January 20, 2025: Speaking of Spiritual Warriors: MLK, Jr. Day, 2025
MLK was a powerful example of a spiritual warrior who preached and lived Jesus’ teachings about “loving your neighbor as yourself,” “do this to the least and you do it to me,” and “be you compassionate as your Creator in heaven is compassionate.” True to his vocation as a prophet, he chose to interfere with injustice. In the process, he stayed true to the principles of non-violence, which he learned from Howard Thurman and Mahatma Gandhi, other notable spiritual warriors. What an irony that this good man should be celebrated on the same day as this inauguration day. Rather feels like both Christ and the Antichrist.
January 21, 2025: Rabbi Heschel & Jesus: All People as Prophets & Spiritual Warriors
In light of yesterday’s inauguration of such a corrupt and morally bankrupt person, it is going to take all the resilience and spiritual strength we can muster to save our country. Reflecting on the legacy of notable spiritual warriors can provide some much-needed inspiration for the daunting tasks at hand. Rabbi Heschel said: The urgency of justice was an urgency of aiding and saving the victims of oppression. Rabbi Heschel reminds us that all people are to be prophets: To do justice is what God demands of every person: It is the supreme commandment, and one that cannot be fulfilled vicariously.
January 22, 2025: Buddhist Teachings on the Spiritual Warrior
At this critical time in the history of both our nation and the planet, all are called to be spiritual warriors. Buddhist teacher and activist Joanna Macy has spoken of how privileged we are to be living at this time when so much spiritual vision and strength are needed to save Mother Earth from ourselves. Thich Nhat Hanh believes that mindfulness renders one strong and solid. Mindfulness, if practiced continuously, will be strong enough to embrace your fear or anger and transform it. We need not chase away evil. We can embrace and transform it in a nonviolent, nondualistic way.
January 23, 2025: The Demise of the Word “Obviously”
The day before the inauguration, on Fox non-News, vice president-elect JD Vance promised that pardons of the January 6 insurrectionists would apply only to those who protested peacefully. And “obviously” those convicted of violent crimes, such as assaulting Capitol police officers, “shouldn’t be pardoned.”* Trump, himself a convicted felon 34 times over, has killed the meaning of the word obviously on his first day in office. One shudders to think what it means for the safety of our communities that people like the Proud Boys are back on our streets and empowered by knowing the president has their back.
January 24, 2025: Speaking of Spiritual Warriorhood: A Bishop Speaks Truth To Power
At a prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., one bishop showed great courage in speaking directly to Trump and Vance from the pulpit, beseeching them to be merciful to immigrants, LGBTQ+ youth, and other vulnerable members of society. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde also preached in a gentle but firm tone that “Christian nationalism is not only a distortion of the Gospel but also a grave threat to democracy and the common good.” Stephen Colbert, a devout Catholic, actually teared up when talking about her. Not only was it beautiful, it took courage to stand up there and say something simple, something so kind, something so true to the example of Christ….And, even better, it made Trump super-uncomfortable because here’s the thing: Sermons aren’t a debate. Trump just had to sit there and listen to it.
January 25, 2025: Ecumenism, Spiritual Warriorhood, and Common Survival
As we face the rise of fascism and the threat of ecological collapse, we need inner strength to put conscience, the common good, Mother Earth, and future generations first. In addition to the courage of Bishop Budde, we have Cardinal McElroy, also of DC, declaring that mass deportations are “contrary to Catholic doctrine.” As Rachel Maddow commented this week, religion may prove to be a kind of sleeping giant, rising up as justice continues to get trampled on. Meanwhile, Daniel Pinchbeck has written the following article about Matthew’s book on Trump & MAGA as antichrist: Is Trump Literally the Antichrist?**
* Corbin Bolies, “Vance Breaks With Trump on ‘Day One’ Promise,” Yahoo! News
**Daniel Pinchbeck, “Is Trump Literally the Antichrist? Is This the Apocalypse? Enquiring Minds Want to Know!” Substack
Banner image: The need to Rise Up! is even more important in 2025 than during the great Women’s March of 2020. Image by Stephen Melkisethian 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.
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods
4 thoughts on “Week of 1/20-25/2025: The Continued Call for Spiritual Warriors”
How refreshing to see the video of Bishop Budde interviewed by Rachel Maddow. With kindness, compassion but forthright honesty she speaks truth to power. Done with skill and courage by a woman, as well as any man could do. High time for the Catholic Church to take notice..
Love, Truth, Peace, Justice, Healing, Compassion, Loving Diverse Oneness… to All our Sisters & Brothers around the world in the Sacred Process of the Eternal Present Moment! — Amen
I always appreciate these posts and wholeheartedly support Bishop Edgar Budde, that said, don’t you think Rachel Madcow’s coverage or shall I say lack of appropriate coverage and compassion for Gaza/Palestinians a little troubling to say the least? She cried about the events of October 7th and congratulated herself for her compassion for children , yet refused to hold the Israel defenses accountable for bombing hospitals and killing children. I used to applaud her coverage of movements, I find her less creditable in this past year and part of the problem of corporate media and gaslighting. No need to post this comment, just my reaction and response.
Why are we using the word “warrior” which incorporates “war” and all its connotations of exertion of “power over” by use of weaponry, violence, division etc. in this current time of many wars being waged and the slaughter of thousands, I am very very uncomfortable now with Matthew’s use of the phrase “spiritual warrior” – for me the words are mutually exclusive: a tautology.