Week of 10/21-26/2024: Resentment & Forgiveness, Global Warning, Idolatry

October 21, 2024: The Freedom that Forgiveness Brings
As we reflect on the role resentment and scapegoating play in politics, we also look at the power of forgiveness—not as a way to turn away from the need for justice, but as a way to bring healing to our own selves. Matthew tells us of a young woman he once met who told him about the many years she was repeatedly molested by a relative. She shared with him a poem she wrote about letting go, which enabled her to move on with her life. It’s called “Tears from the Past.” We have much to learn from this courageous woman.

Tears. Photo by Danie Franco on Unsplash

October 22, 2024: Big Heart, Big Sky, & Origins of Life in Father Sky
Father Sky is in the news a lot these days. The Webb Telescope brings us so much wonder on a daily basis, reminding us of the vastness and glory of the cosmos. Ideally, as we contemplate the origin of our universe 13.8 billion years ago, it also fosters a sense of humility about our place in this great cosmoligical history. Let us enter into a regular spiritual practice of looking up to the sky, as well as revelling in the wondrous gifts of the Webb telescope as contemplate our sacred origins. Let’s learn to be grateful and humble and filled with awe.

October 23, 2024: Men Leaving the Workforce & Trump’s Appeal to Resentment
We reflect on the news that many young men seem to be dropping out of the workforce—especially those without college degrees. And more young men, as opposed to women, lean toward Trump. Seventy percent of under-30 female voters plan to vote for Harris, while 53% of likely male voters that age will vote for her. The young men tend to believe Trump is better for the economy, despite economists insisting that the Biden Administration has significantly better economic indicators. Does an increasing number of men dropping out of the workforce help explain the shift toward Trump and his resentment rhetoric? When men lack meaningful work, they rarely feel good about themselves.

NBC News‘ Shaquille Brewster visits an Atlanta Falcons game to see why young male voters seem to be increasingly shifting to the right and supporting Donald Trump.

October 24, 2024: Phil Wilson’s Blunt Truths on Global Warming, Fascism, Trump
Phil Wilson wrote an article in commondreams.org called “Hope, Doomers, and the Climate Emergency.” He speaks bluntly about how our economic system is founded on the suffering of disempowered masses” and “capitalism is feeding on our ‘courageous’ sense of optimism—as it swallows the planet whole. Wilson believes the greatest holocaust of the 20th century was not the Nazi Holocaust, but rather, “the bloody deeds of leaded gasoline.” He explains: Leaded gasoline unleashed an episode of unabated horror upon the entire biosphere, with no government protections for half a century. Body counts amount to “the tens of millions, conservatively, along with the cognitive destruction of children” because lead is a neurotoxin perpetrated by the fossil fuel industry. One presidential candidate kowtows to the fossil fuel industry and denies climate change. Our choice this election is crystal clear.

October 25, 2024: A Course in Miracles on The Antichrist: Part I*
Recently, Matthew ran across a text in A Course in Miracles about “The Anti-Christ.” (chapter 29, “The Awakening”). ACIM says: What is an idol? Do you think you know? For idols are unrecognized as such, and never seen for what they really are. That is the only power that they have. Meanwhile, in Matthew’s book, Trump & MAGA as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, he talks about Blasphemy/Idolatry. He says: MAGA followers of Trump revere him as a religious figure, a head of their cult, and are engaged in nothing less than blasphemy and idol worship in the process. ACIM says: No one believes in idols who has not enslaved himself to littleness and loss. There you have it. This idolatry is what happens when we forget our worth and don’t understand the concept of Original Blessing.

A Course in Miracles.

October 26, 2024: A Course in Miracles on The Antichrist: Part II*
Yesterday we reviewed the following text from ACIM: No one believes in idols who has not enslaved himself to littleness and loss. The message of Jesus that we are part of the “kingdom of God” from the start is utterly lost in an idolatrous context. The Course says: An idol is a false impression, or a false belief; some form of anti-Christ, that constitutes a gap between the Christ and what you see. Notice that the anti-Christ comes in many forms, not just Donald Trump, but MAGA and SCOTUS, too. ACIM further says that this idol or antichrist has a “dark and fearful purpose,” but it is only a thought, an idea. Its form is nowhere, for its source abides within our mind where God abideth not. The Course explains: An idol is established by belief, and when it is withdrawn the idol ‘dies.’


*Please note: Originally, these titles erroneously said “The Course of Miracles.” The correct name is A Course in Miracles.

Banner image: Protesting Donald Trump. Image by Ryan on Flickr.


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.

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God

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

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

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1 thought on “Week of 10/21-26/2024: Resentment & Forgiveness, Global Warning, Idolatry”

  1. May God’s Divine Spirit of LOVE – Truth, Wisdom, Peace, Justice, Healing, Forgiveness, Transformation, Creativity, Beauty, Joy, Compassion, ONENESS… continue growing in the hearts and lives of all our sisters & brothers, physical and non-physical spiritual beings, with our Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….

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