Today is a very dark day—to put it mildly–for America and democracy and the future of Mother Earth and her creatures and the world. And women and Ukrainians and Palestinians and Europeans and many others.
Following are a few responses to America’s election that I have received from a variety of sources in my email this morning, the Day After the Election, which is being heard around the world.
Help. More than ever, I’m confused and in utter disbelief. We are in 1930s Germany. It’s the stage where I’m not only afraid of Trump, but more so the supporters. Soon I’ll be constantly looking over my shoulders and fearful of everyone. Please help. Give us guidance, strength, and most especially, prayers. (Middle-aged man.)
I’m speechless…honestly. I would love to connect soon. My grief is boundless right now, but feeling compelled to progress, because time feels like it’s running out. (29-year-old Black doctoral student.)
I’m pulverized. White privileged women voted for him. It’s the propaganda and uninformed and uncaring people. I shudder for my grandchildren and Ukraine and the planet and all I’ve fought for. Propaganda and fear and Anti-Christ indeed. The billionaires are running this country. (70-year-old white grandmother)
Sixty-two percent of Americans today—including Republicans—say they are “scared,” and for good reason. Fear and promises of revenge and upending the constitution and promulgating lies and misogyny and violence are in the air. America has voted—by a six million person majority—to become a fascist nation and let democracy go. Just like Germany in the 1930s.
And this has been happening for some time. Back when GW Bush was president, a friend of mine living with her husband in West Oakland was serving that community with art and school and drumming for kids and adults. The adults met one night a week and she told me one day, “Germans are coming regularly to drum with us.” I replied, “I didn’t know there was a German community in Oakland.”
“Oh, no,” she said. “Some Germans fly in regularly from Germany.” “Why?” I asked. “Because they feel that America is becoming like Germany in the ‘30s and they are afraid and don’t know how to handle it except to come here to the inner city of Oakland and join us in our drumming circle. It is beyond words for them.”
This gave me awareness about 12 years ago that fascism was making its imprint on American politics. And now it is more than an imprint, it is a full-fledged presence with the Supreme Court on board, the presidency, the Senate, and possibly the House. And, like Germany of the 30s, plenty of corporations and business people too. (Mussolini actually defined fascism as “the marriage of government and corporations” and he knew something of what he spoke.) Corporations including the media: Fox News was fined $800 million, recall, but its propaganda keeps pouring out. Fossil fuel companies fighting tirelessly for their ill-gained profits and their full pockets so they can buy congress people and lobby their self-interests ad nauseam, etc. Elon Musk and his multiple businesses. And certain religious corporations or churches as well, who choose to be silent about Evil and the incarnation of the Antichrist in history again.
A second heads-up came to me eight days ago when our circle of the Order of the Sacred Earth had their monthly meeting on zoom. One of the participants from the Midwest who had canvassed in Beloit, Wisconsin, told how citizens there told him they were afraid to put signs in their yards supporting Harris and Walz. I asked “Why?” “They might get a brick through their window,” he replied. This election was of an altogether different passion and level of hatred.
He also offered some sage advice: “We are being driven to a deeper spirituality. One that sustains us at the edge of existence.”
To be continued.
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: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.
Banner Image: Protester holding Adbusters’ Corporate American Flag at Bush’s 2nd inauguration, Washington DC. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree that we are being driven to a deeper spirituality in these trying times when democracy is being replaced by fascism in the US?
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
17 thoughts on “Election 2024: The Day After”
“Be a Light-Bearer”
The Gurus, Sages and Saints have all along challenged us to go into a deeper spirituality, regardless of the external ‘of the world’ environment. Or like most of us, do we only ‘flee’ to Christ in a time of perceived need?
We can only be ‘light-bearers’ in all situations regardless of light or darkness prevailing. ‘Light-bearers’ bring love, truth and all other qualities of the Holy Spirit to prevail. But we must find the courage to do so. And that may cost us in ‘of the world’ currency, such as a brick thrown through a window. It takes ‘courage’ to carry our Cross and go deep. And that is all Jesus has asked us to do in His Name. Do we take up our Cross as ‘light bearers’ or do we shirk away as cowards and fear mongers’? There has always been a cost, and that cost now is asking us to come out of hiding and the perceived comfort ‘of the world’. Do we not know who Reigns over ‘not of the world’? Do we not take any faith, comfort and courage in knowing that and in turn living that? – BB.
The Course in Miracles tells us: “There are no exceptions”.
