Chain not running straight at the front I have a touring bike which works fine. But when I shift to either of the two larger cogs on the front the chain hits the derailleur on both sides. Obviously it's because the cogs don't run straight but I'm unsure what my best options are. (It moves around on the smallest cog as well, but not enough to hit the derailleur)

Can I bang this around judiciously with a hammer and fix it, or is it something that is a potential danger and needs service, or should I just take the derailleur off?

If I take the derailleur off then I'll just have one front gear, but I could probably live with that. There's no bike service places in this country, nor do I have special tools.
Bending the chainrings back is a possibility, but what you want to avoid doing is bending them around when what's actually causing the problem is misalignment coming from either the crank or BB spindle.

If the warble on the rings is uniform across the three rings, that's a strong but not automatic indication of a bent or poorly aligned BB spindle.

If it's the larger two only but the inner is more or less straight, that's a strong indication that the crank spider tabs are misaligned, which is often a fixable problem. Spider tabs can be "trued" by removing the chainrings, taping something flat like a popsicle stick to the FD to use as a gauge, and bending them around using an adjustable wrench so they run true with each other. This is bending aluminum, which always introduces some risk of fatigue failure. Then put it back together and if that doesn't work, you can try working the individual spots on the rings back into alignment.

Just making it a one-by may be reasonable, but it can be difficult to get it to not drop the chain if you're not using anything to help keep it on. Good chainline is a must if you're going to avoid this, but it's not necessarily enough.