Is there a religious way to get angry?

The Rev. Elaine Ellis Thomas, St. Paul’s Memorial Episcopal Church, Charlottesville, VA grew up in North Carolina and Tennessee, lived in Oregon for four years, and finally landed in Pennsylvania before coming to Charlottesville in 2014. She has a Masters of Divinity from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale where she did intensive work in reconciliation which took her from New Haven to Coventry, England, to Cape Town, South Africa. Religion generally urges people of faith to keep their temper in check. For example, anger-related teachings appear at many different points in the Bible, and most references condemn the emotion. Verses like these, as well as anger's inclusion on the list of seven deadly sins, lead some people to try to avoid the emotion completely. Trying to avoid anger all together is a losing battle, but religious people can draw on their teachings to learn how to channel their wrath toward a worthwhile cause, according to Reverend Elaine Ellis Thomas, of St. Paul’s Memorial Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, VA. Reverend Elaine Ellis Thomas shares her recent experience with the Charlottesville protests. She explains what it has taught her about religion and anger, and how we can better ourselves in disagreement.