There are no “shirking cowards” vs courageous light bearers; there are no children-drumming-circles-facilitators vs fascists; there are no demons burning in hell for eternity vs saints; there are no “fear-mongers” vs love children. We’re all the same at heart. The people making war are people who have problems, struggle desperately, worry constantly, feel depressed and despairing, survivors of abuse, just like all of us. So we can relate completely with them. There are no exceptions. There is no monster Hitler. Hitler was a guy who spent years homeless on the street, trying to sell his art work. He was an outcast, “different” from everybody else. Can you relate to that deep feeling of rejection he would have had? Donald Trump had a difficult childhood. Does that make him a monster totally ignorant of morality? That’s ridiculous. There are no exceptions. Everyone wants to be happy in a peaceful world. People need whatever help you can give them.
Maybe those of us who receive the daily meditation emails are being pushed towards a deeper spirituality, but I am not sure I can say the same for others. All I know is that I am very angry right now and it will take me a while to have a positive attitude. Around the time of the Civil War, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “The wrong shall fail, the right prevail”. I just don’t believe that is true anymore. As children we are taught to be good, obey the rules, be kind to other people and extend a helping hand. From what I have observed being dishonest, mean and totally flauting the rules is what gets people ahead in the world and that they are the ones who have success. This has happened for centuries in all countries and I have a hard time believing that goodness will prevail.
I feel the same way, Irene. Darkness and fascism has won. I am disgusted by the comments I see here blaming Kamala and Democrats etc. Have they read Matthew’s anti-Christ book at all?Over half of America chose a convicted felon, rapist, pathological liar, painfully ignorant, vindictive, ego maniac authoritarian Putin loving billionaire who is utterly devoid of any moral compass or decency, over an intelligent, eminently competent, kind, compassionate and principled black woman. All the oppression, death and destruction that follows is on each & every Trump supporter.
No, though we should be driven into spirituality all the time for every kind of reason, not least the Love of God. Meanwhile, I don’t agree that America is being taken over by fascism anymore than the sky is falling. It’s an alarmist reaction. We had a free and fair election and the Republican candidate won. It came down mainly to the economy. Millions of voters felt themselves worse off than they did four years ago. There were other concerns, obviously, and if voters don’t like the way things pan out over the next four years and the Democrats have a strong candidate, then Donald Trump will be ousted just as he was four years ago. As the old saying goes, “The public are not stupid”, even though we may not always agree with the majority decision.
I agree that we should always be mindful of the need to deepen our spirituality, especially under challenges like the current one for so many of us. I disagree that this was a free and fair election, because of the planned and effective use of voter disenfranchisement and gerrymandering that has been accomplished over the past several years. For example, the people of the state of Florida passed an amendment that would enfranchise felons (not murderers or sex offenders) in 2020 I think, as so many states have done. The supermajority of Republicans passed a law requiring that they pay any fines, court costs, etc., but when people tried to find out these costs, the state could not or would not supply the information. There is great risk in unbalancing the intent of the Founding Fathers to have the 3 parts of government independent and to protect minorities, i.e., political losers. The state of Florida has become a kind of min-fascist state with supermajorities in the Legislature and Supreme Court. The rule of law does not exist. The media have been threatened and attacked for running ads supporting amendments the rulers don’t like, elected states attorneys have been fired effectively since the supreme court basically rubberstamps whatever the governor wants. Peaceful protests have been criminalized, and on and on. I think that you might consider just how much damage can be done in 4 years on a national basis. People might wake up at last, and it might be too late.
After my disbelief, distraught state and after grounding myself, I’m deeply concerned that THIS ELECTION was tampered with, “rigged” as is said and NOT free and fair. People are blaming everyone except Trump for this happening.
I’m not alone in this. There are calls for Investigations ( which won’t happen) and RECOUNTS. We don’t have to accept this and as critical thinkers we need to question Everything in this corrupt political climate.
Please consider. Don’t just acquiesce and grieve.
One historical fact of hope is the largely unknown story of Italian Military Internees in WWII. When conscience surpasses commands and a degree of exclusive “patriotism” that eliminates or derides other cultures & people, it leads to uncomfortable historical facts that remain hidden… until people realize their meaning. IMIs were 650,000 Italian soldiers in WWII who refused to continue fighting for Mussolini’s Republic of Saló after the announcement of the Cassibile Armistice on 9/8/1943. They were captured, interned in labor camps and had their POW status legally changed on 9/20/43 by German law to IMI, thus removing any Geneva Convention POW provisions & protections. They continued to refuse German promises for better treatment if they agreed to fight; they remained in camps until their deaths or liberation. One of these souls was my mother’s first cousin. Their story and experience remains still largely unknown today. While each person’s story is different, the fear,, shame, and silence for years may be related to the imposed violence against humanity that all wars bring.
