When it is right to be angry (Part 1)

"Anyone can become angry--that is easy.  But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way--this is not easy."  
Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

 I believe American Christians struggle with anger.  We sometimes make it seem that all anger is wrong and should be avoided, which makes God and the Lord Jesus Himself very wrong.  If we who are finite, imperfect, and ultimately powerless are wrong to EVER become OR EXPRESS anger, then how wrong is it for the All Powerful to be angry or express it?  But I left out the fact that God is perfect, and thus His anger is perfect, as Aristotle described it.  Because we are made in the image and likeness of God, our anger should be the image and likeness of God's anger.  Therefore, in order to know when it is right to be angry, we have to know when and how God Himself is angry.

First, when to be angry.  It is written, 

"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse tongue I hate."  King Solomon

It is right to be angry, or feel hatred, when we encounter evil.  By evil, I mean what we all intuitively understand as pure badness.  If we see a man or woman drowning a new born baby, we rightly should feel hatred and anger TOWARDS THE MAN OR WOMAN!  They would be the "right people" to feel anger towards.  The "right degree" depends on anger's purpose:  JUSTICE!  Justice is to distinguish between good and evil, rewarding good and punishing evil.  So the degree of anger should be enough TO STOP THE MAN OR WOMAN FROM DROWNING THE CHILD.  Now, if the man or woman could be stopped WITHOUT causing permanent physical harm, then this should be done.  In other words, if one could simply yell,"STOP DROWNING THAT BABY!" and the man or woman stops without any harm coming to the child, then all is well. But what if the man or woman ignores the yell and continues.  Then the degree of anger must increase to meet the goal of justice.  If you have to physically remove the hands of the child murderer, this must be done, and you must be angry enough to use all of your might to do it.  If this doesn't work, the degree of anger must increase.  If you have to strike the man or woman repeatedly in the neck in order to save the child from certain death, you need to be angry enough to strike the neck repeatedly.  And if nothing but KILLING the man or woman would stop him or her from KILLING  the baby, then you need to be angry enough to KILL the man or woman in order to save the baby.  This is the issue of anger's degree.

The "right time" in this scenario is NOW!  The right purpose is to save the new born's life.  The right way is to do what will result in removing the hands of the man and woman from around the neck of the new born child. 

This of course is an extreme example.  I'll give a more day to day example in part 2...click here.