Our new President has told us to turn down the volume. Our outgoing President is guilty of turning up the speakers so loudly that they have produced significant damage to the hi-fi. This we know. The response many of us have taken is that of instant anger and hostility. And within the indignation we see around us, we may not have taken time to reflect on how that anger infects us, too.
In the Summer 2020 edition of Quaker Life magazine, writer Craig Dove, specifically referencing the senseless Sandy Hook massacre, has this to say on the matter:
With a few years to think about it, I’ve come to realize that I have two main obstacles to adequately [express] the anger. The first is fairly easy: I always want to be an instrument of peace, and anger seems like an impediment. For instance, the Letter of James says, “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.” (James 1:19-20)
A number of the verses in Proverbs say basically the same thing. And I’ve seen personally how acting in anger can make everything worse (for other people, but mostly for myself). How do I keep my own anger from becoming part of the cycle of violence?
I would add that there are other verses of Scripture that emphasize this same point. Ephesians tells us,
And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, and give no opportunity to the devil. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
In this all or nothing climate, it is easy to lose sight of the larger picture, easy to lose sight of nuance and perspective. Online platforms are notorious for fomenting rage and reactive anger, and indeed have been as long as the Internet has existed. Many people have tried to explain or theorize the reasons for this phenomenon, but there are many prevailing schools of thought. Some people believe the relative anonymity of the Internet gives people license to use crude and offensive language they’d never dream of face to face. Others believe that we’re simply voicing the opinions we hold within us already, but are usually too polite to vocalize.
Perhaps the reason is not as important as the fact that this major problem exists. In a pandemic world, we find ourselves increasingly making important decisions and interacting with others in a virtual-only context, and that can be both empowering and very frustrating. Quakers believe that we are to see that of God in everyone, and certain people make that a powerful challenge. Not a futile challenge, I contend, but a very real and substantial one.
I return to Dove, in his concluding remarks.
We are all caught in a larger system in which violence is seen as an acceptable means of expressing intense emotion—sometimes the only means of communicating emotion. I’m angry at the whole system of violence—and even as I let the anger wash over me, it seems absolutely futile.
Anger [can be] a properly motivating action. For instance, early in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says,
“Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. He look around at them with anger; he was grieved at the hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” (Mark 3:4-5)
This, I think, is what I strive for: anger at the right thing, but healing towards those who need it.
I keep returning to the same point over and over again. There is room for nuance, even within a Bible that contains passages I find evidence of great wisdom, and passages I disagree with heartily. Christians and people of faith have been having these same arguments for centuries. I understand why people carry significant baggage from past hurtful experiences, and how that influences their opinion, turning them as sour towards religion as a lemon. But just as we are re-contextualizing 21st Century society in the political realm, there are many who are currently seeking to do the same thing in a religious context.
I know, and fully expect that I won’t change everyone’s mind. But with maturity sometimes comes greater enlightenment. That’s been true in my own life and it has been true for others. Speaking specifically for Quakers, it has been said that we have short fuses with politics and long fuses with people. This is true for many on the religious Left. However, with the current volatility of today’s political climate, the two have begun to bleed over into each other. This has been a long time coming, and one wonders if or when it will recede.
Though it has almost become a hackneyed, overused turn of phrase by now, a belief in the “good trouble” of the late John Lewis would, I think, do us well. Being able to see through the smokescreen of deception and hyperbole that aims to knock us off course and confuse allies with adversaries is another. And, for God’s sake, rejecting the groupthink common to any organized group, explicitly or otherwise, is desperately needed. We need to teach our children, through our individual example, and through their formal schooling, critical thinking skills. These allow us to think critically for ourselves, but also not lose sight of greater moral and ethical purposes and principles.
