Righteous Anger or Wrath

The Operative: Do you know what your sin is Mal?

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Ah Hell... I'm a fan of all seven. But right now... I'm gonna have to go with wrath.

The above conversation from the movie Serenity is the final confrontation between these two characters. Mal is driven by anger through out the movie and, although is is less overt, through out Firefly. This anger drives him to seek justice although it seems impossible, to stand up to tyranny although grossly out numbered, and to help the poor and weak, often at personal loss. In this scene the operative accuses him of being victim to one of the seven deadly sins. Yet Mal is unquestionably the good guy in this situation, and yet the driving force in his life seems to be an evil.

Wrath is one of the seven deadly sins. And yet anger is so often spoken of as, if not something good, at least something that can be channelled and used for good. When driven by anger a person is harder to corrupt, more difficult to bribe and almost impossible to dissuade. The Gospels tell us that even Jesus was prone to righteous anger, as the money changers in the temple could attest to.

So what is the distinction? Is it the source of the anger or wrath? Is it what you do with it? Can can two things seemingly so similar be so different, one a force for good and one completely destructive?