A blessing we don't often see in America

In the middle of the night as he and his family lay sleeping an assassin firebombed Josh Shapiro’s house. Last week in a cathedral he sat down on a stage below the pulpit beside Spencer Cox.

One’s governor of Pennsylvania. The other’s governor of Utah. One’s a Democrat. The other is a Republican.

Black hair, narrow black rimmed glasses, voice calm, polite, but cautious, Shapiro nodded to Savannah Guthrie, hosting the forum.

Cox, wearing a blue suit, white socks covered with red circles, earnest but with youthful awkwardness, sat listening as Guthrie asked her first question.

Pointing to Shapiro, Cox told her the day Charlie Kirk was assassinated the first man who called him was Shapiro – that Shapiro told him to ‘speak with moral clarity and to speak from the heart.’

At that moment, Cox said, they ceased being a Republican and a Democrat – became two Americans.

Guthrie asked about the violence and division plaguing America.

Not harsh, voice thoughtful, concise, Shapiro pointed to a simple fact: That unity starts at the top. That people naturally look to the president for moral clarity; voice softer added, We have a president right now who fails that test – it should not be hard to follow the beautiful eulogy of Erika Kirk with an ‘Amen’ instead of saying as Trump did, ‘I can’t do that. I hate my enemies.’

Later, he condemned people in his own party who celebrated Kirk’s assassination: ‘That is not okay. Violence is never the answer.’

Listening, Cox turned in his chair: I’m not trying to play down Trump’s divisive rhetoric. I’m not going to do that. But I’m going to say this: If we think a president or a governor is going to change where we are right now we’re fooling ourselves. I believe the people of our country are the ones who are going to have to change this.

Guthrie asked another question – moving beyond politics Shapiro said the answer to the darkness we see in America today is the light that ordinary Americans bring each day often grounded in their faith.

Cox went a step further: I believe that God does work through angels. I believe they’re here with us tonight. I feel that spirit of God with us.

He glanced down, added the founders felt two blessings were necessary to build a nation – we had to have knowledge and we had to be moral.

He warned: We can’t make politics our religion. Jesus gave us the hardest commandment of all when he told us we had to love our enemies – added bluntly: ‘That’s not what politics teaches us today.’

Sitting beside him Shapiro said Amen.

Sitting in a church a Democrat and a Republican talked about old truths as two Americans – that’s a blessing we don’t often see.

Thanks for reading. Subscribe for free to receive new posts.