I have often encountered good people in America who fight for justice and are suffering, more than ever, from the chasm existing today between them and those who support the current POTUS. Such suffering is real and must be respected. More than that, I believe it must be investigated. It is, after all, a kind of dualism, to the extent that it alters our perception of people.
I remember meeting parishioners and, on figuring out their political inclinations, taking into account that information without thinking of it as an identity to join or to oppose. Perhaps that was easier for me, not being an American. I would occasionaly criticize liberal positions, just as conservative ones, and that helped a bit. In the end, however, the minority who identified more or less openly as Republican voters left the parish.
It is likely that the social polarization which some observers lamented for years has surpassed the danger bar. American society, now ravaged by Trump’s cruel and insane policies, will remain deeply divided even after his fall from power.
The people who suffer from such deep division must ask themselves, in the first place, whether they don’t suffer from sentimentalism. What is more important? To preserve an idyllic vision of unity of the American people, or to support those who are hit in their livelihood and health and even survival by right-wing decisions? But even those who make the correct choice, that of fighting for justice, may be still troubled. I feel them, I empathize with them.
We are conditioned, at this point, to feel hate for those whom we oppose, and that is extremely unhealthy for us as individuals, as well as for society. I understand the calls to flee from such a social situation, where one is continually faced with co-workers, neighbors, and even family members firmly fixed on the other side, and whom it is normal to despise. It is unbearable. On the other hand, superficial calls for American unity, disregarding the dead bodies of the many victims of America, are even more unbearable.
I don’t have a solution, but I think that some deep game is being played here, on a spiritual level, which we cannot simply disregard.
See Matthew Fox, Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Also, Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Also Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Also Fox and Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Banner image: “Red vs Blue.” Image by Robert Couse-Baker on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
How do I tackle the American chasm? Do I avoid it, fall prey of it, suffer through it? Or do I have a different vision of the problem altogether?
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
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
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods
