A holy kind of anger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anyone who has turned on talk radio, scanned the headlines or visited Capitol Hill lately knows that millions of Americans are angry. Democrats are mad at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A holy kind of anger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anyone who has turned on talk radio, scanned the headlines or visited Capitol Hill lately knows that millions of Americans are angry. Democrats are mad at\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-05T12:59:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/\",\"name\":\"A holy kind of anger\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-10-05T12:59:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-10-05T12:59:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"Anyone who has turned on talk radio, scanned the headlines or visited Capitol Hill lately knows that millions of Americans are angry. Democrats are mad at\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A holy kind of anger\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Universal Syndicate.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/author\/tmatt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A holy kind of anger","description":"Anyone who has turned on talk radio, scanned the headlines or visited Capitol Hill lately knows that millions of Americans are angry. Democrats are mad at","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A holy kind of anger","og_description":"Anyone who has turned on talk radio, scanned the headlines or visited Capitol Hill lately knows that millions of Americans are angry. Democrats are mad at","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/","og_site_name":"Terry Mattingly","article_published_time":"2009-10-05T12:59:55+00:00","author":"tmatt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"tmatt","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/","name":"A holy kind of anger","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-10-05T12:59:55+00:00","dateModified":"2009-10-05T12:59:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1"},"description":"Anyone who has turned on talk radio, scanned the headlines or visited Capitol Hill lately knows that millions of Americans are angry. Democrats are mad at","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A holy kind of anger"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/","name":"Terry Mattingly","description":"On Religion","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1","name":"tmatt","description":"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Universal Syndicate.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/author\/tmatt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1712,"date":"2009-10-05T08:59:55","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T12:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2009-10-05T08:59:55","modified_gmt":"2009-10-05T12:59:55","slug":"a-holy-kind-of-anger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/10\/a-holy-kind-of-anger\/","title":{"rendered":"A holy kind of anger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Anyone who has turned on talk radio, scanned the headlines or visited Capitol Hill lately knows that millions of Americans are angry.<\/p>\n

Democrats are mad at Republicans who are mad about President Barack Obama\u2019s health-care plans. Democrats are mad at other Democrats who are raising questions about hot-button issues in the legislation, especially questions about tax dollars and abortions. Republicans are mad about lots of other things and they have YouTube videos to prove it. <\/p>\n

Right now, America\u2019s political elites are getting angry about the fact that so many people are angry. It\u2019s almost a Zen thing.<\/p>\n

All of this anger is supposed to be a bad thing, a sign that the nation is coming unglued. But that may or may not be true, depending on what these angry citizens are mad about and what they choose to do with their anger, noted Leon J. Podles, a Catholic conservative known for his slashing critiques of the church hierarchy\u2019s weak responses to decades of clergy sexual abuse of children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the politics of anger can\u2019t lead to constructive actions, then all that anger is meaningless and, ultimately, doesn\u2019t do anyone any good,\u201d stressed Podles. \u201cStill, I would argue that anger is more positive than apathy, especially when citizens are angry about issues that are worth being angry about. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnger is certainly better than people sitting back on their sofas and saying, \u2018Ho hum, millions of unborn babies are dying.\u2019 It\u2019s better than people saying, \u2018Ho hum, people are dying because they don\u2019t have health care, but so what?\u2019 These are issues that should make rational people get angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in the ecumenical journal Touchstone<\/em>, Podles argued<\/a> that it\u2019s especially important for Christians and other religious believers to understand that anger is not always a sin or an emotion that must be avoided. In fact, that there are circumstances in which it is a sin not to feel anger. The ultimate question, he said, is whether anger leads to rational, constructive, virtuous actions.<\/p>\n

Who would argue, for example, that it was wrong for the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., to feel righteous anger about the impact of racism and economic injustice on the lives of millions of black Americans? Who would argue that it was wrong for Nelson Mandela to draw strength from the anger he felt during his 27 years in prison under South Africa\u2019s apartheid regime?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s crucial in both of these cases, stressed Podles, that these men did not allow their anger to turn into hatred of their oppressors. Instead, it led to courageous and strategic acts to accomplish worthy goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnger must be more than mere emotion,\u201d he stressed. \u201cAnger must also be proportionate to the evil that provokes that anger. Take road rage, for example. That kind of anger is completely irrational and it accomplishes nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there are cases in which powerful people fail to feel anger about issues that are directly under their control, issues that their actions could affect in direct and positive ways. In his book \u201cSacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church,\u201d Podles attempts to understand why so many bishops failed to be outraged by the sins committed by some of their priests and, thus, failed to channel that anger into actions to stop the crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the bishops had not coddled these priests, if they had not hidden them and then put them back into parishes full of children and parents who were kept in the dark, they could have prevented evil acts against thousands of victims,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were bishops who could have acted and they should have acted. But they didn\u2019t act. \u2026 For some reason they never got angry and, as a result, they never acted to protect the laity, especially the children.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are times that call for unity, diplomacy, conciliation and peacemaking in the church and in public life, said Podles. But there are also times when leaders must feel outraged about corruption and injustice. There are times when anger must be allowed to fuel actions that defend virtue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are evils in this world that we can do something about and we should get angry about them,\u201d he said. \u201cIn any battle, it\u2019s hard to act in an effective manner without a kind of appropriate anger that energizes your actions. Without that anger, innocent people will suffer and evil will win the day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"