I recognize quite a list of issues and choices at stake in this year’s presidential election. Otherwise I would not have written a book on Christ and Anti-Christ, the Sacred and Evil. (Christ being a name for the Sacred; and Anti-Christ being a name and archetype for Evil.) Let us name some:
Our Sacred Earth is on the ballot. Its future as we know it is in jeopardy due to climate change and its deniers.
Species that live on the Earth are in jeopardy. To name just a few: Whales, elephants, tigers, lions, forests, rainforests, trees, dogs, cats, horses, camels, eagles, condors, parrots, birds of many kinds, bees, flowers, fishes, kangaroos, pandas, orangutans, bears, butterflies, buffalo, chimpanzees, gorillas, zebras, etc. etc.
Is every whale sacred? And every elephant? Every tiger, lion, forest, rainforest, tree, dog, cat, horse, camel, eagle, condor, parrot, bird, bee, flower, fish, kangaroo, panda, orangutan, bear, butterfly, buffalo, chimpanzee, gorilla, zebra, etc?
The Sacred habitats in which they dwell including rivers, marshes, lakes, oceans, plains, woods and the rest. Are they sacred?
Women and their right to make decisions about their own bodies. Are women and their bodies sacred?
Men and the right to make decisions about when to become fathers. Are men sacred? Is fatherhood sacred?
Children and their right to look forward to a full and healthy life. Are children sacred?
And grandchildren. Are they sacred?
Democracy and the right to choose a government that serves the common good. Is that something sacred?
Democracy as defined by Abraham Lincoln: A Government of, by, and for the people, and as an alternative to rule by the few.
Democracy in contrast to fascism and power-over and institutionalized violence and the marriage of corporations and government.
Democracy in contrast to theocracy and Christian nationalism and Christofascism.
A balance of the masculine and feminine energies vs. Patriarchy as rule by men, of men and for men.
Alternatives to Patriarchy as a philosophy of power-over.
The real meaning of healthy masculinity and virility has to do with qualities of inner strength and self-knowledge, virtues and values like respect and decency and caring and healing and justice-making worth developing in self and society.
The common good.
Justice.
Love.
Forgiveness.
Passion and compassion.
At stake in this election as well is the triumph of Evil, otherwise known as the Anti-christ. Such issues as these stand out:
- Ignoring climate change and therefore participating in matricide and the killing of Mother Earth.
- The world’s largest agribusiness corporation is Cargill Inc. With more billionaires in a single family than any other worldwide, it has brought about the destruction of forests, displacement of indigenous peoples, child labor, modern day slavery. A giant mural in Sao Paolo, Brazil, was painted with ashes of forests destroyed by Cargill to build its plantations. Mud from flood-ravaged areas of Brazil was also employed in the mural. “Every brushstroke represents the forests and communities devastated in the name of profit.”*
- $2 billion has been pumped into election 2024 by billionaire families—a sure way for billionaires to rig the system to their liking. 72% of it went to Republican candidates.**
- Texas politicians, by taking away women’s rights over their own bodies, have caused the deaths of two Texas women who could not get necessary treatment in their time of miscarriage. 30,000 rape victims in Texas have been forced to carry their rapists’ babies to term. Two women in Georgia also lost their lives over that state’s new abortion laws.
Evil and the Sacred are dancing together at this election time. Which will prevail?
- * Matt Jacobson, “Taking on Cargill: Beka’s Powerful Story,” Stand.Earth, October 30, 2024.
** Julia Conley, “This is Just the Traceable Money,” Alternet Media, October 30, 2024.
See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, The Pope’s War: How Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.
And Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors To Awaken the Sacred Masculine.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: The Sacred Earth. Watercolor painting by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you sense the same issues at stake in this election? What others would you add to this list? Have you voted and are you busy getting others to vote? Michael Moore says there were 80 million non-voters in election 2020 and 100 million in 2016 in America. A small percent could decide the election in 2024 if they were convinced to vote.
