Please see the disclaimer.
In this world, it is easy to be angry. As an example, I find it easy to be angry about the trampling of the Constitution of the United States by those in government because I love the Constitution.
It is also easy to be angry at the conspiracies that exist.
Yes, conspiracies exist. The revelations by Edward Snowden have shown us an example.
But even more importantly, the Savior Himself said that there would be conspiracies:
Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation.
— D&C 89:4
In The Book of Mormon, the prophet Moroni tells us what we should do when conspiracies are discovered:
Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up.
God doesn’t tell us to fight the conspiracies; He tells us to just “awake” to our situation. The truth is that when the conspiracies are discovered, there is already nothing that can be done to dislodge them, so anger could be useless.
In fact, anger could be bad; men who desire power often use strife and contention as an excuse for taking control because people desire order. So the strife and violence from anger may actually play into the hands of those who wish to usurp our rights.
Don’t believe me? In The Book of Mormon, there are at least 8 times that conspiring men used anger to accomplish their purposes:
Did you notice how many of these examples occurred in the Book of Alma? It seems to be a theme, one we should take seriously.
On top of that, it seems that tribalism has taken hold in many hearts. This is both a symptom and a cause of anger. Since it causes anger, it will increase the amount of anger in the world. It is also an easy tool for conspiring men to incite us to anger, by making turning the other “tribe” into someone that we could easily be angry at.
And to add to that, we know that the amount of deceit will only grow. Those who lie have already lied to make us angry at each other. Even if we fall for such deceits, we should never allow them to make us angry.
It is my opinion that the worst disease of the Last Days will not be any plague, though there will be plagues; the worst disease will be anger. It will be anger that will drive much of the evil of these days.
However, regardless of my opinions about anger and contention, the Lord Himself made His feelings about them very clear:
For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.
Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.
It should be obvious that any spirit that is not of Christ will sadden the Holy Ghost, and He will depart, so if we are striving to have His companionship, we should refrain from such spirits, which includes the spirit of anger and contention.
So we should strive to stop ourselves from being angry, no matter the terrible things that are happening.