The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Israel & Hamas: Moving
Beyond the Horror & Spiral of Violence 10/13/2023 |
In Gaza today, 320,000 residents are now homeless. Israel’s siege is starving Gaza of electricity, food, water, and fuel, and putting hospitals on the verge of collapse.
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A threatened ground invasion would be extremely costly to Gazans, but also to the Jewish military which represent 4% of Israel’s population, and to the 150 hostages. So many young people have left their jobs and families to go to battle. |
BBC News covers the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, with 1,300
people dead in Israel, more than 1,400 dead in Gaza, and the Israeli position hardening despite warnings against continuing war crimes. |
Attacks on civilians such as Hamas perpetrated are war crimes, and all grieve the horrible loss of so many. But one Israeli survivor, huddling in her home, wrote this: The terror Israelis feel right now—myself included—is a sliver of what Palestinians have been feeling on a daily basis under the decades-long military occupations of the West Bank and Gaza.* |
“Israel/Palestine: Devastating Civilian Toll as Parties Flout Legal Obligations.” Human Rights Watch calls both the Israeli government and Hamas to account for crimes against civilians. | She reminds us that Israel’s far-right government gave Jewish settlers carte blanche to set up new illegal outposts, and actually launched pogroms against Palestinian towns and villages. Recently Jewish extremists challenged the |
status quo arrangement over the administration of the Temple Mount/Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Some Israelis are actually calling for genocide. Extreme poverty has marked the situation of Gazans even before this war. The average salary in Israel was $55,000 per year; in Gaza, $1,200 per year (sic), with 80% of young adults unemployed in Gaza. |
It comes to this: Is there a military solution to Israel’s problems? I think not. I
think the entire context must be considered for peace to finally emerge. I agree with the following poignant but wise analysis from Haggai Matar who is on the ground in Israel. |
Democracy Now! anchor Amy Goodman interviews Israeli
conscientious objector Haggai Matar on the background of the Israel-Hamas conflict. |
Everything that I am feeling now, which every Israeli must be sharing, has been the life experience of millions of Palestinians for far too long….The only solution, as it has always been, is to bring an end to Israel’s regime of apartheid, occupation, and siege and promote a future based on justice and equality for all of us. We have to change course not despite the horror, but precisely because of it.* We must address the spiral of violence. |
Haggai Matar, “Hamas’s Shock Attack Should Spark Our Horror—and Our Questions.” The Nation, Dispatch, 10/11/2023.
See Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and
Society.
Banner Image: A child stands in the midst of destruction during the 2008-2009 Gaza War. Wikimedia Commons. |
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Queries for Contemplation Do you agree that only justice and equality and therefore love can undo the spiral of violence? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten
metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often
unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God |
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Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
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. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE Join Matthew Fox and other speakers in the 27th Howard Thurman Convocation and Reception, recognizing the recent designation of The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples as an historical San Francisco landmark, founded by Dr. Howard
Thurman and Dr. Alfred Fisk as the nation’s first interracial, interfaith congregation. Sunday, October 15, 2023, 3:00pm PT. Learn more HERE. Matthew Fox will be featured as the guest speaker at the Creation Spirituality Communities online course, Introduction to Creation Spirituality 6-Week Course, led by Instructor Rev. Mary Reaman. Tuesday, October 17, 4:00 PM PT. Learn more
HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, October 19, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for two days of learning and practice as he speaks at the online Stanford Medicine Contemplation by Design Summit, Wednesday and Thursday, November 1-2, 2023. Wed 4:00pm-5:30pm PT – Lecture, Q&A – Grounding & Expanding, Psyche & Cosmos, Friendship with Self, Others, the Universe: Toward a “Cosmic Religion” (Einstein) and Human/Planetary Survival Thu 7:30am-8:15am – Guided Practice – Finding the Divine (the “I am”, the Christ, the Buddha Nature, the Tselem or Image of God) Within Thu 12:00pm-1:30pm – Workshop – Recovering the Sacred Masculine and the
Divine Feminine Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Aaron Perry hosts Matthew Fox on the Y On Earth podcast, on “Hildegard von Bingen & Her “Viriditas,” sharing profound wisdom and deep insights about the essential importance of our relationship with Mother Earth, our celebration of the Divine Feminine, and our connection with Creation Spirituality, drawing upon centuries of knowledge and wisdom from indigenous and mystical traditions world-wide… particularly from the Rhineland Mystic Movement of the medieval European Renaissance, and a most extraordinary woman at its helm: Hildegard von
Bingen. |
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Inspired by this post? Share your insights on Universeodon, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #RevDrMatthewFox and tag Matt with @RevDrMatthewFox FOLLOW MATTHEW FOX: |
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