{"id":534,"date":"2010-09-15T09:51:32","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T09:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/09\/temper-tantrums-at-the-polling-booth.html"},"modified":"2010-09-15T09:51:32","modified_gmt":"2010-09-15T09:51:32","slug":"temper-tantrums-at-the-polling-booth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/09\/temper-tantrums-at-the-polling-booth.html","title":{"rendered":"Temper Tantrums at the Polling Booth"},"content":{"rendered":"

America, hold your breath, and count to 10! Our country seems to be throwing a fit of anger, and it’s time to step back a moment. The mood is palpable. People are ticked and scared and lashing out at anything “establishment.” Last night’s primary election results – in Delaware most blatantly – has revealed the blaring furry. America is angry that government’s reach is too long, its grip too strong, and its impact too ineffective. There’s a “throw the bums out” tidal wave rising, to the point that the conservatives who are fueling the revolt may be undoing their own intent. <\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

It might be going too far. With her primary victory in Delaware the fickle firebrand Christine O’Donnell has probably doomed the Republican bit to win control of the Senate come November. She’s far to polarizing and some would argue, inept. Yes, anger can be good. Anger is a symptom. Anger reveals problems. Anger can be healthy. But it can also run amuck. Two wrongs don’t make a right and electing a fool to replace a tyrant is not necessarily the deal to strike… <\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>The Bible urges, “Be angry but sin not…” That is, there are times when anger is the right response. When injustice is awash, then it’s right and righteous to let indignation do its work. Many of us would say there’s plenty to be angry about in America right now. But admitting this, we have to add, “Be angry, but don’t let it push us to sinful foolishness.” <\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

“Lord, there is a brewing anger in our nation today. Much of that anger has good reason. There are injustices afoot. Our government is too big and too inept. And as they reach for more, we’re reacting. But Lord, in the midst of our anger, give us pause. Give us prudence and caution and break between the stimulus and the response. We want to be wise in the midst of our passion. We ask you to bless our country, and that our country would bless you. Bless us today with a heart of compassion and patience and wisdom to balance – but not neutralize – our anger. In Jesus we pray…” <\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America, hold your breath, and count to 10! Our country seems to be throwing a fit of anger, and it’s time to step back a moment. The mood is palpable. People are ticked and scared and lashing out at anything “establishment.” Last night’s primary election results – in Delaware most blatantly – has revealed the blaring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTemper Tantrums at the Polling Booth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2010\/09\/temper-tantrums-at-the-polling-booth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Temper Tantrums at the Polling Booth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"America, hold your breath, and count to 10! 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He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the author of \"Six Prayers God Always Answers: Results May Vary,\" and \"Nine Ways God Always Speaks: Only Available in Certain States,\" both co-written with Jennifer Schuchmann. His third book is \"The Karma of Jesus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mark is a native of Santa Cruz, California. He has studied at Azusa Pacific University, The Academy of Performing Arts, Cambridge, Ontario, and Luther Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from Regent University. Mark and his wife Jill have four children. His true passion is walking with people in the exciting adventure of communicating with God.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}