This past weekend I was not really on the news much at all. So this morning, when I logged in to my usual news "sources", I discovered that there was some kind of incident in Washington D.C. between a Catholic school student and a Native American veteran. While I am very late (in modern day standards) in coming into this story, I think it worth highlighting a few things.
First, many of the initial reactions seem to be over an image or two that were captured of the young man and the Native American veteran, with the young man having what could be a smirk on his face while the Native American looked to be trying to get past him. Of course, a picture if worth a thousand words, and several million seem to have been written about this picture. As the day went by, it seems that video emerged. Short snippets seemed to reinforce the initial impressions, that the young man (wearing a red Make America Great Again cap) was being racist. Of course, in the day and age we live in, social media and media outlets in general erupted in outrage (all unbeknownst to me, since I wasn't on the news or social media pretty much all weekend).
Then, the more full story seemed to come to light. Several hours of video coverage show yet another group of verified racists taunting the high school students, and then, from the video, it seems that it was the Native American who first approached the young Catholic student. Further watching the video shows no violence coming to light, and in the end, both sides end up walking away from the situation. In other words, nothing came of a situation that, truthfully, could have been a place of escalation.
In the aftermath, the student and his family have received death threats and the like, and many are even to the point where they seem to justify violence toward the young man and his family.
Okay, this post is not actually about the story, but about how easy it can be to find ourselves outraged over things. One of the professors as the seminary I attended has written an article that there really is no such thing as righteous anger, though we may wish it to be. Anger is a sign that there is something amiss. If you are angered when you see a child mistreated or abused, it is a sign that there is something wrong. You could say that anger is a side effect of sin in the world, perhaps a rightful one, but because it exists due to sin, it isn't something that we were created to deal with.
The thing is, so many seem to be outraged, and looking for reasons to vent their rage at perceived injustices. And this flies in the face of our meaning to the eighth commandment from Luther's Small Catechism. In the wording that I remember from growing up, we are to "put the best construction on everything." The current wording for it is to "explain everything in the kindest way." This means that we don't look to be outraged over things, but instead look to see if perhaps there are things going on that we are not aware of. We don't look to tear down, but to build up. If there is a sin or an issue, we address it, but from the standpoint of doing so in love, not in anger.
It actually takes a lot of energy to remain angry at someone or something. I will admit that I have tried it. It's actually easier and less energy consuming to look for the good in the situation than to cling to anger. Again, it doesn't mean that we fail to address issues that need to be addressed. However, we do so with a light toward reconciliation and restoration rather than anger and to get our way.
Rarely is anger constructive. It's so easy, and truthfully it often feels good to express our anger. Yet, as Christians, God rightly calls us to consider our anger, especially in the light that we are redeemed children of His through Jesus. When anger hits us, we are faced with the opportunity to live out God's baptismal grace to us, or to react and vent. Needless to say, considering this will drive us all the more to the cross of Jesus, where our sin of anger (and all others) has been covered and the price paid.
First, many of the initial reactions seem to be over an image or two that were captured of the young man and the Native American veteran, with the young man having what could be a smirk on his face while the Native American looked to be trying to get past him. Of course, a picture if worth a thousand words, and several million seem to have been written about this picture. As the day went by, it seems that video emerged. Short snippets seemed to reinforce the initial impressions, that the young man (wearing a red Make America Great Again cap) was being racist. Of course, in the day and age we live in, social media and media outlets in general erupted in outrage (all unbeknownst to me, since I wasn't on the news or social media pretty much all weekend).
Then, the more full story seemed to come to light. Several hours of video coverage show yet another group of verified racists taunting the high school students, and then, from the video, it seems that it was the Native American who first approached the young Catholic student. Further watching the video shows no violence coming to light, and in the end, both sides end up walking away from the situation. In other words, nothing came of a situation that, truthfully, could have been a place of escalation.
In the aftermath, the student and his family have received death threats and the like, and many are even to the point where they seem to justify violence toward the young man and his family.
Okay, this post is not actually about the story, but about how easy it can be to find ourselves outraged over things. One of the professors as the seminary I attended has written an article that there really is no such thing as righteous anger, though we may wish it to be. Anger is a sign that there is something amiss. If you are angered when you see a child mistreated or abused, it is a sign that there is something wrong. You could say that anger is a side effect of sin in the world, perhaps a rightful one, but because it exists due to sin, it isn't something that we were created to deal with.
The thing is, so many seem to be outraged, and looking for reasons to vent their rage at perceived injustices. And this flies in the face of our meaning to the eighth commandment from Luther's Small Catechism. In the wording that I remember from growing up, we are to "put the best construction on everything." The current wording for it is to "explain everything in the kindest way." This means that we don't look to be outraged over things, but instead look to see if perhaps there are things going on that we are not aware of. We don't look to tear down, but to build up. If there is a sin or an issue, we address it, but from the standpoint of doing so in love, not in anger.
It actually takes a lot of energy to remain angry at someone or something. I will admit that I have tried it. It's actually easier and less energy consuming to look for the good in the situation than to cling to anger. Again, it doesn't mean that we fail to address issues that need to be addressed. However, we do so with a light toward reconciliation and restoration rather than anger and to get our way.
Rarely is anger constructive. It's so easy, and truthfully it often feels good to express our anger. Yet, as Christians, God rightly calls us to consider our anger, especially in the light that we are redeemed children of His through Jesus. When anger hits us, we are faced with the opportunity to live out God's baptismal grace to us, or to react and vent. Needless to say, considering this will drive us all the more to the cross of Jesus, where our sin of anger (and all others) has been covered and the price paid.
