We considered yesterday how Lent is a time for self-reflection and asking: How can I do better? How can I live out my values more authentically?
It is also a time for asking: How can we do better? How can we live out our values more authentically, more really in our work and professions and relationships and life decisions?
This Lenten question certainly applies to our businesses and our work worlds. Fox News finds itself so much in the news these days since facts are emerging from the $1.6 billion defamation suit against it of how far it has strayed from the purpose of the sixth chakra (our foreheads blessed on Ash Wednesday).
The purpose of the sixth chakra, as I pointed out in yesterday’s DM, is about “purifying our minds, that is, to use them for the purpose for which they were intended. To seek Truth and to share it.”
What is becoming evident for all to see is that Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is not seeking or sharing Truth so much as distorting it and investing big time in Big Lies. Lies that, of course, have vast consequences for the larger community and the very foundations of democracy itself. January 6 was such a consequence.
Media empire builder Mr. Murdoch is subject to the rule, “ashes to ashes and dust to dust,” just like the rest of us. Keeping in mind that he is 91 years old, his ashes moment cannot be very far away, even though as a multi-billionaire he can snap his fingers and get the best medical care in a second.
As we saw two meditations ago, behind the scenes of his television studios he and his employees mocked guests they had on their show while before the cameras they shouted looney conspiracy theories promulgated by them.
All this stirring up of hatred and even violence and the January 6 insurrection and many vicious laws passed in state legislatures to interfere with the proper practice of voting. Democracy suffers when lies prevail.
Surely these practices qualify Mr. Murdoch as a reigning father of lies in our time. Maybe he and his employees would do well to take a retreat this Lent to explore why Truth is a name for Divinity while Satan is called “the Father of Lies.”
To be continued
See Matthew Fox, The Reinvention of Work.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 333-358.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Australian artist-activist Graeme Dunstan with Rupert Murdoch effigy – 2011 Eureka Commemoration” by John Englart (Takver) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Creative Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How do you seek Truth and share it?
Recommended Reading
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
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
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12 thoughts on “Lent 2023: Is Rupert Murdoch a Father of Lies?”
Matthew, Today, after showing that Rupert Murdock, CEO of Fox News is a liar you say that: “these practices qualify Mr. Murdoch as a reigning father of lies in our time. Maybe he and his employees would do well to take a retreat this Lent to explore why Truth is a name for Divinity while Satan is called “the Father of Lies.” So in light of this, you ask us today: ” How do you seek Truth and share it?” I seek the truth by reading and study of the issues. And I don’t do this just sometimes, I do it every day–every day I set aside an hour or two to study, and whatever I rea I make into my Lectio Divina…
“As ‘the Truth’ is Concerned”
Truth has one source and many attributes. Truth is resilient and sustaining. It is both universal and unifying. Truth has as many interpretations as there are the 8 billion people that hold onto versions of it, meaning that we have many opinions of what Truth is. The Truth is a Living God, the Living Word, and never on the shelf to be referred to like a book or traditions might be.
To share the Truth then comes with many misunderstandings, resistance and defensiveness before it comes to be accepted. Are we not in fact sharing something not clearly understood by the other, which may up to this point may not be in their conscious awareness and not fit into their belief system. The Truth might totally oppose the beliefs of others and be contrary to their understanding. Bearers of Truth, of love itself, therefore, may be subject to rejection, ridicule and humiliation. There is a cost to bearing the Truth, but the rewards are greater for all concerned. We either live and die for ‘the Truth’ or we live and die for nothing at all. So, to see someone that lives not for, or not seeking ‘the Truth’, is to see someone that truly has ‘nothing at all’ despite what you might see, and that grieves ‘the Sacred Heart’.
Truth and love are the ‘two sides’ of the same coin, and both are merciful. — BB.
As I’ve been contemplating during Lent… truth and lies, what arose in my understanding is how what one believes often veils both. I know that in the journey of life, there were lies that I believed to be true… many things projected onto me in my formative years, by my earliest image makers in life. It takes a lifetime to untangle these lies, once believed to be true… and to be honest, there remains a kind of kink in the thread of truth, as a result of this imprinting, that at times distorts what I believe and perceive to be true… which has resulted in engrained patterns that directly influence my mental and emotional functions of processing.
I know I need space and distance, to reflect and spiritually discern… in order to navigate my way through this inner landscape of the voices and different aspects of myself, needing to be heard. As I respect and acknowledge each aspect of self, as a part of the whole, these voices eventually quiet down… and then I can hear the small still voice of Spirit, speaking to my soul… offering me comfort, consolation and wise counsel… that helps me to unravel the entanglements of beliefs, lies and truth.
I was taught this practice of living a spiritual discerning life, through the spiritual teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, by a priest named Fr. Timothy Gallagher O.M.V. whom has made these processes of spiritual discernment relevant today, which are needed more than ever before.
Beautiful…
Inspired by Matthew’s beautiful revisiting last week of his life’s work on the Cosmic Christ, followed by a week dedicated to Fox News, I decided for Lent to rededicate myself to a practice I began many years ago: To try to catch myself every time I make an enemy in my heart, whether it’s a fellow human (former President?), that other political party, the corporate titans and their complicit politicians who are destroying people and the planet. A deeply humbling practice to be sure. The wonderful Buddhist teacher/therapist, Tara Brach, says that blame is arrested development. Who wants to hear that? I love my blame and the righteous, addictive hit it gives me, and yet….she is right. Blame keeps us trapped in the spiral of violence where nothing new can arise but unending war against the other. If we truly believe in the notion of the Cosmic Christ, the Divine Light in everyone and everything, then how is it we so quickly fall into a blame that extinguishes Grace? Someone said ‘Love your enemies’. Who wants to hear that and what does it mean? Far from some head in the sand spiritual bypass of the nature of evil in the world, could he be asking for something drastically new to arise among us other than our old, continuous habit of blame and scapegoating? Were the last words of Jesus, ‘In my name go get the bastards who did this to me’? He said, ‘Forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing’….
Beth, your words ring true in my heart. Thank you.
I try to catch myself in the same way–it is a difficult but necessary practice. I love Steven Colbert’s wit and the nicknames that he has solicited for the ex-president because he refuses to use his name when referring to him–because I need to laugh and take things more lightly. But I also have to acknowledge that the very same wit and satire is used by Fox et al. against people whom I respect—and neither of us is either completely right or completely wrong. The two senators and one congressman who are supposed to represent me clearly do not, but I make it a practice of looking at their photos on the weekly reports I get by e-mail and looking for the image of God in them. I see it. But I still cannot read or listen to their partisan rhetoric. We must love our enemies—the Rev. Dr. Jacqi Lewis says we must love the hell out of them. And that is the Truth. Love is the Truth.
Beth, Today you write: “Blame keeps us trapped in the spiral of violence where nothing new can arise but unending war against the other. If we truly believe in the notion of the Cosmic Christ, the Divine Light in everyone and everything, then how is it we so quickly fall into a blame that extinguishes Grace?” Thank you for your comment.
What Beth Brinson said!
Bravo Matthew!!! As our modern prophet of Truth, besides resurrecting the traditions of Creation Spirituality, you are so right in recent DMs, especially in today’s DM, to speak Truth to power — the Lies of Rupert Murdoch, FOX News, and their main ‘news’ hosts & broadcasters!
Sue, Today you write of the wit of Steven Colbert when he knocks our former president, but then you see the paradox in that you: “also have to acknowledge that the very same wit and satire is used by Fox et al. against people whom I respect.” This is truly a paradox, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Amen.