This is Not Healthy Anger

There is such a thing as good, righteous, even healthy anger. The anger that lead to the attack on the US Capitol building on January 6th and that is leading to the various plots targeting inauguration day, however, is not that anger. It is toxic anger.

What's the difference between healthy anger and toxic anger?

Healthy Anger

Healthy anger rightly understands what leads to flourishing and seeks to protect or restore it in a way that connects back to the very peace and goodness it would restore. It's an anger that remains deeply tethered to respect, truth, humility and submission to God. It moves out from that health to create greater flourishing, never leaving it behind, never believing the ends justify the means. It leaves things better than they were without making them worse along the way.

Toxic Anger

Toxic anger, on the other hand, misunderstands what leads to flourishing and damages or destroys life by trying to protect the wrong things (like its own pride or a sinful or misguided desire it thinks you're getting in the way of). Or it responds to a good reason for anger in the wrong way. It loses its tether to respect, truth, humility and submission to God and, as a result, damages and destroys in the name of protecting and preserving.

The Difference

The key difference, as Scott Sauls says (in his book, "A Gentle Answer") is that, “unhealthy anger is not restorative; it is retaliatory and punitive, vengeful and aggressive, unrestrained and uncontained… Toxic anger doesn’t leave things better. It makes things worse.”

The Present Moment

We are witnessing toxic anger in America at this moment. Which is not to say we haven’t been witnessing it up to this point. But at this point, its toxicity is becoming catastrophic and must be rebuked for what it is, lest it be accepted for what it isn’t: valid.

Because toxic anger, even IF it claims to rise up in defense of biblical ideals, is never in line with God's will. And to be out of line with God’s will is not to make things better, but to make them worse.

The Church

The church must make things better. We have been called to live out a ministry of reconciliation, as ambassadors of the God who reconciles broken sinners to himself — the God who chose to be condemned himself rather than condemn others to violence and death. Ministers of reconciliation, not of violence. We have also been called to stand up courageously against evil, falsehood and destruction. In a word, we have been called to stand up to sin. And in standing up to sin, we are also called to reconcile with sinners.

It is imperative then, that we stand up now and refuse to condone or turn a blind eye to the toxicity of the moment and the perpetuated falsehoods that are enabling it. We must call to account those who incite, enable and commit violence — even if they hold elected office.

But let us do so with the hope that those who are rebuked would turn from their toxicity to health, to promoting the flourishing of our place instead of its overthrow or destruction. Let us do so tethered to the goodness of God, humbly confident that He is the one who ultimately brings justice and healing. And let reconciliation still be our goal, even if our first step must be sobered opposition, accounting and rebuke.