It seems like our entire culture is addicted to outrage, including the church. Anger has become the acceptable—even expected—sign of one’s commitment to any cause. I have learned that if I fail to show sufficient outrage on my podcast or in a sermon, I will receive messages from fellow Christians who are angered by my lack of anger. They usually say, “Don’t you care that...” somewhere in the message. I sometimes feel that my credibility as a Christian depends on my willingness to brandish my anger or unleash the outrage arsenal against God’s enemies.
In some Christian communities, particularly online, anger is so ubiquitous that one might suspect it is a fruit of the Spirit (which it is not). And it’s no coincidence that the recent rise of anger as an evangelical virtue has occurred at the same time that segments of American evangelicalism have branded empathy as a “sin.” After all, we cannot celebrate outrage without simultaneously condemning its inverse.
But here is the problem—those who warn that empathy can be manipulated or unmoored from the truth will be unable to find a verse of Scripture or a teaching of Jesus to justify their concern. However, these same voices hold up anger as a sign of godly zeal, even though, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clearly warned his followers about the toxicity of anger to our souls. How do we explain the minimizing of what Jesus taught about anger, and the magnification of what he never said about empathy?
Perhaps our addiction to anger is the product of our constant media consumption. In this over-stimulated environment, only the sledgehammer of anger can get our attention; if we don’t use it to convey every emotion, we are dismissed as not having feelings at all. Or maybe parts of the church are collectively in the second stage of grief over its loss of cultural significance. The first phase was denial, in which they rejected the evidence of declining church attendance and cultural marginalization—a few Pollyannas are still in this first phase of grief. Many others have now moved to the second phase: anger.
If a Christian’s attraction to anger is a part of a collective grieving process, then eventually I expect more of them will move on to bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance that their time of cultural power has passed. Until that happens, we must look for ways to resist the temptation to join the advocates of outrage. The right place to start is with the example and words of Jesus.
Daily Scripture
Matthew 5:21–26
James 1:19–20
Weekly Prayer
From Clement of Rome (c.96)
Open the eyes of our hearts to know you, who are the highest of the high, the holiest of the holy. You bring down the haughtiness of the proud, and thwart the schemes of the dishonest. You raise up the lowly and cast down the lofty. Riches and poverty, death and life, are in your hand. You alone can discern every spirit, looking into the depths of every soul. You protect those in danger, give hope to those in despair, and guide every creature on earth. By your power the nations of the earth can flourish and increase.
Grant us, Lord, we beseech you, your grace. Pity the poor, encourage those who are sad, enlighten those whose spirits are in darkness, heal the sick, guide the confused, feed the hungry, release those who are unjustly imprisoned, support the weak, comfort the faint-hearted. Let all the nations of the world know that you are God, that Jesus Christ is your child, and that we are your people.
Amen.
