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Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Is Democracy Sacred and Worthy of Saving? |
There is always a danger of overusing and thereby abusing the word “sacred.” On the other hand, it is a necessary and precious word. Is it applicable when speaking of
“democracy”? |
In a country where close to 50% of the population seem at home with following an ex-president who has worked overtime to spread lies and disinformation about not losing an election and with 291
politicians currently running for office who do not accept the last election as valid, one wonders what’s up with the future of American democracy. Surrounded as we are with authoritarian movements rising around the world, we ask: Will American democracy
go the way of Italian democracy that just elected the first fascist leader since Mussolini? Or Hungarian democracy that has subverted the judiciary and media and opposition parties? | |
Is American democracy worth saving? Of course, it needs profound changing. It needs a Supreme Court that has not been hand picked by a fascist religious ideologue, a member of Opus Dei, Leo Leonard. (Who just recently received $1.6 billion in cash to spend as he likes to upend American politics as we know
it.) |
And one of SCOTUS’ members wives has been actively working to overthrow the last presidential
election. And three recent members were handpicked by Leonard Leo and a president who organized the overthrow of the country. |
A bold song to face hate and choose democracy. This song can be used to ENERGIZE AND CLARIFY our vision of our community. It can be offered in moments of gathering or closing, online or in the streets. Originally posted to YouTube by The Peace Poets. | American democracy needs at long last ample representation in the senate for the millions of citizens not represented in equal proportions to those living in states with tiny populations. For example, 45 million Californians have the
identical senatorial representation as 584,000 citizens of the state of Wyoming. Is that fair? Is that democracy? |
For humans to gather around ideals like “all men are created equal” appears noble—though it took a huge effort to include blacks among “all men” and women too. Democracy is rife with failures and imperfections. But what
are the alternatives? As Churchill used to say, “democracy is the worst of all systems...except for all the others.” |
Today the communist party in China is meeting to discuss its next five year plan. It rules a country of 1.4 billion people with a seven member “board of directors” who hold up a single person who the party elects. Is that system superior to democracy? Or Hungary’s? Or Putin’s? Or Iran’s theocracy? Or Modi’s hate-filled persecution of Muslims in India? | Indigenous lead demonstration on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C. Photo originally posted to Flickr by Mobilus in Mobili. |
IF democracy
can right itself, maybe it has a chance. But we have a lot of work to do, a rolling up of our sleeves is demanded. Do we have the energy and is a sense of the common good still alive enough to make it work again? |
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If you can't reach Matthew's video on the website, try his Vimeo channel HERE. |
See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society. Banner Image: Prophetic rally: Illinois Handmaids “Stop Brett Kavanaugh” Rally, Downtown Chicago Illinois 8-26-18. Photo by Charles Edward Miller on Wikimedia Commons |
Queries for Contemplation What do you think makes American democracy worth saving? Is it fitting to apply the word Sacred to democracy? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society In Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh, visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. Using today’s science to
rediscover the sacred marriage of spirit and flesh, Fox sets forth a visionary but practical mysticism that lays out a blueprint for social transformation. In this book, Matthew Fox dissects the roots of our culture's spiritual malaise and offers "medicine" for our society's deep spiritual "wounds." He shows how, contrary to mainstream church teachings, flesh is the grounding of spirit, and how spirit and flesh are entwined with each other in a felicitous and spiritually nourishing bond. He
outlines a Theology of Spirit, an approach to the fusing of spirit and flesh which has been underdeveloped in Western thought. His cosmology stresses the need for diversity, the revelatory power of Nature, and the imperative of cooperation. Fox draws together the wisdom of East and West on the subject of human destructiveness by taking Thomas Aquinas's definition of sin as "misdirected love" and ushering us through parallels between the Eastern teachings of the seven chakras and the
Western teachings of the seven capital sins. | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE Join Matthew Fox for the monthly online Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, discussing Original Blessing. Thursday, October 20, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register
HERE. |
Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, discussing Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. Thursday, November 17,
4:00pm-6:00pm PT. Register HERE. Creation Spirituality in Conversation |
| Join
scholars Matthew Fox and Thomas G. Hermans-Webster for Progressive Christianity's monthly “Things that Matter” discussion on eco-spirituality: “The Intersection of Faith and Climate Justice.” |
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