One of the angriest young men to grace the American spotlight was the black activist of the sixties, Stokely Carmichael. Remember Stokely, with his rhetoric of hate and rebellion? Why was he so angry? There were reasons. Let me give you an example.

A school was being desegregated and Stokely Carmichael took his six-year-old niece to the school to begin kindergarten. Six years old. Remember that. The cops in that southern town weren't about to let the school be integrated. One cop grabbed Stokely's niece, put the girl on the ground, put his boot on her neck, stuck his gun in her ear, and said, "This is the last time I'm gonna tell ya. You're never gonna go to school with white boys." Carmichael took his niece home in shock. Naturally, she was a frightened mess. At that moment Stokely Carmichael vowed that he would never let a boot hold down the neck of another black person again. He would kill the person wearing the boot rather than let it happen.

Now, regardless of how you feel about Stokely Carmichael, regardless of how you feel about civil rights wouldn't you have been angry if you had been in his place? If someone had thrown your six-year-old niece on the ground, stuck a gun in her ear, and threatened and humiliated her, wouldn't you have been about to explode? If not, something very fundamental is missing in your character. 

There is a time when Christians ought to get angry about some of the inequities and injustices in our world. As Melvin Wheatley once said, "There are situations in life in which the absence of anger would be the essence of evil." There is a time for anger.