The Supreme Court has become a Nothing. No one will look to it any more for a balanced or sane pronouncement on the law and rule of law. It tossed aside a 49-year precedent on a vital issue—who has the right to tell women and girls what to do with their bodies even when raped or victims of incest or having a severe miscarriage? In doing so, it has spread chaos throughout the land and abused women everywhere.
This, even though its most recent three appointees swore under oath that this law was established precedent. Thus the court feels free to throw out all established precedents and declare themselves a wrecking crew to nullify any law they and their corporate and Opus Dei sponsors feel uncomfortable with–
Damn the American people. Damn women. Damn girls who are raped. Damn those of other faiths or none (even though they too are American citizens) who do not believe that a sperm and egg are a human person. Damn married gay couples.
A nothingburger. Another meaning of a nothingness experience. Webster’s dictionary defines “Nothingburger” this way: “Something completely insignificant, especially that which was previously hyped or promised to be very significant.”
In a brilliant article published in the NYT, Pulitzer prize winning author and watcher of the Supreme Court, Linda Greenhouse, tells us in the title of the article that “Religious Doctrine, Not the Constitution, Drove the Dobbs Decision.”* In fact, she has decided to file the article not under a category on law but under “religion.” The decision echoes that of the praying football coach and another requiring Maine to subsidize parochial school tuition. She tells us that
It was not constitutional analysis but religious doctrine that drove the opposition to Roe. And it was the court’s unacknowledged embrace of religious doctrine that has turned American women into desperate refugees fleeing their home state in pursuit of reproductive health care.
Religion is playing a “pervasive role” on today’s Supreme Court, she warns us. Of course it is. An Opus Dei operative at Heritage Foundation nominated six of its appointees.
If this court has its way, it will reduce the American experiment, tarnished that it is, to nothing. “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The unsupreme court is on its way to absolute corruption rendering the American community a no-community, a no-nation, a nothing.
“Religious Doctrine, Not the Constitution, Drove the Dobbs Decision.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/22/opinion/abortion-religion-supreme-court.html
See Matthew Fox, “Opus Dei,” in Fox, The Pope’s War, pp.106-124.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: The Supreme Court nothingburger. Collage from Wikimedia Commons images.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you recognize today’s Supreme Court as a nothingburger? How do we move beyond that sorry situation?
Recommended Reading
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
16 thoughts on “The Supreme Court as a Nothingburger, continued”
ATTENTION: After a planning meeting today among the team that produce the Daily Meditations; including Matthew Fox, it was decided to limit comments to just “180 words.” The team feels that the comments have become more than comments, and many more like mini-essays. So, the new guidelines for the comments will be limited to just 180 words (your laptop or device can probably do a word count for you). If it exceeds 180 words it will be removed from the comment section. You will however be able to resubmit your comment after you pare it down. Also, your comments must be limited to responding to the “Queries for Contemplation” for the day. I hope this will not discourage you from writing in. We want your comments and feedback–just shorter and more focused on the questions for the day. Matthew will be making some changes himself, and we’re in the process of reassessing where we are after nearly three years. Remember the team works 365 days a year to bring this to you… Oh, and this is about the length your comments should be!
Matthew, You have warned us before about Opus Dei and the Heritage Foundation, which nominated six of the unsupreme court appointees, and you remind us that, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Thus the unsupreme court is on its way to absolute corruption; rendering the American community a no-community, a no-nation, a nothing. But the Queries for Contemplation you leave for us today are: “Do you recognize today’s Supreme Court as a nothingburger?” Yes, and as you say, “Webster’s dictionary defines ‘Nothingburger’ this way: ‘Something completely insignificant, especially that which was previously hyped or promised to be very significant.'” And this is true of the current Supreme Court. Then you ask, “How do we move beyond that sorry situation?” We can’t vote them out, we can protest and pray for a better court “a’comin in the sky Lord in the sky!”
For me, our each Diverse Divine Consciousness, in our being a human being, manifest through our individual will/spirit to decide for each ourselves, according to whatever Circumstances/Consciousness/Conscience presents. Any violation of our unique Will/Spirit in in making our own decisions, is a violation against the private matter between each our True Selves and the Divine. Patriarchal/Dogma/Doctrine/So-called infallible Decrees/Supreme Court Decisions are all one and the same…. violations against the Sacred decision making within each of us, in All the very human circumstances we each encounter in our lives. No Church/Religion/Narrow Belief System/Supreme Court can make a decision as to what is best to do in each circumstance that presents in life. These matters are between our true self and the Divine within… and for me, no organized religion/institution has the authority to dictate that in group tribal mind sets… we each make decisions for ourselves on what is best…that is our right of decision/choice.
