded us to do good to our enemies.\u00a0<\/span>\u201c\u2018Vengeance is mine\u2019 says the Lord.\u00a0<\/span>\u2018I will repay.’\u201d\u00a0Deuteronomy 32:35<\/em> Consider the Holy Land, now dominated by two religions that\u00a0believe vengeance, \u201can eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth\u201d, is a proper response.\u00a0<\/span>Since 1947 many innocent Palestinians have been driven from their homes and lands by Israelis.\u00a0There are now almost 8 million displaced Palestinian refugees \u2013 many Christians but most of them Muslims.\u00a0This has gone on and on. I am glad to report that I\u2019ve never heard of a Christian Palestinian terrorist, and the Palestinian refugees I\u2019ve known have been gentle, sweet people \u2013 far more than I could be under the circumstances. But some Muslims have tried to strike back in vengeance.\u00a0<\/span>(I do not mean to justify terrorism.\u00a0<\/span>To understand something is not to favor it.)\u00a0<\/span>Israelis, naturally angered at the deaths of innocent relatives and friends, have responded with vengeance.\u00a0<\/span>(Again, to understand is not to condone.)\u00a0<\/span>Muslim Palestinians retaliate again, and so the cycle of anger and vengeance ever increases. As someone said, \u201cWhen both sides believe in \u2018an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth\u2019 all will wind up with no eyes and no teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. We may hold anger within us and brood over grievances. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d \u201cNothing<\/i>.\u201d \u201cAre you sure?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0fine<\/i><\/b>!!\u201d Perhaps when the time is right we may produce The List: \u201cI remember how you ignored my mother in 1993, and how you insulted my brother in 2005.\u201d and so on.\u00a0<\/span>These are signs that we never forgave, never got over the anger.\u00a0<\/span>Or hidden anger may come out indirectly, in our driving, for example. This is a relatively \u201csafe\u201d way to let it out, since it is done to strangers \u2013 unless we mistakenly tailgate a friend or relative. Or a pastor who\u2019s going to write about you in his Blog!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If we do not act outwardly on our anger in any way, if we just keep it inside, is it still a sin, still \u201cmissing the mark\u201d?\u00a0<\/span>Yes, it is. It is a sin\u00a0against God who loves us, and a sin against ourselves, for anger is spiritual suicide. Anger held within us, not dealt with, is like a cancer eating away at us, killing our God-given souls.\u00a0<\/span>And the stupid part about harboring such hidden anger is that it does no harm to the person who hurt us.\u00a0<\/span>In fact it gives him more power over us, for it allows him to continue to make us miserable.\u00a0<\/span>That is why when people come to Confession, I almost always ask: \u201cIs there anyone you have not forgiven or are not prepared to forgive?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>There is no more important question.<\/p>\n

Therefore the Scriptures advise us again and again to rid ourselves of anger, to overcome it:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cPut away anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Colossians 3:8<\/em> \u201cHe who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who conquers a city.\u201d\u00a0Proverbs 16:32<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anger is a complex sin.\u00a0(Did I mention earlier that sins intermingle and build on each other in many ways?)\u00a0Saint John of the Ladder quotes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-21816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orthodox-wisdom","tag-sin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/original-1.jpg","views":{"total":299,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1768403608},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPyw9-5FS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21819,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21816\/revisions\/21819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}