The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
Today's the day: Matthew Fox's video meditation is below! |
Aquinas vs. Trump, SCOTUS
& Antichrist: My New Book 09/02/2024 |
My new book, Trump & MAGA as Antichrist: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, was necessarily the fastest book I have ever written. Of course, I was under a time pressure, since the idea came to me this July after returning home from teaching for a week in Orvieto, Italy. Our weeklong workshop was in
honor of the 800th anniversary of Thomas Aquinas’s birth, and Aquinas taught and wrote poetry in Orvieto. |
While there, I encountered the iconic fresco of “The Antichrist” painted by Luca Signorelli in the Cathedral of the Assumption, a beautiful church begun shortly after Aquinas died. (The fresco dates to 1503 however.) The encounter with that painting, as I relate in the book, had me uttering one short sentence: “It feels like Donald Trump.” |
If one could X-ray a soul, Trump’s might look like this. The AntiChrist by Glen Bledsoe on Flickr. |
I begin my book with a page containing three quotes from Aquinas apropos of democracy. The first speaks of Christ’s teaching of the “dignity of human nature,” and I later use that quote as the basis for my chapter on “Jesus and Democracy.” Democracy at bottom is about the dignity of
all people—and therefore their equality, as in “all men are created equal” and share “inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” per the US Constitution. |
The “Citizens United” decision explained: How corporations can now legally “buy” lawmakers and judges. Video by The Story of Stuff
Project. | Of course, that dignity, those rights and that equality are completely up for grabs in the US today, thanks to many antichrist forces. Chief Justice John Roberts of the unsupreme court has embraced the antichrist energy full throttle, with his decision in Citizens United that corporations are people, and that untold amounts |
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dark money from individual billionaires and corporations are just hunky dory for elections in a democracy. The decision to gut the Voting Rights act (see Shelby)—as if the racism of certain states has somehow magically disappeared—was an ultimate knife in the back to Martin Luther King, Jr. He struggled,
marched and went to jail 39 times, with hundreds of thousands of others, to get the Voting Rights Act approved in 1965, and sadly paid the ultimate price, martyred at only 39 years of age. Justice Roberts and his thoroughly compromised unsupreme court repealed Roe and encouraged men to imagine they have the right to
control women’s bodies. And certain justices are happy to have their palms greased by billionaires eager to fly them around the world to luxurious vacationing and more. |
And the Chevron decision that effectively gives courts, rather than scientific experts, the final word on issues before the EPA, FDA, etc. And the most recent decision about immunity that guarantees that one person in the land, a president, is above the law and can commit any crime he wishes as president with total immunity. |
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Such decisions from SCOTUS hardly ensure “equal justice under law” or the dignity of all. This completely contradicts Aquinas’s teaching that “Christ teaches the dignity of human nature.” And Abraham Lincoln’s stance that a government “of the people, by the people and for
the people shall not perish from this earth.” To be continued. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Trump & MAGA as Antichrist: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, p. ix. See Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society. And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality. Banner image: A fresco of the Antichrist in the Osogovo Monastery, Republic of Macedonia. Photo by Edal Anton Lefterov. Wikimedia Commons. |
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Queries for Contemplation |
Do you agree that “Christ teaches the dignity of human nature”? What follows from that? Does democracy follow from that? Where democracy is under threat, is the dignity of human nature under threat also? |
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s
rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline
Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine. |
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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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Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew
is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author,
The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story |
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Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation
Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice. |
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In the Beginning There Was Joy: A Cosmic Celebration for Kids of All Ages
The first book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series tells the story of the big bang and how humans fit into the awesome, fantastical,
cosmic picture! With artwork curated from illustrators around the world, this book expresses the joy and wonder of all peoples and cultures, planting seeds of respect, cooperation and hope to work together for the healing of our planet. "Matthew Fox does it again, here for our young ones, who so need a positive, cosmic vision
to thrive, or even survive, in a sad time." - Father Richard Rohr, Author of The Universal Christ "Matthew Fox offers a resounding affirmation of what our souls have always suspected: we are made for joy." - Mirabai Starr, Author of God of Love and Wild Mercy |
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UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox, Mariko Middleton, and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT.
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88665302478
Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478 Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org |
Join Matthew Fox as he discusses his book Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, September 19, 4:00-5:30 pm PT.
Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Matthew Fox speaks on "Preserving Things in the Good" at the Unity of Walnut Creek Earth Day worship service held on April 21, 2024. |
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