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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox 

11/09/2024

As the results of the election ripple out, learn the deeper stakes involved. Get your copy of Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election today! Choose your format in the book block below. 

One of the wisest responses to this election came, as expected, from Thom Hartmann. In an essay called “The Billionaires won: The 50-Year War on Democracy That Built Trump’s Oligarchy and Killed the American Dream,” he

“Who Paid For Trump’s 2024 Election Victory?” Thom Hartmann Program

tells the history of how “bought politicians, and a court on their side” seized control of American democracy over the past 50 years. 

He tells the story of how Louis Powell, back in 1971, laid out a plan “to turn America over to the richest men and the largest corporations” and thereby “replace democracy with oligarchy.” And they were successful. “Tax breaks and fossil fuel subsidies have made them trillions.” (And, I might add, set us on the dangerous path of ever more global warming.)   

It seems everything in America is for sale—the supreme court, lawmakers, even a Catholic church that winner Leonardo Leo bought in Maine and in which he inserted his wife as choir leader, etc. And, of course, the air waves. As Hartmann puts it: With enough money and enough advertising—particularly if you are willing to lie—you can sell anybody pretty much anything. Even a convicted felon, rapist, and friend and agent of America’s enemies.

The result? “We have oligarchs running our media, social media, and buying our elections, with the Supreme Court, with Citizens United, even legalized foreign interference in our political process.” The notion that “money is the same thing as free speech” embedded in the Citizens United decision was itself a lie. Thomas Jefferson warned in 1816, “It has always been those seeking wealth who were the source of corruption in government.” 

Now America has a severe problem of big money controlling our political system. And last night it hit its peak, putting an open fascist in charge of our government.

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, spent well over a hundred million dollars getting Trump elected while spreading his lies, propaganda, and conspiracy theories on his X (formerly twitter) media site.

"Kamala Harris SPEAKS OUT After Loss To Donald Trump.” Access Hollywood

Hartmann insists however that “this is not the end….Hitting bottom often begins the process of renewal” and calls on America to “speak out and fight for a democracy uncorrupted by the morbidly rich.”*

From our Comments section in yesterday’s DM, I offer these examples of people speaking out:

It’s such a sad day. And it’s so frightening how Trump embodies the Antichrist: today he promised a new “golden age” which is exactly Antichrist’s talk. I fear that our local Italian fascists are mild compared to Trump, but they will reinforce each other for sure. The pull by fascists to divide Europe will be strong. Such a sad day. (Italian citizen, friend and theologian)

This is the darkest day in my life as an American. Please tell us all, how do we survive the next four years with this man who wants to destroy American democracy? I thought of our founders, the writers of our precious Constitution. I wonder if they are crying at what has  become of our blessed America. All the beautiful animals you named, they are at peril of being wiped out forever. Please tell us Matthew, how do we go forward when this man will try to overthrow the very foundation of our country? (Rosalie)

Spiritually, I feel so sad, and with the thought, ‘Why have you abandoned us?’ However, my faith does not allow me to despair and God’s Spirit of Love-Light-Life sometimes works in mysterious ways beyond our human comprehension. The prayer from Pope Francis at the end of today’s DM can help console our grief and Faith. (Damian)

Me, I refuse to do what I did in 2016—be in stunned shock for weeks. I’m sick of being in a state of existential dread. 8 am Wednesday morning, I’m already looking for women’s self-defense classes, and I haven’t even had my coffee yet. It’s time for li’l’ 'ol’ 65-year-old cancer-surviving me 

“The Smooth Transition To A Second Trump Administration.” Image by Daniel Arrhakis on Flickr.

to finally learn how to fight back against bullies. (Rosanna)

I am speaking from Cubria on the North West coast of England (opposite the land of your forbears) on this saddest of days for our words. I echo Rosalie’s words and ask you Matthew, How do we keep hope in our hearts with this man at the head of the most powerful nation? (Anna)

*Hartmann, Thom. “The 50-year war on democracy that built Trump’s oligarchy and killed the American dream.” Raw Story, November 6, 2024.

See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.

And Fox, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.

And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, pp. 250-306.

And Fox, Religion USA: Religion and Culture by way of  Time Magazine.

And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.

Banner image: “Despair.” Image by Amydeanne, on Flickr.  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialog, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field.

Queries for Contemplation

What are your feelings as you process the election three days after the fact? Can you agree that “this is not the end….Hitting bottom often begins the process of renewal”?  

Recommended Reading

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

The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved

The Pope’s War offers a provocative look at three decades of corruption in the Catholic Church, focusing on Josef Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. The final section in the book focuses on birthing a truly catholic Christianity.
“This book should be read by everybody, not only for its ferocious courage, but also for its vision for what needs to be saved from the destructive forces that threaten authentic Christianity.” ~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope.
“In the gripping The Pope’s War, Matthew Fox takes an unwavering look at the layers of corruption in the Catholic Church, holding moral truth against power.”   — Jason Berry, author of Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II

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

Religion USA: Religion and Culture By Way of Time Magazine

The purpose of this book is to descend from the majestic heights of the critique of religion, to the level of religion’s interaction with life in its multiple colors and dimensions, that is in culture …. Modern man, far from being without religion, is bombarded by religions claiming his ultimate allegiance and priorities — in his TV, his movies, his records, as well as in his press …. Our method of analysis takes these claims to religion seriously, beginning where everyday man begins, in the confusion of the multiple tongues bestowed on him at the secular Pentecost by the knowledge explosion and the media expansion. 

“This uniquely American study … [analyzes] the role of religion in a culture. It contains a mine of information for sociologists of religion, as the same time that it opens up a whole new direction for theology.” —Professor Jacques Audinet, Institut Catholique de Paris

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.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages

The second book in the Father Fox’s Fantastical Fables series, The Return of Father Sky helps boys and girls to celebrate a new relationship with the masculine by way of Father Sky, whose return excites joy and wonder and possibility that enlarge the soul to welcome others and all creation. Written in a rhyming Dr. Seuss-like style, this full-color, beautifully illustrated book, written by world- renowned theologian Matthew Fox weaves together modern science and classic spirituality in a whimsical, entertaining format to illustrate important truths to readers aged 4 and up. 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.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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