Amen, Darryl.
Religious views can become subordinate to a broad range of partisan agendas and is nothing new. Politics is only one of those agendas and occurs when party is placed over principle and unity. Along sectarian lines, religion-fueled discord is among the worst, and can be explosive. When religion is politicized it fuels national discord, threatens religious tolerance, and muffles religious potential to be a prophetic voice. When divinity is hijacked for any agenda other than itself as an inclusive, unifying influence that serves only the interest of the whole, its root cause is neither politics or religion. Rather, it’s the result of the unredeemed ego’s blind search for a lasting truth it can invest in totally, a substitute (idol) for the McCoy it hasn’t yet discovered. And so, its misdirected love becomes misguided zeal that divides the whole. It began when the serpent (ego) successfully campaigned for Adam’s vote over God’s (Spirit). (The wise avoid such partisan things). Eclipsed by ego, schisms follow everywhere, with no real spiritual meat in evidence to fill the partisan bun – the REAL nothingburger. https://youtu.be/1FZNYXKHwNw
What can be done about a ‘Nothingburger’ Supreme Court? Why could nothing be done to stop Republican game playing when they blocked Obama from nominating a Supreme Court judge for trumped up reasons that were suddenly no longer valid when Trump appointed his nominees? US institutions are only as legitimate as the human beings whose job it is to uphold the Spirit in which they were created, a spirit that saw the need for the separation of Church and State. “The truth will set us free”, as long as we don’t allow the truth to be aborted in our own dark hearts.
There’s no salvation in power politics, Gwen. If you haven’t noticed, it’s been moving far right worldwide with all the momentum of a runaway train. An evil genius cast in the mold of other dictators, Trump is part of a dark global zeitgeist that is consummating itself in world history. He has a key roll in it, and will likely be our next president.
Yes, the ‘ unsupreme court’ falls under the definition of nothingburger. On a deeper level, the history of religion, especially Christianity, is that it has been used as another instrument or tool of patriarchy or toxic masculinity to control others to their unbalanced and unhealthy values, and has not for the part represented true spirituality in human history. This is why even religion has contributed to most humanity being separated from the sacred in their inner and outer social lives with Mother Nature, with all its consequent and increasing destructive consequences, especially today. We have to continue praying and Being~becoming incarnations of the Divine Feminine Spirit of Love~Wisdom~Creativity~Peace~Justice~Compassion… in our inner and outer lives (our eternal evolving souls) with-in Living Sacred Mother Nature, and with-in our Loving Diverse Oneness of our co-Creation~Evolution of our multiverse Cosmos… our Beloved Cosmic Christ Consciousness….
🔥❤️🙏
Don’t forget the last line of Lord Actons quote; “Almost all great men are bad men.”
A sad truth in a nation that has forgotten and forsaken Divine LOVE…
The problem is that they are not NOTHING. They are damaging, dangerous and powerful. There is a dark and diabolical shadow emanating from their warp and woof. I wish they were nothing, like cotton candy in the sun. I wish there were no craven or ignorant people who are trying to twist the laws to do what these white supremacist patriarchal and violent anti-democratic people want. It was quite telling that Pope Francis said that law cannot be left in a refrigerator, frozen for many decades or centuries. Law is a living source of guidance and coherent structure for social life. Originalism is like dead meat, frozen in a freezer. Very very good image for the problem.
Moral outrage includes the victims of this “opinion”– rape, incest, miscarriage, women in all stages of reproductive vulnerability. We need to rise up and tell them they are IMMORAL. By leaving out the rest of us.
My thought exactly. The damage done by these “nothingburgers” is incalculable.
Amen, sisters!
“I want a nothingburger” said the caller “well done with ketchup.” Trump got what he wanted in this SCOTUS.
I’d rather think of them as poisonburgers. All we can do is continue to speak out in our own communities as best we can and aim for a Kansas result. And pray for patience and the knowledge that things will likely get worse until the tipping point of revulsion is reached by enough people. Civil disobedience will be required, at great cost to individuals and groups. Hope is a verb with the sleeves rolled up and requires sacrifice, it seems to me.
what does WKLO mean?