Anger and Hurt Thwart Non-Violent Resistance

This morning I had a vision of how hurt and anger go hand-in-hand. Anger is the shield that circles the wagons around a broken heart; when we hold the offender at bay, we believe they cannot hurt us anymore. What we fail to realize is that the shield also keeps healing at bay. Like a broken axle in a muddy ditch, our wagon’s just plain stuck until we let down our guard and work to forgive.

In this past summer of 2019, two and a half years into Trump’s reign, I discerned that his strongest supporters, my family of faith, were not going to change their minds or their support of him, no matter what he does. And that being said, I realized I may have to leave the family. He’s a megalomaniac and a liar. Joining the effort to remove him from office doesn’t trouble me; leaving the family just kills me. I find myself wondering: is it okay to stay in a church if neither side brings up politics? If I don’t stand up for a solution, does that make me part of the problem?

The Strength to Love

One of the books I’m reading now is a collection of sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. entitled Strength to Love. In the foreward, his widow Coretta says, “Noncooperation and nonviolent resistance were means of stirring and awakening moral truths in one’s opponents, of evoking the humanity that, Martin believed, existed in each of us.” ¹ Anger is not nonviolent. On the contrary, Jesus commanded Peter to “put your sword away!” ² as the authorities came to arrest Him in the garden. Even when anger is not accompanied by physical violence, it strikes fear into the heart of its target.

“In your anger do not sin.”- Ephesians: 4:26. The next step I need to take in my journey of resistance is learning to speak up without terrorizing others.

¹ Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr., Fortress Press, 2010

² John 18:11 NIV