Week of 10/27-11/2/2024: Heroes & Fascism vs. Democracy

October 28, 2024: Praying the News: Navalny, Stang, Gutierrez, Trumpian Fascism
Matthew has a wonderful suggestion. Instead of merely watching the news, we should “pray the news.” There was much to pray about this past week. 1) Several key members of Trump’s staff in the White House denounced him as a fascist; 2) The courage of Alexei Navalny and his widow, Julia, as a memoir of Navalny is set to go to press. 3) After a lifetime of service, Gustavo Gutierrez, the Peruvian theologian and father of “Liberation Theology,” died.

Yulia Navalnaya on her husband Alexei’s eternal optimism, and on not taking democracy for granted. Video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

October 29, 2024: Trump’s Fascist Rally at Madison Square Garden
Regarding Trump’s hate-filled rally at Madison Square Garden, historian Heather Cox Richardson said: I stand corrected. I thought this year’s October surprise was the reality that Trump’s mental state had slipped so badly he could not campaign in any coherent way. It turns out the surprise was Trump’s fascist rally at Madison Square Garden, a rally so extreme that Republicans running for office have been denouncing it all over social media tonight. It evoked memories of a Nazi rally there in 1939. A “comedian” there made racist and vulgar remarks about Puerto Ricans. We can only hope that such extremism will only propel more people to vote for his opponent.

October 30, 2024: Fascism AND Christofascism are on the Ballot  
The rally in MSQ put Trump’s fascism on full display. Lesser talked about is the christofascism. Christian nationalism and Opus Dei are thoroughly in bed with the far-right wing of the Republican party today. Matthew says: As a theologian, it is my job to point out the faux Christian dimension to this entire campaign…. Fascism is faux Christianity because it is all about Hate. And Lies. And Violence. Susan Sontag defines fascism as “institutionalized violence.” Trump’s Sunday lineup peddled this unholy trinity. Trump’s hatred of Latinos and immigrants has been particularly vitriolic.

Amna Nawaz interviews NYU history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat on speakers at the MSG hate rally quoting directly from Nazi and authoritarian playbooks. PBS NewsHour.

October 31, 2024: Dark Money, Billionaires, & the Death of Earth & Democracy
One of the signs of the Antichrist in our day is the role of the powerful oppressing the many with dark money. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, referring to climate change and dark money, states: It’s a trifecta: dark money is behind climate denial, Court capture and corruption of Congress—one crew, one plan, one cancer in the body politic. Dark money is “massive anonymous political spending by special interests” who hide their identities from the public. Yet polling is “off the charts” to restrict this kind of dark money. Republicans as well as independents and Democrats are against it. Whitehouse points out that before Citizens United, climate change was a bipartisan issue (in 2008 McCain included it in his platform), but fossil-fuel dark money killed that bipartisanship. 

November 1, 2024: Did Jesus Preach Democracy?
In Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, there is a chapter entitled: “Jesus and Democracy.” Does Jesus teach about democracy? Aquinas said: Christ teaches the dignity of human nature… and Meister Eckhart taught about the “nobility” and “royalty” of ordinary people. In Israel, a royal person was responsible for justice and for keeping the community together. But according to Eckhart, we are all royal persons. Here lies the bedrock of democracy: The dignity and divinity of each person.

We are all related. DNA Mystery Solver

November 2, 2024: Equality and Love: Eckhart on Jesus and Democracy, continued
The opening sentence of the Declaration of Independence is “All men are created equal.” Of course, at the time, that did not include women or people of color. However, if we are all brothers and sisters in one God, then we are all equal, and this is, of course, what democracy is about. Meister Eckhart, writing 450 years before Thomas Jefferson, had a far broader understanding of democracy than he did. For Eckhart does not limit the dignity of personhood to men or white people or men with property as Jefferson did. But with Eckhart, we are born noble—all of us—and it is from that royalty that our rights derive and we in turn are urged to treat others as ourselves and live “equally.” 


Fox, “Sermon Thirty-six: Everyone an Aristocrat, Everyone a Royal Person,” in Fox, Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 510-530.

Banner image: I voted. Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash


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

Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart

Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.”  — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author of Kissing Sleeping Beauty Goodbye.  

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3 thoughts on “Week of 10/27-11/2/2024: Heroes & Fascism vs. Democracy”

  1. When Democrats look to own Jesus in the election, they very quickly look past the Roman Catholic church’s (not evangelical, Christian nationalists) view and teaching regarding abortion [against] and the sanctity of life. Even in Canada, ‘Maid’ which is ‘medical assistance in dying’ was legalized in 2016 and has been forced on doctors and the health community regardless of religious beliefs.
    All being said, the Pope came out and said to ‘vote for the lesser of two evils’ in your own estimation. To say that only ‘one side’ in the divide has blood on their hands is naive, but we as humans have a great propensity to BS ourselves. — BB.

  2. May God’s Spirit of DIVINE LOVE – Will, Truth, Wisdom, Peace, Justice, Forgiveness, Healing, Creativity, Beauty, Joy, Compassion, Diverse ONENESS… Be and grow in the hearts and lives of All our sisters & brothers around the world, especially Americans on November 5, election day, of our linear space time here on Sacred Mother Earth. Our LOVING ETERNAL SOULS will continue evolving in the Spiritual Realms in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….

  3. A thought: Remember the phrase, “What would Jesus do?”
    How about asking: “Who would Jesus vote for?”
    Smiles and good wishes.

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