Like many of you, I celebrate the release of Moshen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student, Buddhist peacemaker, born and raised in the West Bank, who was detained by ICE for two weeks. No reason was given for his detention. He committed no crime other than protesting against the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government, together with a coalition of students including Jews and Israeli-Americans.
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The strategy of the U.S. government is clear: destroying all opposition. Clear are also its tactics: attacking those who are in the weakest social positions. And clear are its ultimate targets, i.e. everybody — just wait for your turn. You know that we live in a horror movie when fear creeps in and soon invades the whole space around us.
This is why Mahdawi’s release and his defiant words addressed to Trump “I am not afraid of you” — together with the wording of the ruling of his release penned by Judge G. Crawford — are a welcome breath of fresh air. Maybe this nightmare will have an end.
Yesterday, May 5, was the 8th anniversary of my ordination as an Episcopal priest. During the ceremony Matthew Fox preached. I will never forget his main charge to me: The priest is a midwife! But especially remember that you are a midwife to midwives! Not only, then, I was somebody called to help others to give birth to their best works of art, to their best selves, but, most especially, somebody who is aware that those others… they too are called to become midwives.
I feel always such a joy when somebody gives birth in my presence to a new existential intuition or to a new choice of action in the world. When something unexpected of this kind comes to light, it always breaks a cycle, it gets people “unstuck” and it frees their souls to be in the world what they are truly called to be. Also, and most especially, it makes them more and more available to take on their deeper vocation: that of being midwives to others. More often than not, this happens in particular circumstances — which might well be trying or even dramatic. In any case, it is chain of transmission. It does not happen in isolation.
Mahdawi at his release was so iconic! He exemplified beautifully Matthew Fox’s conviction that courage is the first virtue for the spiritual journey. I wonder who raised this exceptional man, and who was a midwife to him. Ultimately, though, it is only through his activism in very dangerous circumstances, and even through his unjust incarceration, that he could become even more who is truly is and he showed us to be.
Most recently, Matthew has suggested to be a camel and escape the alluring of the Antichrist, which is how he has described not just Donald Trump, but the MAGA movement and Project 2025. To battle necrophilia — he writes — we must at dark times such as ours become like camels who fill up at oases of biophilia and joy as we travel what is often a dry and demanding desert. It’s not a strategic retreat, and it’s certainly not a call to wait and see what happens. It is a recognition that the harder the journey is, the better one must be prepared.
So what do we do? Evil wants to divide and isolate people? We make new friends, we invite them to dinner at our home, mixing them with old friends.
Evil wants to make us afraid and angry? We join a dance class or a sport activity.
Evil wants to make us confused and sad? We choose our news sources carefully, we double our silent meditation time each day, and we keep smiling at strangers.
You already know the drill. But are you doing it? We’ve got to become an army of camels together. There is just no other way.
Quotation from Matthew Fox’s Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ, p. 90.
See also Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet.
And Fox, The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time.
And Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times.
Banner Image: A caravan of camels. Photo by kt Leung on Unsplash.
Queries for Contemplation
How are you being a camel these days?
Recommended Reading
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.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time
Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
