“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,” — Ephesians 4:26
Does America have an anger problem?
We are polarizing into right wing, left wing … republican, democrat … gay, straight … white, black … Christian, athiest. Lots of anger is fueling the polarization. Lots of it.
As the internet moves more into being video based instead of text based it is getting worse. Success online increasingly means building a niche audience using short, provocative videos. Alex Jones built an audience on manly rants about national issues and personalities. The lamestream media has become lame because of the anger-fueled polarization into political tribes. America is two tribes now when it comes to the increasingly least watched form of video on the planet … CNN and FoxNews.
These tribes are so threatened that they are using what’s left of their capitalism-fueled treasure chests to make sure the competition is censored and deplatformed from the internet. The internet is being turned into an updated version of cable television — controlled from the top.
Anger is the fuel. You can’t get eyeballs and minds without a good rant or a clever meme. Vicious sarcasm rules the day. Gone is objectivity, patience, mercy and love.
What is happening to us?
Revolutions produce rotten fruit. America threw off the king a couple hundred years ago. Yet, we still want to be an English speaking nation. At the same time we rejected King George we muted King Jesus. We made sure His name appeared nowhere in our founding documents. England still honors Jesus in their documents, but not in practice.
Nations require good and moral leadership. The good and the moral cannot be defined without religion. America believed it could thrive by leaving the God decision up to the states. The founders wanted to limit the power of the Federal government with respect to religion, hence the First Amendment. Men like John Adams knew that this was risky. He knew that this government would be dependent on the individual citizens choosing to be good Christian people. It has been a long time since American’s thought this way.
We now believe that a good American tolerates all religions. We think that a mosque next door to our house is Godliness. We’ve accepted a wicked and dangerous idea that emerged after the most devastating World Wars in human history in the early twentieth century.
In deciding never to repeat those mistakes we elevated the few at the expense of the many. We decided that a person’s successful election, business or overflowing checkbook signaled wisdom and truth. We gave power over the whole world to those who could tell, and sustain over time, the most convincing lies. At the heart of our mistake is “making the world safe for democracy.”
God is a Father. He is a King. Nobody elects Him. Nobody ever will.
Nation’s need Fathers, just like families do. America hasn’t had one for a very long time. Trump is an imperfect father figure, but he speaks English, knows his own mind and lives fearlessly having managed atop the American dream with his billions and bankruptcies most of his life. He appeals to one side of the polarized nation, and doesn’t mind being “hated” by the other side.
And nobody attacks enemies in a more entertaining way than Donald Trump. He is clever with his pet names, hitting the mark every time, and stirring just the right amount of anger (politically speaking) in his base. They don’t become violent, but they do come together in a political movement to vote for the man.
The challenge for him as President of all the people is to not touch off civil war level violence from his enemies. He knows that the Antifa-style violence is not likely to touch off a civil war. American Leftist violence is childish, weak and womanish … for now. Identity politics is destroying the Left, thank God.
Anger is not an evil emotion. Paul admits in the verse quoted at the start of this column that folks get angry. He warns Christians not to sin when they get angry, and to not let the sun go down on their anger. We do it all the time. Normal people get angry at injustice and unrighteousness. They express it and move on. The new day brings new challenges and may, or may not, produce occasions for anger.
Anger is toxic when an agenda is fueling it and it never stops.
If you are always angry about anything you need to talk with your pastor or priest. Don’t email them or call them on the phone. Get with them personally and confess your problem. They will help you.
Make it a good day and as Youtuber Patrick Coffin likes to say, “Be a Saint! What else is there!!”
© 2019 Mike Heath – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Michael Heath: mike@michaelheath.org
