Happy Sunday,

The following is a draft section of my book, Broken News, scheduled for release in ~Fall 2027.

I add/revise/cut content based on feedback from this newsletter each week, so if something stands out as wrong, confusing, or wow-that-actually-helped-please-don’t-change-it… hit reply and let me know!

Scriptural Basis
“Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.”

Matthew 21:12

Our anger isn’t righteous.
Whenever I write about treating political enemies with patience and kindness, readers cite the same thing: Jesus flipping tables. This, they say, is clear evidence that some people are too evil to be treated with patience and kindness; some people need table-flipping rebuke and condemnation; some situations demand righteous anger.

Here’s the problem: our anger isn’t righteous… God’s is.

Scripture is clear that anger is almost always wrong. A few passages describe a person’s anger without explicitly condemning it, but the only anger Scripture holds up as righteous is God’s. Meanwhile, the list of warnings or commands against human anger is long: Psalm 37:8, Proverbs 14:17, Proverbs 14:29, Proverbs 15:1, Proverbs 15:18, Proverbs 16:32, Proverbs 19:11, Proverbs 19:19, Proverbs 22:24-25, Proverbs 25:28, Proverbs 29:8, Proverbs 29:11, Proverbs 29:22, Ecclesiastes 7:9, Jonah 4:4, Matthew 5:21-22, Matthew 15:19, Mark 7:21-23, Romans 12:18-19, Romans 13:13, 1 Corinthians 3:3, 2 Corinthians 12:20, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:31, Colossians 3:8, 1 Timothy 2:8, 2 Timothy 2:23-24, Titus 1:7, James 1:19-20, James 3:14-16, James 4:1-2.

So yes, Jesus flipped tables. And He was right to do so, because He is God.

But I’m not God.

In my news-addiction heyday, I loved Ephesians 4:26: “be angry and do not sin.” I took it to mean anger and I could hang out as long as we didn’t invite sin along. But that reading conveniently ignores the rest of the passage, which says, “don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity” (vv.26-27) and then “let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice” (v.31).

Paul isn’t endorsing anger; he assumes it will show up—because we’re sinful humans—and tells us to get rid of it before bedtime. Even under the most gracious pro-anger reading, it’s permission for a few hours of anger paired with a warning that it may give the devil an opportunity. You have to really squint to see permission for the slow-simmering, years-long resentment toward half the country that today’s news environment cultivated in me.

When we read the accounts of Jesus’s life—the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—we see He is much more prone to forgiving, teaching, and gentle correction than table-flipping. And while He modeled flipping tables once, He never commanded us to flip tables. He did, however, command us to be kind, loving, and forgiving (Matthew 18:21-22). He likened anger to murder (Matthew 5:21-22); described Himself as “gentle” (Matthew 11:29); and allowed Himself to be unjustly beaten and murdered to save the lives of the very people beating and murdering Him.

When it comes to becoming more like Christ, I need to focus more on letting go of anger than looking for which tables need flipping.

Was this valuable? Was this heretical? Do you have a rebuttal? Should it not make the book?

Please hit reply and let me know! Your replies are genuinely a huge help and are massively shaping this book. I don’t have time to respond to each one, but I personally read every email.

Recommended*: It feels like the whole world is always in a hurry. The headlines are chaotic, work is busy, children are loud, and my soul defaults to feeling restless.

That's why I have read The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry four times. (It’s one of three books on my “probably good to re-read every year” list.) It forces me to confront and sit with the fact that God isn’t demanding more and more from me, and it re-inspires me to slow down, simplify, and live with deliberate peace amid a chaotic world. I (obviously) highly recommend this book!

*I’m fortunate enough to be paid to promote products I actually use and genuinely recommend. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry is one of them.

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