Army of Priests

The words of Desmond Tutu (Nobel Laureate, Anglican archbishop of South Africa, and chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation commission) in his book No Future without Forgiveness (pg 54-55):

Retributive Justice’s chief goal is to be punitive, so that the wronged party is really the state, something impersonal, which has little consideration for the real victims and almost none for the perpetrator.

We contend that there is another kind of justice, which was characteristic of traditional African jurisprudence. Here the central concern is not retribution or punishment. In the spirit of ubuntu ["We are human through other humans"], the central concern is the healing of breaches, the releasing of imbalances, the restoration of broken relationships, a seeking to rehabilitate both the victim and the perpetrator, who should be given an opportunity to be reintegrated into the community he has injured by his offence.

When I was young I remember a time when my parents committed some high crime of corporal punishment and I subsequently got angry with my younger brother (though, I can’t remember much more than that). My parents weren’t happy about this, so they told me that being angry was a sin, in the hope that I would “get my act together”. I wasn’t so sure about my parents claim, so I asked some other adults if “anger was a sin” with the kind of naive understanding of sin that all children have. These adults weren’t too happy to contradict my parents, but they disagreed with what they said, so they told me that what I did with my anger determined if I was sinning or not (but in words with less syllables).

Anger is an interesting emotion. It has the uniquely powerful ability to alter human behaviour unlike any other motivating factor I know. Anger can cause a husband, in a moment of poor judgement, to strike his wife even despite the bonds of love they have formed. It can cause huge groups of people to boycott a company where their greed would normally have them eager to buy the company’s products. It can start wars and turn otherwise decent people into mobs. It can destroy lives.

Yet anger can also be a huge force for good. I seem to be able to overcome all sorts of personal failings once I become angry enough with myself. When I learn about the plight of the poor and their exploitation by the rich I become angry because of the injustice. Indeed, nothing makes me so angry as to see legal injustice. They call this “righteous anger”. Even Jesus got angry. He persistently gave the Pharisees a tongue lashing, and even used a whip to get money launderers out of the temple.

Passion is anger. Someone who is passionate about movies or music gets angry with artists who will cut corners and tarnish the art for a few more bucks. As a programmer I get angry when I see lazy programmers that wont do that little bit more to make a huge difference to the user’s experience – it taints the profession. Every passion in my life results in greater action when it is firmly rooted in anger at laziness, incompetence or injustice; and a great desire not to become subject to these things.

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