For most of my childhood I thought that anger (or being angry) was a sin. Somehow I thought it said so in the Bible. But Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be angry and do not sin.” Anger is an emotion; what you do with/in that anger has the potential to result in sin, but it doesn’t have to. Personal anger generally occurs when there has been an offense that closely, intimately affects you.
For example, imagine you are out grocery shopping and some random person walks past and loudly says, “Wow! Your child is uglier than yesterday’s roadkill.” That would probably make you angry, wouldn’t it? It would be an offense that wounds and infuriates your heart.
Righteous anger, in contrast, is what should emblazon us when an offense targets the heart of God. When families are destroyed, when children are abused, when the people He made in His image are not treated as sacred–these are some examples of what we know grieves God’s heart.
Today I was reminded of another instance of righteous anger, found in the book of Nehemiah. Jerusalem’s walls were broken down and the city was a heartbroken pile of dirt and rubble. Nehemiah, through prayer, took his righteous anger and inspired the people to rebuild their wall. He persevered in the face of wicked taunting and hired liars, and when he returned years later and found them screwing up their city again, even beat up many men for their shameful deeds. This was Jerusalem, the Holy City–this was a time for righteous anger!
While the wall is being restored, Nehemiah documents all the different people and the sections that they specifically built or repaired. This much work took so many people and so many different abilities, but they were all focused on the same goal.
I read Nehemiah today because my soul is unsettled. I see human sexuality much like the city of Jerusalem: holy and a celebration of God. I see so many boundaries destroyed where there should be strong, secure walls in place. I see the sins and the evil that chisel away at these walls, while the world just keeps spinning.
Today I also read a well-written, in-depth article on the connection between pornography, sex trafficking, and abortion. I discovered it after my own thoughts have led me to conclude that abortion is a form of sex trafficking, and I wanted to know if anyone else had discussed it.
I’ve been rather detached from pro-life politics since getting married and starting a family, but have recently come back into the ring to fight against Washington state’s new bill regarding Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE). I posted on Facebook yesterday, “CSE is grooming children for someone else’s advantage.”
(To learn more about the concerns with CSE, click here or search “Informed Parents of Washington” on Facebook.)
Another article from LifeNews that I read this week shares the heart-wrenching number of girls the abortion clinics try to “service” between the ages of 13-18. It shares the exorbitant profit made by abortion practitioners, and their business model for keeping girls and women returning for services.
Humans are sexual beings. Our bodies were designed to have sex and enjoy it. When two people are committed to each other and God, sex can be explored and appreciated at its fullest. The healthiest sexual relationships are those that seek to please the other person, not to seek their own fulfillment or self-satisfaction. This is a holy exchange, a sacred give and take.
Pornography teaches that sex is self-serve, self-gratifying. It trains the brain to see women and men as cheap pleasure tools. But since we’re human and crave “more”, one image or one online clip won’t ever be enough. And since pornography always needs more content, it finds more powerless people.
However, sex often results in pregnancy, as it was intended to. But since pornography is one-sided, selfish and carnal, these pregnancies can’t last. So these girls and women are forced or coerced into abortions, so they can get back to their “work”.
Pornography fuels sex trafficking, sex trafficking fuels abortions, abortions fuel more abortions.
The end result? A carnal, despicable culture seeking more self-gratification and more money.
That’s not what sex is for. That’s not what people are for.
So back to Nehemiah and Jerusalem: Where are these walls we can rebuild? Which doors and gates and structures are we next to that we can repair and create a culture where these evils are unthinkable?
Check out the articles I linked above. See the numbers and let yourself see each statistic as a human being in need of respect and protection. Pray that God gives us eyes to see through the evils we’ve become too familiar with, and hands and feet ready to fight for the heart of God.
After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
– Nehemiah 4:14
jess leigh hanna 