Today marks one month since Americans voted to return Trump to the White House. For me, and for many, it has been a time of processing my grief and getting ready to live with a new version of America than I thought we lived in.
One where a majority–but certainly no mandate as less than 50% of voters voted for him–of Americans gave power back to a president who ignited an insurrection against the government and lied for years because he did not have the decency or manliness to admit he lost an election. One who, along with many of his MAGA followers, is eager to replace the Constitution, flawed as it is, with Project 2025 and its christofascist makers, a blueprint for fascism, and the killing of our republic. And is hiring its authors for many important government positions.
The silver lining is that the Democrats are strong in the House of Representatives and can perhaps slow down the inevitable until elections of 2026 two years from now. And the press still has some voice. And citizens can resist. And some of his hires are incompetent.
Many lessons are to be taken from this election, not least of which is that many democracies are under similar pressure at this time in history. And that many more millions of Americans (90 million) chose to sit the election out than to vote for the winner (77 million) or the loser (74 million).
I received this letter from my friend, Jenny Hereth, an accomplished artist and former faculty member. It speaks to the via transformativa of our times.
Took my 93-year-old Dad on thanksgiving to see the Bonhoeffer film which is all over Chicago. Growing up a Lutheran minister’s daughter I remember dusting Bonhoeffer’s books on my Dad’s bookshelf and knowing the story of his heroism. I thought it was excellent for this time especially because I believe churches with Trump supporters will go see it and be moved!!! Power of art and storytelling! Similarities Trump to Hitler very strong! And beautiful tribute to the spirituality of the black church!! Also may shore up non-trump supporters how important standing up and keeping the faith.
Then took my dad out and listened to stories of church members walking out of his sermons on the southside of Chicago in 1960s because when he used the word “love” in the pulpit they knew he meant “nigger love”!
Long way of saying I recommend the film and see it as positive popular art right now!!!
I also received a note from a person whose son worked in a major democratic campaign and had this to say about my book on Trump/MAGA /Antichrist: I wanted to let you know that my son and I had a big talk last night about how you were completely correct about the religious vote for trump. There was a lot going on in election team and no one was reading, everyone on survival mode.
I’m wondering if it can be packaged as more of a survival guide to living under Trump. I believe in you and your work.
Are we moving on from our grieving? Grief does not rapidly disappear, and many people process grief on different time scales. One knows when it is time to return to the work at hand, each one on their own clock.
Rather than getting rid of it, we may be called to carry the grief with us while we work all the harder and with opened and expanded imagination. After all, “hope is a verb with the sleeves rolled up.”
See Fox, “Befriending Darkness, Letting Go and Letting Be: The Via Negativa,” in Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 132-177.
And Fox, “How A Radical Letting Go Becomes a True Letting Be,” in Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp.213-225.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, Trump & MAGA as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
Banner Image: The Resistance arises: Women’s March Rally at the Heritage Foundation, Washington DC, November 9, 2024. Photo by Elvert Barnes on Flickr.
CORRECTION: Yesterday’s Daily Meditation inadvertently misspelled the name of poet Derek Walcott. We regret the error.
Queries for Contemplation
What stage are you at in your grief about November 5? And about what has transpired since and is coming? How are you handling your grief and preparing for upcoming resistance? Does Bonhoeffer inspire you?
Recommended Reading
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
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.
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
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.
8 thoughts on “On the One-Month Anniversary of Trump’s Return”
The similarities of Trump to Hitler are very strong! Oh my YES. I have been reading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William L. Shirer. The similarities of Trump to Hitler are very, very, very strong indeed!!!
I watched the Rachel Madow interview and glad I did to the end. The sky is not falling! There has been no overnight switch to “fascism” as earlier proclaimed. The principles of Democracy remain fully in place. The system works. Yes, Kamala and the Democrats lost the election and losing is hard, but it was a fair vote. If anything, the principles of Democracy are being sharpened and that, surely, is a good thing. It keeps us on our toes; it keeps us alert; it should engage us all more. If there is a problem to be called out it is the lack of engagement in the process by the majority of citizens. Perhaps they will now feel less ostracized and more determined to enter the democratic fray. Democracy is Alive and Well in America and it should be proclaimed, even if it does stir the weak-livered and gall-lacking members of its great democratic institutions.
Still grieving. Velshi, MSNBC, did a good interview of Eddie Glaude, Princeton historian professor, about three weeks ago regarding the deeper meaning of what Trump’s election says about America. However, our spiritual human evolution and struggle for Love, Truth, and Justice continues with our Source~Creator’s Spirit Presence within, through, among Us…
The stirring film, “Bonhoeffer”, is prophetic. I couldn’t help sobbing at its ending, and calling out in the near empty theatre (which surprised me, too) – “We must keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open; this is happening again in our nation right now. Trump is the Anti-Christ, and our democracy is at stake.”
Thank you for sharing and for all your words!!
A year ago, I was browsing in antique store, and I found a vintage book with the title, “Männer dem Drittereich.” I know enough German to know that *that* meant. Sure enough, it was full of one-page bios of all the higher-ups in the Third Reich. Creepy AF. So now, I’ve taken to sarcastically calling the incoming regime, “Männer und Frauen dem Viertereich.” Because this time, women are being tapped for high office.
Ich kann seinen, T‘s. Anblick nicht ertragen. Darum vermeide ich es, wenn ich die Seite von Matthew Fox öffne die Bilder der Nachrichten-Seiten an zu sehen. Ich will T. keine Beachtung schenken. T. nährt sich von der Beachtung seiner Anhänger und der Presse. Aber auch die, die sich seinetwegen zu Recht Sorgen machen nähren ihn. Ich muss immer an den Merlin-Film („Merlin 1998“) denken, wenn sich gegen Ende des Films alle Beteiligten umdrehen und der bösen Zauberin den Rücken zudrehen, sie nicht mehr beachten. Die Zauberin fleht darauf ALLE an sie anzuschauen. Als aber niemand mehr auf sie hört oder sie anschaut löst sie sich einfach auf. Ist es irrational – naiv oder weise, wenn ich mir wünsche, dass die gesamte Menschheit der Dunkelheit den Rücken zuwendet und sich dem Christus in uns zuwendet?
Link zum Film
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?&q=mörlin2+der+letzte+zauberer+reihenfolge&qpvt=mörlin2+der+letzte+zauberer+reihenfolge&mid=E0C575430EDEBECD5E40E0C575430EDEBECD5E40&&FORM=VRDGAR
Both magazines Christian Century and Christianity Today published critiques of the Bonhoeffer movie. I saw the movie and can see their point. First, it plays loose with history and the person of Bonhoeffer (as attested by his family and others who knew him). Second, and more serious, it infers that violence in pursuit of “high” goals is an acceptable Christian methodology….which left Bonhoeffer conflicted. I don’t dispute his courage; however, it is disingenuous to turn him into a model for right-wing Christian ideology. The movie is based on a biography by an author with a Christian nationalist pedigree.
There is an excellent series on YouTube, which also sounds the alarm on the way the movie depicts him as a kind of action hero, which was far from his own understanding; even in the very tangential role that he had in the attempted assassination of Hitler, he did not try to justify violence or his part in it. The depiction of his family life was genuine, however. Christian Nationalists have tried to hijack him, just as they have hijacked Jesus. I would recommend this series, which is on-going. https://homebrewedchristianity.lpages.co/bonhoeffer/