Dean Phillips

Ambler

Twenty-six million children of God are starving in Sudan, 17 students and staff were killed in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Parkland, Fla., more than a thousand settlers were massacred in Israel on Oct. 7, tens of thousands of Gazans are dead and more than one million are displaced — but God intervened to save Donald Trump by causing him to turn his head to avoid an assassin’s bullet?

I don’t think so.

God’s greatest gift to humanity (if God exists, and that’s not a question I can answer) — is free will — the capacity of humans to make their own ethical decisions.

God does not save politicians from speeding bullets, or save mankind from endless acts of cruelty, often committed in Her name. God does not anoint the winner of the Super Bowl or any other sporting events. God does not change the course of history, stop wars, cure diseases or save the environment. Likewise, God doesn’t cause wars, persecute minorities or go nuts and shoot at a presidential candidate. God didn’t create bigotry, intolerance, racism, homophobia or misogyny — and God certainly hasn’t ended it.

The Human Race is blessed with many opportunities and obstacles, but it is up to us, collectively and individually, to save us from those obstacles, including our own flaws and weaknesses.

Walt Kelly’s comic strip character Pogo famously said, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” By our own actions, we humans have brought the world’s problems on ourselves–and only we humans can save us from ourselves.

As a country, we have gotten crueler, cruder and more divided. Let’s commit to protecting democracy, restoring civility, reestablishing reproductive rights, saving the environment and embracing social justice. This November, vote for candidates, not based on our grievances, biases and anger, but following our better angels for the greater good.