One year after Navalny’s death, authorities in Russia continue to go after people associated with his movement. One article reported, “In the year since Navalny died suddenly aged 47, dozens of Russians are still being arrested, tried and imprisoned for engaging in activities related to him and his memory.”
Since his death last year, 695 detentions of his supporters have been reported. “To display the word ‘Navalny” risks a jail sentence.” Even his lawyers were jailed for 3.5 to 5.5 years.*
One lesson learned is that courage still exists. True masculinity—authentic virility—is related to virtue. Virtues are qualities that name the best in men and women, an inner strength of healthy habits. People standing up for Navalny’s values are proof that virtue is still possible.
Meanwhile, back home, in the land where people love to sing at major sports events about our “land of the free and the home of the brave,” this is happening: Near Rochester, New York: five men from ages 19 to 38 have been charged with torturing a trans person for several months and then murdering him.
Major Sucher of the NY State Police called the case “beyond depraved” and “by far the worst” investigation the homicide division had ever undertaken. “No human being should have to endure what Sam endured” said the Major. Three Rochester city council members report that hostility toward transgender people is rising.
In an article on how “Trump’s passport rules are trapping transgender Americans in limbo,” VOX has reported that on his first day in office, Trump passed an executive order stating that the government would only recognize a person’s sex and not their gender and that sex was unalterable.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio fell in line and immediately directed a pause in processing of passports. “The policy makes a sharp departure from decades of evolving passport rules dating back to 1977. This is part of a broader campaign by the new administration to intimidate transgender Americans.”
The goal is “to make life untenable for transgender and nonbinary folks,” ACLU attorney Aditi Fruitwala said. “They want to sow fear and chaos and to make everyone extremely afraid to be out and who they are.”**
This does not sound like a “land of the free” to me. Or the brave. What are anti-transpeople afraid of? Singling out trans people—a minority of a minority—hardly seems like a brave thing to do. It is what bullies do—pick on those they think no one else will support.
The current regime also erased all references of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument website this month. Yet it was the trans community that rose up in the Stonewall bar and fought back against police harassment. In their doing so, Stonewall launched the greater gay liberation movement.
Meanwhile, some politicians and some media outlets are sounding alarms and some (slow moving) courts are stirring. Twenty-five court cases have been filed against the current government’s race to fascism. Of course, we have learned from the stoppage of trials around the January 6 event and stealing of top-secret documents to Mar-a-Lago and the Georgia moment begging for 11,000 new votes, what court delays can accomplish if you are rich and have friends in high places (including SCOTUS).
Resistance is on the rise among citizens as even Trump/Vance voters begin to see that what is happening has nothing to do with lowering the price of eggs. It bears all the marks of fascism, power-over, institutional violence, evil or signs of antichrist.
To be continued.
* https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-pursues-navalny-supporters-one-year-after-opposition-leaders-death-2025-02-14/
** Rachel Cohen and Kelsey Piper, “Trump’s new passport rules are trapping transgender Americans in bureaucratic limbo, ” Vox, Feb 13, 2025.
See Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine.
And 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 and Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
Banner Image: “No Kings on Presidents Day, D.C., February 17, 2025.” Hundreds of people gathered along the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. to protest the takeover and gutting of federal agencies by the unelected oligarch Elon Musk. Photo by Ted Eytan on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Though you may not be transgender yourself, do you see in the attacks on a minority of a minority a serious mini story of fascism—”institutional violence” (Susan Sontag)—happening among us? And that silence is complicity? And inner strength and spiritual warriorhood is called for to stand up on the behalf of the rights of all citizens?
Recommended Reading
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
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
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
3 thoughts on “Evil on the March, Resistance Too?”
Not all is doom and gloom. Look to ‘the North’ where God creates miracles.
From CNN – Survivors of Delta Plane Crash in Toronto https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/17/us/toronto-plane-crash-passengers/index.html
All on board the Delta flight from Minneapolis survived the crash, but it is still unclear how the aircraft was upended, leaving it belly-up, streaked with black residue and much of a wing gone. Inside, seat-belted passengers were suspended from their seats.
Initial reports indicate that there are no fatalities, Delta said in a statement Monday evening. Both the airline and Toronto Airport Fire Chief Todd Aitken noted 18 people were injured in the crash and have been transported to area hospitals.
The last major aviation accident at the Toronto airport was nearly two decades ago, on August 2, 2005, according to the Associated Press, when an inbound Air France flight from Paris slid off the runway and burst into flames [it burned to the ground]. All 309 people on board survived.
A resounding YES!!! Matthew to all three of your questions to us in today’s DM. Thank you for continuing to be a prophet and spiritual warrior (‘General’ in our spiritual and physical realms) for Truth, Peace, Justice, Compassion… with and for all of us, the People of Our Democracy!
I think we need to stress what Matthew points out, that bullies pick out the most vulnerable–because bullies are always cowards. Of all the virtues that the current occupant lacks, true courage is one. And we must not remain silent. Even if the desired results are not immediate, standing up for our trans people is vital! We must show what courage is, even in the face of threats and violence.