Resolving anger toward God : lament as an avenue toward attachment

Psychologists have mostly overlooked the topic of anger toward God. The current study tested an intervention based on the biblical psalms of lament, consisting of 20 devotional readings and weekly experiential assignments, delivered electronically over a four-week period. A total of 192 college students at Christian institutions across the United States completed the study, and were randomly assigned to the experimental condition, an attention control condition, or a no-contact condition. The expected findings--that the experimental intervention would cause decreased feelings of anger and complaint toward God, as well as increased intimacy with God over time--were not confirmed. However, those participants who reported maximum compliance with the intervention showed increased ratings on Communion with God. Implications are discussed. 'I love God." Countless believers throughout time have uttered this phrase. But what about the other side of human emotions? What about anger or frustration toward God? Anger toward the divine is nothing new, though it may remain a taboo subject among certain religious groups. Anger, confusion, disillusionment, and frustration with God have affected numerous people throughout centuries. Within the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms is full of honest discourse with God that reflects the gamut of emotions. For example, recorded as the 13th Psalm, we find the following words of angst and desperation (Book of Psalms, NIV, 2000): "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?" Relationship with the divine is a topic that has been long explored, both by theologians and social scientists. However, the topic of anger and disappointment toward God, though valued within religious literature, has been mostly neglected within psychological research until recently. A number of articles pioneering the subject have now emerged (e.g., Exline & Martin, 2005; Wood, Worthington, Exline, Yali, Aten & McMinn, 2010). Anger toward God is certainly not an uncommon phenomenon. A recent study examined the prevalence of anger toward God in a large national sample revealing that 62% of Americans sometimes experience anger toward God, while 2.5% reported that they are often angry with God (Exline, Park, Smyth, & Carey, 2011). According to this data, anger toward God is a relevant topic affecting a majority of Americans at some time during their lives, while a minority of individuals experience anger toward God on a frequent or persistent basis. Beyond being a widespread phenomena, Exline et al. (2011) concluded that anger toward God is measurable within a variety of contexts and populations. Relevance of Anger toward God To grasp the importance of anger toward God, it is helpful to consider the broader phenomenon of religious struggle and coping. When people are faced with stressful life events or crises, they often turn to religion as a resource for coping. In fact, studies have shown that a majority of Americans employ religious coping during difficult times (Schotten-bauer, Klimes-Dougan, Rodriguez, Arnkoff, Glass, et al., 2006). Religious coping is multidimensional; it refers to the vast array of ways that people think, feel, and behave regarding their religious beliefs following a stressful event (Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998). Many methods of religious coping have been identified and categorized; for example, the terms positive and negative religious coping have been coined, referring to patterns of religious coping that have been associated with either positive health benefits or health risks (Zinnbauer, & Pargament, 2005). Four broad categories of religious coping have been defined as: 1) passively deferring control of life to God, 2) self-directing, seeking control through personal initiative rather than through God, 3) pleading in order to work through God via petitioning, and 4) collaborative, partnering with God in problem-solving (Pargament, 1997). …