The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Good morning friends: We regret that the original sending of this DM had a bad link to the singing performance of Joan Baez and Justin Jones. It has been corrected and will take you to the originalTwitter post. Our
apologies, The DM Team |
Evil & Grace, Crucifixion & Resurrection out of Nashville 04/14/2023 |
There is going on in our time and on the media a great mixing of evil and grace, crucifixion and resurrection, moral outrage and promise, despair and
hope. |
This is being played out in the current story of the “Tennessee Three” which includes the firing of two young and black congress members of the state of Tennessee–and then their
reinstatement by their constituents. Their “crime” was standing up with high | Democrat Rep. Justin J. Pearson, following Rep. Justin Jones, is unanimously reinstated to the Tennessee state House just days after Republicans expelled them for protesting gun
violence on the chamber floor. MSNBC. |
school students demanding that their state government do something about school killings. Their reinstatement was a kind of resurrection for sure—just as Justin Jones said it was. Spiritually, we are being invited to learn anew a resurrection/passover dimension to everyday life and politics. This dimension blends our experience of evil (crucifixion, despair) with hope, impossibility within
possibility. |
Joan Baez sings “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” with Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones (video by
@JoshuaBodwell). | And Joy enters too. Consider this story: yesterday, on the plane from Nashville to Newark, representatives Jones and Johnson happened to notice Joan Baez on the plane with them. On landing, in the corridor of the airport in Newark, Jones and Joan Baez sang a song together with Johnson videoing them. This is intergenerational action and respect, a wondrous sign of our times: The holy protests of the sixties linking up with the necessary holy protests of the |
21st century. Music linking the two generations together. Art, the “way of the prophets,” rises to the occasion. Music
brings joy and joy brings awakening and a unity of hearts of all ages, all generations, all souls, all races. Lots of smiles and lots of memories enter the fray. I am of the Joan Baez generation and am proud to witness her smiles once again alongside those of newly born activists Jones and Johnson. Blessings on us all. |
As for the sad Tennessee legislature, let us not leave them behind. Let’s invite them to the party
also, a party in quest for peace and justice and protecting our children as well as our planet (which is meant to be the inheritance for our children). Let us meditate on these | One act of courage: “There is a place for you at our table if you choose to join us.” Excerpt from The Fifth Sacred Thing. The Poetry of Predicament |
profound observations from the prophetic psychologist
Otto Rank. He warned us in the 1930’s about the decadent fear of extinction, which “is self-created by man who becomes afraid of his own power-ideology, which he has set up against the forces of nature in himself." Anthropocentrism creates its own demons. Demons of adultism and racism and ecocide that we can and need to resist together. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, pp. 44, 94, 278, 263 Banner Image: “Today, I stood with parents, students, and the Tennessee Three. They won’t be silenced and their demands for gun reform must be heard. In Congress and in state legislatures around our nation, leaders must have the courage to act.” Tweet by Vice President Kamala Harris, April 7, 2023 |
Queries for Contemplation
What does hearing this duet
of two generations do to your soul?
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Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational
Priest (Revised/Updated Edition) Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from
altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment. “The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual
revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.” —Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox online as he offers a Worship Service Inspirational Message - “Otto Rank, and Pere Chenu: Two 'Real, Raw and Radiant' Guides Calling Us to Deep Freedom” for
Brentwood Inspired Living Center, Sunday, April 16, 10:00 am PT. Learn more HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “Creativity – Where the Divine and the Human Meet” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, April 20, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox and Charles Burack in an online conversation on “The Essential Writings On Creation Spirituality” hosted by The Aquarian Minyan. Thursday, April
27, 6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Karen Tate interviews Matthew on his latest book Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality to discuss religious vs. spiritual, the nature of evil and angels, compassion vs pity, and wisdom vs knowledge. On Voices of the Sacred Feminine with Karen Tate. Listen HERE. | |
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