Godly Anger

The old adage says “There’s a time and a place for everything.” This includes anger. When we witness an injustice and the resulting anger we feel drives us to cry out for justice, that is not a sin. Godly anger—or “constructive” anger, as it’s called by some psychologists—“is solution-oriented, proportionate to the perceived wrong, and marked by self-examination, curiosity, and respect for yourself and others” (Holly Lebowitz Rossi, “5 Ways Anger Can Be Good for You,” Guideposts, March 23, 2016, https://www.guideposts.org/better-living/positive-living/emotional-and-mental-health/5-ways-anger-can-be-good-for-you). We see an example of godly anger put into practice by Ahmaud Arbery’s mother’s fight for justice for her murdered son, as she petitioned the court to hand down the maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole on January 7, 2022 (https://youtu.be/7QDqVfEYNYI).