A recent article by Fred Prinzing, a retired Baptist pastor and seminary professor in Washington State, got me thinking about the impact of anger in our society.

“It seems there’s more anger and a lot less civility in our culture today…” wrote Prinzing in the March issue of BGC World. “A generation ago anger was generally viewed as a sign of weakness and/or a loss of self-control. Today people are encouraged to express their anger.”

While “road rage” and shooting rampages are not exclusively modern experiences, there does seem to be sufficient evidence for giving attention to how we are dealing with anger.

The biblical directive found in the first chapter of James seems quite timely and straightforward: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger — for our anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

While preparing a recent Sunday evening sermon on this text, I pulled Stephen Shoemaker’s 1987 book, The Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome, from my shelves. Shoemaker, now pastor of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., describes some of the more common types of anger.

“Powder-keg anger” is the explosive variety. Short fuses rather than self-control too often lead to later-regretted outbursts. Count road rage among this tragic variety.

“Crock-pot anger,” Shoemaker noted, is one that “simmers and stews” for a while before boiling over. This volcanic approach to anger, said Shoemaker, is a favorite of mothers and golfers.

However, the type of anger that really caught my attention is what Shoemaker calls “ideological anger.”

Ideological anger is not an instantaneous overreaction; it is cultivated anger. It occurs when we elevate our preferred political or theological positions to ultimate truth and see all competing ideas as flatly wrong and even personally threatening.

The animosity and hostility that result from our growing attitude of certainty and superiority are justified as righteous indignation. When one is right, what could be wrong with most any way of proclaiming that truth and protecting others from the error of opposing viewpoints?

In the 18 years since Shoemaker’s book was published, ideological anger has continued to flourish in our society — especially among those professing Christian faith. In fact, spiritual conviction is often used to justify the resulting harshness, condemnation and sometimes abuse.

Reinforcement of an already well-cemented viewpoint is readily available. Ideological anger is fed by daily doses of smug radio and television talk gurus who do what little thinking is done for thousands of followers who take up their causes with ease.

The more one is convinced of his or her rightness — and even righteousness — of their political/theological bent, the more threatening the opposition appears. Soon anyone who disagrees is tagged as wrong, or worse, as dangerously wrong and in need of correction or elimination.

However such harshness —and, yes, hatred — cannot be justified by equating our attitudes and actions with God’s disdain for sin. God has never sought our help in the wrath-delivery department.

We are in great need of modeling by those who can vigorously debate their disagreements, yet remain civil and gracious toward one another. It is a much less anger-producing approach to life than surrounding oneself with only those who share common perspectives and prejudices.

For many, it might be a good idea to turn the radio to an easy-listening station for a week or two. Have coffee or lunch with someone who thinks differently about some issues of the day.

It might be a good time to hear and to heed the biblical directive to “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.”