"Can ye be angry and not sin?"
That's what the Joseph Smith translation of Ephesians 4:26 asks in what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe is a restoration of Paul's original words in the New Testament.
Indeed, anger is one of the "Seven Deadly Sins" and with good reason.
"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city," Proverbs 16:32 states.
Uncontrolled anger (also sometimes called "wrath" or "malice") can lead to child or spouse abuse, road rage, violence, racial hatred and even murder.
It is the opposite of kindness.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (www.newadvent.org), anger is "the door to the vices accidentally" by "hindering the judgment of reason, whereby man is withdrawn from evil."
Catholics also believe that anger is simply a human passion and is only evil if it sets "the order of reason aside."
That may also be a mainstream belief today.
For example, Tina Halliday, who teaches an anger management class at the University of Utah through the Utah Employees Assistance program, said she also doesn't believe anger is a sin.
"Anger of itself is not a sin . . . I think anger is a very healthy emotion," she said. "It's gotten a bad rap. It's what you do with it."
She said her course is based on what anger is all about and how to manage it, not avoid it.
"It's how we handle it," she said. "Anger can be a problem or an opportunity."
Halliday said we need to understand what may be contributing to our anger and also what other emotions might be involved. She also stresses that her class only starts that process. (More information on her class is available at uuhsc.utah.edu/eap/.)
There are also other misconceptions about anger, according to the www.utahmarriage.org Web site, which quotes Nancy Recker of the Ohio State University Extension on these five anger myths:
If you don't look angry on the outside, you don't have a problem with anger.
If you ignore hurt and anger, they will go away.
Venting feelings and anger will make them go away.
Playing the martyr — being nice all the time — and not expressing anger will not damage you.
Your relationships will suffer if you express any anger or hurt.
On resolving anger — at least in marriages — David and Vera Mace, pioneers in marriage enrichment, came up with an acronym — AREA — to assist couples.
A is for admitting anger to your spouse; R is for the desire to restrain your anger; E is for explaining in a very calm manner why you are angry; and A stands for action planning and doing something about the cause of the anger.
Anger management classes are widespread nowadays. The Family Support Center (255-6881) also offers such public classes.
The Counseling Center for Human Development's Web site, University of South Florida, states:
"Anger is probably the most poorly handled emotion in our society. From time to time we all experience this very powerful feeling. Some of the common causes of anger include frustration, hurt, annoyance, disappointment, harassment and threats. It is helpful to realize that anger can be our friend or foe, depending on how we express it. Knowing how to recognize and express it appropriately can help us to reach goals, handle emergencies, solve problems and even protect our health. However, failure to recognize and understand our anger may lead to a variety of problems."
The Florida educational Web site (usfweb2.usf.edu/counsel/self-hlp/anger.htm) also notes a correlation between the dangers of uncontrolled anger and crime, emotional and physical abuse and other violent behavior.
On the religious side, church leaders still have their share of concern about anger.
The Rev. Tom Goldsmith of Salt Lake City's First Unitarian Church said his faith seeks to build right relations with other people. Anger can prevent that. When one gets angry, he believes it is important to look for the source of the anger and determine when it is truly justified.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that we live in an age of rage today.
A Watchtower article says, "Bertram Rothschild, writing in the journal The Humanist, stated: 'Anger ... is primarily one's personal responsibility. The reasons to become angry exist in our heads. ... The few times anger worked for you pale in comparison to the multitude of times it made things worse. It is far better not to produce the anger than to experience it.'"
The Jehovah's Witness article also stated: "Frank Donovan, in his book 'Dealing With Anger — Self-Help Solutions for Men,' recommends: 'Escaping anger — or, more specifically, escaping the scene and other people in your angry episode — is a strategy which has special importance and value at the higher levels of anger.'"
The late Elder ElRay L. Christiansen, assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve of the LDS Church, gave this advice in a June 1971 sermon:
"Someone has said, 'The size of a man may be measured by the size of the things that make him angry.' How true that is! To become upset and infuriated over trivial matters gives evidence of childishness and immaturity in a person."
Elder Christiansen also said: "Somewhere I read this statement: 'When one is in the right, he need not lose his temper; and when he is wrong, he cannot afford to.'"
Former LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball, in the LDS book "The Miracle of Forgiveness," said that anger is "a sin of thought" which, if not controlled, may be the forerunner of vicious and violent acts.
Brigham Young said, "Cease your anger and sullenness of temper. ... Do not get so angry that you cannot pray."
President Gordon B. Hinckley said in an October 2003 address, "I pray that each of us will be a little more kind, a little more thoughtful, a little more courteous. I pray that we will keep our tongues in check and not let anger prompt words which we would later regret. I pray that we may have the strength and the will to turn the other cheek, to walk the extra mile in lifting up the feeble knees of those in distress."
"Anger: The Seven Deadly Sins" is one of a series of books written by Robert A.F. Thurman that is available through New York Public Library Lectures in Humanity.
The author says that anger can only be defeated by ceasing to be angry. However, as in Buddhism, he says a person doesn't defeat anger by destroying it but rather by building a tolerance to its supposed causes and then taking the energy that would be anger energy and using it in positive forms.
There is also a "righteous anger." According to Elder Bruce R. McConkie in "Mormon Doctrine," "righteous anger is an attribution of deity. Jesus Christ exercised that when he drove the money changers out of the temple and Moses did when he broke the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written.
"But where man is concerned, there is great peril in anger," Elder McConkie said, "and the fear is ever present that the emotion and passion attending it will be exercised in unrighteousness."
Christian authors and counselors Gary Smalley and John Trent offer this advice:
"Apply what Martin Luther used to say to negative thoughts: 'You can't keep the birds from flying over your head ... but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair!' We may not be able to keep anger from cropping up, but we can make a decision to keep it from staying in our lives and poisoning our attitudes."
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com