FEAR -LOVE- FAME : TIMES

WITH Donald Trump's election, I knew I could not remain silent.

NO matter the context, I'm wary of people who try to create division or suspicion toward a particular group. Who assert that if one group gets more, we will get less.

Who believe that if we extend basic rights to others, our will be diminished. Who argue that if we allow others into our country, we will somehow have to relinquish our own safety, jobs and identity.

Fear insists that life is a zero sum-game. Love knows that there is enough, and to spare. Fear both proclaims and begets scarcity. Love invites and welcomes abundance.

So I became increasingly concerned during the 2016 election cycle when a man who built his candidacy on a platform of fear - of immigrants, Muslims, refugees and others - inexplicably became not only the nominee of the party I had belonged to my entire life, but also president.

This was the man who proclaimed, ''Real power is, I don't even want to use the word, fear.''

With Donald Trump's election, I knew I could not remain silent. I in no way considered myself an activist.

But in January 2017, just after the inauguration, I opened my computer and worked late into the night setting up a nonpartisan Facebook group for myself and a few like-minded friends.

I wanted to create a space where we could discuss ways in which we might join forces to counterbalance the fear and to call for decency, compassion and ethics in our government.We called ourselves Mormon Women For Ethical Government.

Immediately, friends began adding friends, who added friends who added friends who added friends. Within a few weeks we had over 4,000 members, women from all across the political spectrum.

Mormons and non-Mormons alike. Clearly, we had hit a nerve. There were thousands of other women of faith, like myself, who felled compelled to act - to push back against fear and hate and take a stand for love.

And so, our little group continued grow. We incorporated as a 501[c]4 nonprofit organization, established chapters in nearly every state, lobbied for the marginalized in Washington and state capitals, organized rallies at the southern border and helped register over 20,000 voters.

Our motto : We will not be complicit by being complacent. We believe that Jesus really meant it when he said that we should love our neighbors - meaning everyone, as the parable of the good Samaritan makes clear - and care for the poor, the sick, the homeless, the vulnerable.

This is the calling of all Christians. We have been called to love.

We have our work cut out for us. I fact, the ante has just been raised in this conflict between love and fear.

We now have a president who, with apparent consent and support the majority of his own party, has declared himself to be above the law.

A president who remains in office only because he has managed to instill such fear in most of the Republicans in Congress - with the notable exception of my senator, Matt Romney - that they dare not cross him.

Where we go from here, and where we finally end up, will be determined whether we choose Love or whether we chose Fear.

This maybe the defining question of our time.

The World Students Society thanks most profoundly Sharlee Mullins Glenn, an author and teacher, is the founder of Mormon Women for Ethical Government.