YES!!! We are being driven to a deeper spirituality. Even though we’re grieving and feeling abandoned, we have to maintain our Faith with one another that God’s Spirit of DIVINE LOVE – Truth, Peace, Justice, Healing, Forgiveness, Strength, Transformation, Freedom, Creativity, Beauty, Joy, Compassion, Diverse Wholeness~ONENESS… IS still within, through, among Us in Our daily lives with one another in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT on the Eternal Journeys of Our Souls here on Our Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth and in All physical and non-physical spiritual dimensions of Our LOVING EVOLVING COSMOS…. We’re not alone within Our COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Those of us who believe in the sanctity of life and living need to advocate with greater efforts to sustain and maintain the Ways of Wisdom and Wonder of Divinity, including Respect, Reverence, Reconciliation, and Revirescence.
In the Name of the Holy Trinity and the Sacred Quaternity
Tree-Fully
from a Christian Heath
DAS (Rev. Dr.)
Father forgive them for do not know what they do.
I have lived many years and it’s clear to me humanity has not progressed since these words were uttered.
Despair is useless but understandable as a painful response.
I can only hold on to the belief that
Gods work happens over deep time…not my time.
Are we being driven to a deeper spirituality? As for me, I don’t know. I know this. People have been in this place before, and Christians like Bonhoffer have fought fascism before. As I said the other day here, perhaps this is what it takes–extreme darkness and yet evil birthed in a spotlight–for those in the “Right” who believe they are IN the right to see how evil trumpism and Christian Nationalism (sic) are. Amazingly, perhaps this is what has to happen before some people recognize the evils of authoritarianism, fascism, and a president free of accountability for what they are. You’d have thought our fathers fighting against it in the 40s would’ve been enough. Still, perhaps we don’t choose the times we live in, but as Frodo says in The Lord of the Rings.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
The cross has more significance than ever before.
I think of my Father – a tank commander- making his way with many many others from the cliffs of Normandy across Europe to the liberation of Paris and on to Berlin. He was at the liberation of Buchenwald and witnessed the horror of the death camps. How can the kind of thinking and ideology that led to that be happening again? I despair that people don’t know their history. However, despair does no good , the choice can be made to be the LIGHT.
Thank you, Matthew for your words of wisdom and hope.
Sage advice: “We are being driven to a deeper spirituality… that sustains us at the edge of existence.”
I read an article recently titled “Filtering out the hostility,” a story about an Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania whose rector started a weekly gathering called Contemplative Citizenship. About 50 people attend, many denominations, sharing contemplative prayer, meditation, discussion.
The priest, David Peck, says “the hope of democracy in a deeply divided country is of citizens that are more contemplative.” We need “a more prayerful, thoughtful and engaged citizenship better able to see the sins [and blessings] of our own parties, in our own selves as well as other people, so that we can live, vote, and debate more humbly.”
A meditation app with a timer tells how many are meditating, showing a world map. It sees 10s of thousands all over meditating; half a million people+ use the app that day. Multitudes beyond the reach of the app, also meditated with us.
This is our work too, expanding, expanding.
Kamala reminds us, it is “only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here’s the thing, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars. The light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.”
We have found ourselves in this state via our love for separateness. We want to enjoy this without suffering the consequences, sort of like we want our cake and eat it too. Therefore, we try all kinds of ways of getting around the consequences, so for thousands of years we have been teaching one another how to love one another, like, for example, how God, Jesus, and thousands of Godlike entities we have invented do. The reason this hasn’t worked, and can never work, is because the notion of our being separate from our deities nurtures and reinforces the illusion of our separateness. Then someone like Trump comes along and says he can solve the problems our separateness creates if we vote him into office. We will dismiss our separateness as being the problem, the cause of our difficulties, as our existence in this state is so normal we never look in that direction.
The reason Trump came into our lives is to teach us that separateness is a dead end. He will take all of humanity to a point of desperation where we will finally begin to challenge the illusion of our separateness and build a new world based on the truth of our interconnections with one another and all that is. Readers here can get a head start on this process by reading the free ebook that The Great White Brotherhood provided at https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/from-separateness-to-true-self-realization-a-transitional-guide-designed-to-stimulate-a-spiritual-revolution
I lead Morning Prayer twice a week. This summer I read this passage 2 Thessalonians 2
7 … the mystery of lawlessness is already at work,…
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth…
9 The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders,
10 and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false,
I don’t believe that Paul was talking to us in the 21st century. I do believe that the lawless one reappears. I believe that they will ultimately be defeated. I just need to not let myself become consumed with anger and join them. We are called to love our neighbor and the only way that I can see doing that is through loving God because loving some of my neighbors is more than I can do on my own.