Righteous Anger

Today I read Alma 60, Moroni's letter to Pahoran. This letter again shows the goodness of Moroni, it is nothing compared to tomorrow's reading though of chapter 61, Pahoran's reply to Moroni! My favorite phrase from this letter just because it's fun is when Moroni accuses Pahoran of sitting on his throne in a thoughtless stupor. That just conjures up such a funny image to me.

Anyway, the main part of this chapter that stood out to me is the whole theme of this letter that of righteous anger. We've talked about unrighteous anger before, but we have never talked about righteous anger. Some might question if there is such a thing as righteous anger. I would answer wholeheartedly that there is. The reason I am so confident in saying that is because the Savior got angry at the money lenders. The scriptures say from time to time that God gets angry. If those two beings who are perfect can get angry, then there much be such a thing as righteous anger.

The problem with anger though, is it has a tendency to get away from the person and lead them to do things they would never have done in a more sober frame of mind. Most people cannot stay in control of themselves when they are angry. I am not very good at it. And that is why anger is almost always looked at as a bad emotion. But as we see here in Moroni's letter, anger has its place as long as it can be kept under control.

The problem though, IS keeping it under control. Anger is like a wild or brush fire, it gets out of control really quickly. Moroni though in this chapter does a fantastic job of keeping himself in control and mentions that he does not fear the government and their power, but he fears God and His power. We will see more why this important tomorrow in Pahoran's response.

Now, I am NOT advocating anger at all. I don't think most of us have the temperament to keep ourselves in control. But I am saying that we need to learn to have perfect control over all our emotions. Even Nephi lamented that he did not have enough control over himself and based on what he says, it seems like his anger might have gotten the better of him a few times. We just don't know, but he viewed his anger as a weakness in himself. I am confident that Moroni did not view his anger as a weakness, nor did the Savior.

I think it also makes a HUGE difference what we get angry over. The Savior was angered when he saw how the temple was being used. When sacred things are treated lightly, or being trampled under people's feet, I would say anger is justified. However, angry actions are NOT justified. The Lord does not condone retaliatory actions most of the time, only at His direction is it ok. It is really hard to feel and follow the Spirit when angry.

So I guess my point in all of this is to learn control. As we learn perfect control over ourselves, we will know when it is appropriate to feel anger and when it is not. For the moment, I still am not there and do sin in my anger. But I am working on it and little by little, I am getting there. I hope you are too. Until tomorrow.