When we feel angry about an injustice, whether in the world or in our own life, we may try to combat it – or we might shut down, feeling helpless. At best, anger can motivate us to do something productive. But is anger ever really the best way to respond?
Evil, including injustice, needs to be faced – and overturned. But as empowering as anger may feel, the false feeling of power we get from indulging anger doesn’t actually help things – and giving in to anger often just makes us feel worse.
But there is another option: prayer, which turns us instead to the transformative might of divine Love. This heals both divisions and injustice – and exposes the fact that evil in any form is never a reality or a power.
Mary Baker Eddy put it this way: “Evil is not conscious or conscientious Mind; it is not individual, not actual” (“Unity of Good,” p. 25). I found this truth about God as Mind particularly helpful a number of years ago. I was very angry with a family member who had badly hurt others in the family. I cut off contact with this person, believing this would protect those who’d been harmed. Forgiving the individual felt as though it would be endorsing the injustice and potentially making myself and others vulnerable to being hurt again.
But after about six years, through a growing understanding of God as Love, I found my perspective dramatically shifting.
Indulging anger can end up inadvertently supporting, rather than destroying, evils in the world. We may think we’re holding on to faith in what’s good and right, but to prove the all-power of God, Love, we need to look beyond human scenes to understand divine Mind’s infinitude. Separating the sense of evil from an individual – from the true, spiritual man created in the image and likeness of God – removes evil from our sense of anyone’s identity.
The Bible’s book of Proverbs counsels that the individual “who is slow to anger is better and more honorable than the mighty [soldier], And he who rules and controls his own spirit, than he who captures a city” (16:32, “Amplified Bible”). In prayer, I heard the question, “What kind of loving person do I want to be – one who can love in most situations, but not when it’s really hard?” To rule our own spirit is to be consistent in expressing God as Love – not just in easy situations but in all situations.
When we hold on to anger, our thinking gets entrenched in a victim/victimizer scenario, denying the divine nature of an individual and accepting evil as real. But to truly find healing from the effects of injustice, hatred, and oppression, we must take a stand for the power of Love, which ultimately overcomes hate. For true transformation and healing, we must be motivated by the Love that enables us to see the perpetrator as worthy of being loved as a child of God – as being redeemable – no matter how hard it may seem to believe.
We are able to do this through Christ. When human emotion about injustice threatens to overcome us, the Christ – the true idea of God, Love – quenches the flames of anger to reveal divine Love as the only power in the universe. Jesus demonstrated this for our benefit, to prove that we can be released from any hold evil might seem to have on our thoughts. Good alone is power, and this fact helps us to work in a constructive direction toward lasting good for all.
This was true in the situation with my family. I was surprised when, at some point, I no longer just believed that Love was the only power, reducing hate to nothing – I felt it. The power of divine Love became everything to me, and the human history of injustice faded. I could do more than let go of anger; I could actually forgive, because I was no longer afraid that this person could harm me or others in my family. God, Truth and Love, felt like not just a protecting power but the only power.
And when this relative reentered my life, they expressed sincere sorrow and remorse that opened the door to genuine reconciliation. Today, we are close.
Every day, we face situations in the world and in our lives that could elicit anger. We may even feel that anger is the only honest response. But divine Love shows us that its omnipotence overcomes all hate – and must ultimately bring all civilization into accord with the reality of Truth and Love.
Adapted from an editorial published in the Oct. 13, 2025, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
