Working on the seven capital sins and the seven chakras has brought to my attention once again that spirituality is intensely personal and political at the same time. Each of the habits that we have considered affect both our individual lives and the political bodies of which we are members.
It is quite obvious that the full exercise of the seven virtues (i.e. the complete clearing of the seven chakras) would mean to live a healthy and happy life, both personally and communally. But such a “golden age” escapes us. All human cultures have imagined it either in the distant past or in the distant future precisely because no society has experienced it.
We might say that we, as humans, live between heaven and hell all the time. Some eras — like ours — seem dangerously tilted towards hell. There are, however, times and places in which human rights are respected, education is fostered, health is improved, creativity flourishes, science is devoted to human progress, and spirituality is honored. The fact that good situations don’t last for ever is part of the human condition. But the same is true of bad situations. Buddhists are right when they assert the notion of impermanence.
Once we accept that we are not the masters of the universe, and we open our eyes onto the complex realities that make up both our society and our individuality, what can we do to fulfill our spiritual call? One important task consists in dispelling mystifications about spirituality and its relationship with both the personal and the political. People say that religion is a personal matter, and/or that religious leaders should not get involved in politics. These ideas are very strong where the Western mindset has prevailed historically, even though they are understood and used differently by different people, depending on where they situate themselves on the political spectrum.
The “separation of church and state” has indeed brought about much good, enshrining tolerance in the very fabric of society — or at least trying to — and is now rightly invoked by those who are determined to counter the attempt to establish a theocracy in the USA. From this point of view, the “separation of church and state” has a spiritual import, because all that helps preventing prevarication is good.
On the other hand, this notion has helped push in a corner spiritual values and religious feelings, so that Western democracies have become in time empty shells made of rules and procedures which purport both to be in service of the people and completely neutral as to values, which is a contradiction in terms. Even though theocracy is a very, very bad idea, and is sponsored by some pretty unenlightened people, the sentiment hiding behind it should be taken into serious consideration.
We all feel that much is lost when the most important human values, which all cultures have represented and enshrined historically in their religions, are deemed to be secondary to the way in which society regulates itself. We differ drastically in how to go about this problem, but we are united in our dissatisfaction about how it has been going.
We are called to be very thoughtful about the way in which we understand the personal and the political, in relation to spirituality, and about the ways in which we talk about this subject, most especially in this time and age.
See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
See also Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion
And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
And Fox, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
And Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
And Fox, Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Banner Image: “I Object.” Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
If you agree with me about the fact that Westerners in general are dissatisfied with the absence of spiritual values in politics, how do you feel about finding a point of union with your enemy? If you disagree with me, how would you reframe the issue of personal vs. political when spiritual values come into play?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
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
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.
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 Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Selected with an Introduction by Charles Burack
To encapsulate the life and work of Matthew Fox would be a daunting task for any save his colleague Dr. Charles Burack, who had the full cooperation of his subject. Fox has devoted 50 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His more than 40 books, translated into 78 languages, are inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and have awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. Essential Writings begins by exploring the influences on Fox’s life and spirituality, then presents selections from all Fox’s major works in 10 sections.
“The critical insights, the creative connections, the centrality of Matthew Fox’s writings and teaching are second to none for the radical renewal of Christianity.” ~~ Richard Rohr, OFM.
6 thoughts on “Personal and Political”
Everyone takes their personal values with them into all walks of their lives whether personal, political, and all other.
If I say I value all life and then support going to war, then going to war ‘to win’ is my personal value is it not? Have I just not awarded it with more of my life currency? I am what I become, what I choose, and those are my personal values, the ones that carry the most weight.
When I say that all are equal, but look to take away or reduce their medicaid, our personal value becomes one of the need for say political popularity or fitting in, disappearing into, a particular herd mentality.
It does not matter what we say or think our personal values to be and the big trade-offs we pretend to make for the sake of whatever [ insert what you actually value more here]. Our values are how we actually act them out. Let’s not fool ourselves and believe ourselves to be pious when we are actually two-spirited. — BB.
Perhaps the trick is to not have “an enemy”. Enemies are made when we become entrenched in our own positions of being right. We are far better served when we seek to understand why some people see things differently from ourselves. Such debate and openness will generate a much more intelligent, enlightened society and is based upon us holding to an innate Universal Love rather than the indignation of self-righteousness. As Mahatma Gandhi pointed out, “An eye for an eye makes the world blind.”
“Consider the great religions. They do not teach fear and division. They teach harmony, unity, tolerance. Fear, on the other hand, paralyzes human relationships, threatens faith, feeds suspicion of others, of the unknown, of the different.”
– p. 74, Pope Francis LIFE – My Story through History
Thank you Gianluigui and the DM team for today’s beautiful DM, especially the two enclosed YouTube videos enhancing the theme of bringing spirituality into our personal and communal/earthly lives. It gives Hope to Our yearning of helping as Co-Creators of God’s Spirit of DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM within and among Us with Sacred Mother Earth/Living Creatures manifest/evolve GOD’S QUEENDOM~KINGDOM on earth as It Is in HEAVEN, All physical and nonphysical spiritual dimensions in Creation/COSMOS for All Spiritual Beings, in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT… COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Thank you so much for the 60-Minutes program about Bhutan. May we all be encouraged that this type of thinking could be an alternative future to that currently on the table in both the U.S. and many other supposed civilized nations. Let us hold this vision in our active minds.
I think that liberals have made a huge mistake in divorcing spiritual values from politics, although it is a fine line to maintain. It is destructive to identify with one particular religious institution but helpful to ground one’s political stance in belief in God or a Higher Power. On the other hand, Jimmy Carter was open about how his faith could not be divorced from his policies, and he was reviled. It seems that more people want the image of an old-fashioned punishing God to justify their own political plans, and the saddest thing to me how God/Jesus are so used and misused. I agree with Paul that having an enemy only serves as a target for hatred when we should be trying to understand why others disagree with us and get off the ego trip of self righteousness.
I am proud to have been part of a phone bank that worked hard to get the Rev. Warnock elected vs a former football player who did not even reside in the state of Georgia. Georgia is a perfect example of paradox with classic southern racism alongside people like him. He preached a beautiful sermon at the National Cathedral, which among other things reminded us that DEI in Latin is “of God”.