Anger and Leadership

Anger is one of the seven deadly sins.

Anger is one of the clearest emotions Jesus Christ shows in the Gospels (appearing in 3 of the 4).

Anger clearly has a place in our role as leaders (we are called to model ourselves on Christ), but it also clearly can lead us down the path of damnation.

Recently there was an incident at school that made my blood boil (the violence inherent in our metaphors for anger is telling of its seductive power). I believe as a leader we are called to set aside our personal feelings and adjust each instance not with that sense of anger but instead a sense of justice and mercy. This is not always easy.

Situations are further complicated when anger is directed your way. In those situations where the buck stops with you, you cannot respond with a personal anger (although there is a great deal of sexism in this). I believe there are times, difficult times, where you must remain cool, professional, and somewhat detached even as parents, teachers, students, and staff erupt around you. Generally, this is something I feel secure in doing (even as I might vent later) - however - there are times where I do struggle with it. That sense of pride which erupts into anger is when I feel that wrath is truly one of the seven deadly sins.

No case better shows the flipside of anger than Mr. McCarrick.

I get a certain (maybe even sinful) pleasure in writing Mr. For someone who used his influence and money-raising ability to climb the ranks of the Catholic Church, ensconcing himself as a literal pope-maker, and then utilized his position of power to harm, damage, and rape children and men; to have the address of "His Eminence" stripped by the very man he championed has a certain deliciousness to it. One that I should confess.

At the same point, his crimes, the culture that enabled those crimes, and the lack of meaningful reform that I believe will happen at the ecclesiastical level can lead to righteous anger - the kind Jesus exhibited when His Father's house had become a den of thieves.

In my journal on August 5th I wrote:

And now to see the sheer evil of our leadership laid bare. To see someone whose actions were treated with jokes and winks and asides rise to be a "prince." To see apostates and the world jeering at an institution 2000 years old called to be more. To know that McCarrick is probably one of many who say one thing and do another, who are wolves in shepherd's dress, who prey and perpetuate a rote in the bones of our Church saddens and angers me.

I can feel that old voice in my head whispering, "despair" "despair" "despair." (The Church has lost its ways. It doesn't matter anyway. All is lost.)

That feeling of despair is still present in my heart. At the same time there is a righteous anger that I still feel. An anger that is completely apart from the personal hurt I sometimes feel as a leader, an anger that can animate our leadership. An anger that at the hateful and racist policies of the President, an anger that decries the lack of opportunity and level playing field for so many of our country, an anger at the corporate and liberal forces that tear down the communities which need to sustain us, an anger that calls us to hold our Church leaders accountable for a culture of coverup, predation, and deceit.

Like Jesus, that anger needs to turn into action directed towards justice and compassion. That anger should call us to stand up for our brothers and sisters who seek a better life due to the crime, despair, and issues arising in their own countries. That anger should call us to vote and campaign and work for a more just society that is people-focused and not capital-focused. That anger should not rest while a group of men gather an issue one more toothless proclamation.

There are certain biblical scholars that say that Jesus actually cleaned the temple twice. Once early in His ministry and a second time when He arrived back in Jerusalem days before His Passion. We are continually called to cleanse the Church today. Injustice should make us angry. Personal affronts to our pride should not. Discerning the difference is key to being a good leader.

Further reading on McCarrick from twitter. And a call to pray for him (I'm not there yet).

The Anger of Achilles, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo depicts the Greek hero attacking Agamemnon (Wikipedia).