As some recover from the disappointment of the England men's football team's defeat in the final of Euro 2024, others think that they shouldn't have got to the final in the first place. England won a penalty against the Netherlands in the semi-final but there have been disagreements ever since about whether the penalty should have been given. However, on Facebook, the football fanzine 'When Saturday Comes' commented:
“Maybe it wasn’t a penalty but Maradona’s was handball, Lampard’s goal was over the line, Beckham’s was never a red and Campbell’s goal should’ve stood. Couldn’t care less.”
Whilst not everyone would recall the last three of those incidents, even for those who aren't interested in football, Maradona's goal against England in the 1986 World Cup is infamous. And it is all the more infamous because of his response when asked if he scored it illegally; stating it was made "a little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God."
Divine intervention is very much in the news at the moment with Donald Trump's claim that his survival of an assassination attempt was the work of “God alone.” Whilst there is shock about this attempt, it perhaps shouldn't be that much of a surprise to us; after all, as George Bernard Shaw said “Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.” So much of contemporary political and public discussion involves personal (verbal) attacks on people and a desire to silence contrary views. Wherever people are on the political spectrum, rhetorical attacks are part and parcel of the discourse but they can often tip over into demonisation not just of opinions, but also of those who hold them. And it's not a huge step from a desire to silence an opinion to a desire for a world where those who hold those opinions don't exist any more, and thence to approving of the permanent silencing of those people. As Gavin Ashenden wrote “The assassination of the human character is only a short distance away from the assassination of the human person.”
But what of God's rôle in all of this? Did he really intervene to save Trump's life? Some would argue against this on the grounds either that God doesn't exist; or that he doesn't intervene at all in the world; or that even if he did he wouldn't do so to save someone like Trump. Christians affirm that God is not disinterested in the world and that he does indeed intervene in the world: the Bible is full of accounts of God's intervention and the heart of the biblical narrative is God himself becoming incarnate and entering the world in Jesus, and intervening through his life, death and resurrection to achieve our redemption and salvation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). And he continues to intervene through miracles and answers to prayer. But these interventions are by definition rare, and often the only way we can tell whether something is by the hand of God is by looking backwards and seeing the consequences of an event.
So we may never know for sure if God intervened to save Trump, but what we can be sure of is that the demonisation of people makes assassination attempts more likely. And here we can't just point the finger at those with public platforms and 'followers.' We all have a tendency to treat those who differ from us, particularly with our political views, as being less wise, or intelligent, or compassionate, or just, than we are. Labels like 'bigot' or '...phobe' are used to dismiss and disparage not just opinions we disagree with but also the people who hold them. And that is a dangerous path to start going down.
Where we can be sure that God has intervened is in the creation and design of each one of us – we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14). We all fall short of God's standards in our living, thinking and speaking, but we don't need to be demonised – we need to be redeemed.
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