I lived in the United States for about 20 years. On my encounter with America I did not realize immediately how deep is the intertwining of society with the military industrial complex. Only after some time I started to observe that every person I knew was implicated directly or indirectly with the military.
In church, it was normal to pray “for the troops” and to have priests or bishops who had a previous career in the military. In graduate school, I had roommates whose parents were flying military airplanes or were born on remote islands — as it turned out, on American bases in the Pacific. As an adjunct professor, I had students deployed in Iraq. As a priest, I met a nice family, whose three children I baptized, before knowing that the father worked as a designer for the development of new weapons.
When I am in solidarity with my American friends, I feel their passion to fight against Trump’s policies. There are enormously good reasons to oppose the Liar-in-Chief and to shame him and his cronies for the cruelty that they exude — just like Matt did on Tuesday with his DM on Hildegard. After all, I am proud of having contributed to Matt’s book on MAGA as the Antichrist in which Matt made very clear, ahead of the elections, how Project 2025 is the blueprint of a fascist state and how Trump intended to execute such plans.
However, when I am in solidarity with people who have witnessed or are direct victims of U.S. policies outside the U.S. I share their sentiments about the American Empire. To them, it matters little whether the current American president is a Republican or a Democrat, because their policies of control and domination of the rest of the world are the same. They only look a bit different, from time to time, but essentially they have and they achieve the same purpose. For all the economic power that China has, and all the military might that Russia claims to have, it is still the USA who rules today, even though the signs of the demise of the American Empire, after about 100 years, are all out there.
As spirituality does not live in a vacuum, we might ask ourselves what is its truer context in our era. Is it the opposition between conservatives and liberals, which is very visible from within America? Or is it the opposition between affluent societies and impoverished societies, which is coming to its head?
I believe that one of our major spiritual tasks is to achieve an integrated vision of the world context, without being overwhelmed by it.
Moreover, it is very important that our taking sides for the sake of justice is not damped by fear or sentimentalism, but it is equally important that we don’t identify our side with justice. These seem to me necessary conditions to be able to walk freely and with dignity along our spiritual path.
See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
See also Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox and Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
Banner Image: “A State of Mind: Sometimes we feel like isolating ourselves somewhere far from everything and everyone… but nevertheless something drives us to continue, continuously… in a world that we often don’t even recognize anymore …” Image by Daniel Arrhakis on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
How does the American Empire affect my own practice of spirituality?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
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.
Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this amazing woman and what we can learn from her.
In an era when women were marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial figure. Yet so visionary was her insight that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for advice.
“This book gives strong, sterling, and unvarnished evidence that everything – everything – we ourselves become will affect what women after us may also become….This is a truly marvelous, useful, profound, and creative book.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism.
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
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.
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
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
10 thoughts on “The American Empire and Spirituality”
Wisdom of the Spirit gives our life and Life its context.
Excerpt – “To achieve an integrated vision of the world context, without being overwhelmed by it.”
As Jesus instructed, ‘His reign, His Kingdom is ‘not of the world. Of that I will contemplate and honour above all else. Of that I desire to be overwhelmed. That is my practice. — BB.
American or not, militarily mighty or not, imperialistic or not, democratic or not, Christian or not, etc., any society that consumes four or five times the amount of renewable resources the Earth is able to produce each year, and that exhausts, in the meanwhile, the limited non renewable resources of the Earth while pursuing the chimera of unlimited “growth” will inevitably fizzle out. If John Donne were alive today he would probably have written :
” No creature is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every creature is a piece of the Earth,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
The continental mass is the less,
As well as if a promontory were:
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were.
Any species extinction diminishes me,
Because I am an earthling.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
Can you expand on the two conditions you mentioned at the end of today’s DM? Thank you.
Hi Andrew. Yes! I should expand. The space of the DM sometimes makes me become cryptic without meaning to be. So here we go. (1) Taking sides takes courage and even the exercise of “holy rage” at times. Fear tries to block courage, and sentimentalism tends to water down the energy of holy rage (of the third chakra, if you wish). Sentimentalism says “I should listen to the other side as well, they are also suffering…” However, what is really happening is not more listening of the other side but a blockage of social action; (2) Because we take a side for good reasons, for reasons of justice, that does not mean that our side is holy and pure; our taking sides regards a specific situation, it does not mean not listening to the other side, and it does not mean to take pride in our being right; our point is acting for justice, not feeling to be right.
I work for a greater, Cosmic Vision: no particular country, nation state, flag, or people. https://www.amazon.com/Maya-Mire-Spiritual-Journey-Dawning/dp/1803415525
Great DM Gianluigi! You are helping Us become more aware of the historical and ongoing shadow sides of humanity not only personally, but collectively in our human societies and institutions, including America’s long history of imperialism with the genocide of Our native Indigenous peoples and slavery. Racism, militarism, social injustices and separatism/duality (see yesterday’s DM) with its wars against one another, including ecocide of our beautiful Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures/Our graceful-essential abundance, have gotten increasingly and dangerously worse in Our modern societies to the point of risking the survival of our civilization as a human species. There are many scientific and societal experts, not religious fanatics, that have been warning Us of the existential crisis of our earth and humanity.
Fortunately, there are still many good people around the world who have become more spiritually aware and expressing and acting on their Faiths together in Compassion for one another and for Sacred Mother with-in the Spirit of DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM for Truth and Social/Eco Justice in Our spiritual human evolution. May GOD and All HER/HIS Spiritual Reams have mercy on Us…. Amen
GG, you wrote …”it is very important that our taking sides for the sake of justice is not damped by fear or sentimentalism, but it is equally important that we don’t identify our side with justice.”
What a paradox! As we take sides for the sake of justice, we also DO NOT IDENTIFY OUR SIDE with justice. I must ponder that.
Thank you, Eileen, for noticing! This paradox, as you call it, for me is very important. I would dare say that is the key to a healthy spirituality.
Thank you so much GG for your message today.
❤️ The Democrats are also deeply responsible for the death soaked history of this corporate empire that overthrows governments, participates in genocide and stirs up conflict for geopolitical/economic dominance. The world is headed for even darker times I fear if the Democrats aren’t able to listen to new voices and radically change direction.