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
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
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
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7 thoughts on “On Evil, the Sacred, and What is at Stake in this Election”
Yes! Many of us agree that there is much at stake in tomorrow’s election, not only for Americans but for humanity around the world and for Our Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures/Her graceful abundance essential for All living things, including our own human species. God Wiling, Americans will be led by Our Source~Creator’s Spirit of LOVE~LIGHT~LIFE — Truth, Wisdom, Peace, Justice, Forgiveness, Healing, Transformation, Creativity, Beauty, Joy, Compassion, Diverse Wholeness~ONENESS… in tomorrow’s election. Our Eternal Souls will continue to evolve with-in Our LOVING SACRED EVOLVING COSMOS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
Page 1 of my poem ‘Pas de Deux’
The cosmos writhes a rhythm
Life’s pas de deux with death
++++
death at center stage twirls his machete cuts women and
children from their rations of power poises missiles paints acid rains despair in
staccato statistics dazing drumbeats of doom
Life smiles patiently she waits in the wings ’til death seems triumphant
(her cue to enter) she pirouettes over asphalt adds dazzling spins
sprinkles handfuls of sparklers over linear ledgers and historical blunders
death stands to look empty so he rises with taunts stalking life
with base movements so heavy so wooden so laden with dross
Life darts first this way then suddenly that just missing death’s grip
so agile so fragile she dares take the lead……….
A part of me believes it may take another Trump presidency for Americans to realize that fascism and authoritarianism and toxic masculinity can indeed come to the U.S. We are no better than the German people who allowed it to happen in their country. Ushering it in might wake people up. Nothing else has awakened people. What does it take? Letting people see what it can truly be like might be a good thing. However, the more sane part of me says that our planet doesn’t have time for that. Four more years of climate change denial will cause more floods, more hurricanes, more cataclysmic fires, more species loss. So, instead of letting things take their natural course, I have canvassed to get out the vote for four weekends. (Others in my small Arizona town have been canvassing since August, changing minds and getting people to vote early.) Arizona is lagging behind every other state in voting for sanity; nonetheless, I am not despairing, and I am doing what I can–helping to get people to vote. Whatever happens, I know I have done my part; and I won’t blame myself come sometime in January when the president sits down in the Oval Office. So, this afternoon, I’ll be hitting the pavement and knocking on doors for Harris/Walz again.
Bless you in your work today! I’ve only sent letters for Vote Forward to encourage people to vote and made phone bank calls to Georgia for the same goal. We can all do our part. I have had the same thought about the need for a rude awakening in this country, which might require a good dose of authoritarianism. Here in Florida, that is exactly what we have with a governor using tax money to fight the two amendments that were generated by the people and not by his tame legislature—to the point of threatening media outlets for running ads, especially for one. Even though a federal judge stopped that, there is no extreme that this governor will not take to get his own way. He sent out his private “election” police force to question (intimidate) those who signed the amendment, and if it passes, there will be every political effort to quash it. I don’t think that enough people have been hurt enough to motivate them to overturn the supermajority in the legislature, so I doubt the election of the ex-president would do much good. What infuriates me about the people in this country falling for the despot is that the Germans never had a democratic government and were suffering real hardship economically and in every way. So what is our excuse!
Sue, you’ve done just as much as I have done. Somehow, I find it easier to meet people in person than to make phone calls. Writing letters helps too and takes time. Thank you for what you have done and are doing. It takes a virtual village.
Thank-you, Michele for your valiant efforts to elect Kamala and Tim, efforts on behalf of sanity, decency, freedom, and kindness towards people, animals and the earth.
thank you, Matthew, for all the truth and beauty you express in today’s essay. There is so much at stake in this election! I’ve been completely paralyzed though, to help out. Reading your essay and the comments . . . I realized why I couldn’t get involved. The last election I canvassed for was Obama- McCain. I canvassed for a few hours in the afternoon and felt horrible and weird that whole afternoon, but I kept on trudging til I finished my lists of houses to visit. It was getting dark and I was in a strange town and sitting and resting in my car. I couldn’t shake my fear and uneasiness. Then I received a phone call that my brother had been found dead, in his apartment. I immediately went racing to my mom’s house to see if she was ok after having the news broken to her by a police man. I didn’t have many feelings of sadness that night, but have mourned at odd times over these years. I realized tonight that is why I wasn’t even considering canvassing. I hope I can be absolved of this transgression and that Harris gets in. I see all the work you all are doing and hope and pray it is enough this time.