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Christianity never taught me how to be angry
Jesus is often enraged by injustice.
“She had every right to be angry, but I didn’t encourage her to express herself in a way that was public, disruptive, or demanding.” Reading Soraya Chemaly’s Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, I realized that was me too. Raised in church, you don’t get angry. That’s not Christian. You don’t demand change. You don’t stand up for yourself, or others. If you get angry, you feel bad about it.
You “confess.” You were bad—again. When you’re Christian, you sit in the pew, and wait. You put money in the plate, and smile.
It was a shock to read, in the Bible, about the anger of Jesus.
I guess I always thought he was serene and detached, even when crucified, like we were supposed to be. Oh, the pastor, that special human, could fume and fulminate against the enemies of the truth (usually feminists, homosexuals, or Democrats). Our job was to listen. The congregation says amen, not, “Are you kidding me?”
“He looked around at them in anger,” says Mark 3:5. Or Mark 10:14: “When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.”
The words were unfamiliar. Jesus—angry?
With a look at scholarly references, I realized there were more examples. The tradition had been busy…