In yesterday’s DM, we celebrated the teaching of Jesus about good trees that bear good fruit and his advice to judge people by the fruit they bear. It seems appropriate after 7 months of the MAGA administration to judge the fruit it is bearing.
Jesus reminds us, in Luke’s gospel, that the key to bearing good or bad fruit lies in the goodness or badness in the heart. Evil is a heart problem for him. “A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws from what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.” (Lk 6. 43-45)
What is the fruit of the current Project 2025 underway in the MAGA administration and its sycophants in Congress? Let us list them.
The death already of 90,000 people, mostly in Africa, who were dependent on aid from USAID.
The anticipated death of hundreds of thousands more in the years to come.
The brain drain of scientists who are fleeing American universities to find work in China, Canada, Australia and Europe—anyplace other than the U.S.
The shutting down of PBS and NPR, leaving especially rural areas with no news but far right-wing billionaire-fed propaganda.
The loss of health care for about 17 million Americans.
The loss of food benefits for children and the poor—about 7.4 million of them. Thus, sicker Americans and shorter life spans.
An increase in global warming and more and fiercer hurricanes (from warmer oceans primarily), flash floods, wildfires, drought from the gutting of EPA standards and laws passed under Biden.
An increase of diseases such as asthma and many more because of dirtier air and water due to EPA shutdowns.
The endangerment of future generations of humans and millions of other species because MAGA denies climate change and refuses to do anything about it.
An increase of measles and AIDS and many other diseases due to campaigns against vaccines.
The loss of trust in education.
The loss of trust in the law and justice and the thoroughly compromised SCOTUS.
The loss of trust in government itself.
The loss of healthy laughter due to the shutdown of the Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert.
The gradual loss of sound journalism because of attacks on NBC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN.
The rise of anti-gay and anti-trans movements spreading hate and division.
The diminishing of voting for people of color.
The loss of healthy relationships with other countries who have been our allies since WWII.
The rise of totalitarianism as manifested in places like Hungary and Russia and MAGA.
Increased distrust of America’s promises by allies in Europe and around the world.
The impoverishment and oppression of women by laws controlling their bodies and forbidding abortions even for miscarriages and other complications beyond one’s control.
Rendering the super-rich even richer (less taxes for Elon Musk—yeah!) by lowering their tax rates.
About $ 4 trillion in greater debt to be paid for by middle class Americans because the very wealthy and big corporations will not be paying their share of taxes.
Greater stress between classes as the lower classes are forced to pay more taxes.
The continued increase of patriarchy and patriarchal power and the diminishment of progress made by women, minorities and the disabled.
More friction between between concerned citizens and the national guard and the military.
Said Jesus: “A bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness in his heart.” Such badness spreads. Welcome to Trump’s America. A lot of bad fruit and badness and mortal, that is, deadly sins, floating around.
This is only a partial Litany of badness. Bad trees give birth to very bad and rotten fruit.
See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Original Blessing.
Banner image: MAGA cult. Photo by James McNellis. Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Do you sense an increase in badness and bad fruit from bad trees and bad hearts at this time in history? Can naming it assist our moving beyond it? What else gets us to move beyond it?
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.
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
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
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.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
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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