I have often encountered good people in America who fight for justice and are suffering, more than ever, from the chasm existing today between them and those who support the current POTUS. Such suffering is real and must be respected. More than that, I believe it must be investigated. It is, after all, a kind of dualism, to the extent that it alters our perception of people.
I remember meeting parishioners and, on figuring out their political inclinations, taking into account that information without thinking of it as an identity to join or to oppose. Perhaps that was easier for me, not being an American. I would occasionaly criticize liberal positions, just as conservative ones, and that helped a bit. In the end, however, the minority who identified more or less openly as Republican voters left the parish.
It is likely that the social polarization which some observers lamented for years has surpassed the danger bar. American society, now ravaged by Trump’s cruel and insane policies, will remain deeply divided even after his fall from power.
The people who suffer from such deep division must ask themselves, in the first place, whether they don’t suffer from sentimentalism. What is more important? To preserve an idyllic vision of unity of the American people, or to support those who are hit in their livelihood and health and even survival by right-wing decisions? But even those who make the correct choice, that of fighting for justice, may be still troubled. I feel them, I empathize with them.
We are conditioned, at this point, to feel hate for those whom we oppose, and that is extremely unhealthy for us as individuals, as well as for society. I understand the calls to flee from such a social situation, where one is continually faced with co-workers, neighbors, and even family members firmly fixed on the other side, and whom it is normal to despise. It is unbearable. On the other hand, superficial calls for American unity, disregarding the dead bodies of the many victims of America, are even more unbearable.
I don’t have a solution, but I think that some deep game is being played here, on a spiritual level, which we cannot simply disregard.
See Matthew Fox, Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Also, Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Also Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Also Fox and Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Banner image: “Red vs Blue.” Image by Robert Couse-Baker on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
How do I tackle the American chasm? Do I avoid it, fall prey of it, suffer through it? Or do I have a different vision of the problem altogether?
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.
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
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
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
14 thoughts on “The American Chasm”
The only uniquely Christian revelation, which is apart from the Perennial Wisdom found in all authentic religious Traditions, are the Trinitarian and Christological Mysteries. Without these Revelations, Jesus is merely one among many moral/spiritual avatars, albeit arguably, the best. The Post-Enlightenment West has no place in its culture for wisdom that cannot be fully comprehended, but whose meaning can only be intuitively apprehended and correctly applied through a creative exercise of the human imagination.
The “God” of institutionalized Latin/Western “Christianity is no longer primarily the Divine Life-giver, but the Divine Law-giver, whose power is too easily compromised by institutional power-sharing between “Church” and State.
“It is almost impossible to keep the idols of our own culture from influencing us, whether we want it to happen or not. This is certainly true when it comes to the so-called American dream. We need our eyes opened! We need to be called out! “ — Darrin Patrick, founding pastor, The Journey, St. Louis
“My bent is to say that, to the degree that a pastor, for the gospel’s sake, becomes political, he probably in the long run, blunts his gospel power to transform culture.”~John Piper
Wise words. I love the perception of John Piper you have quoted here. Thank you!
Piper is wrong. This is exactly what was used to criticise Martin Luther King Jr. — stick exclusively to the gospel. If he had listened to that criticism, the plain fact is that the civil rights movement would never have happened. White and black churches would have remained strictly separated with the “gospel” to change hearts being preached in both, and African Americans without even the basic rights the civil rights movement has afforded them. This same stick to the gospel view was used by preachers in the confederacy as well, all while politically crushing black people. It is still being propogated righr now in full view, and it is always a “spiritual” shield against change, or relieving suffering, by religious conservatism of any kind, don’t fall for it. I know whereof I speak, I was an evangelical decades ago and am intimately acquainted with how it is deliberately used to insulate against compassionate action which frequently has to be political action.
I agree that the John Piper quote is problematic. I don’t have any problem “becoming political”, but it seems to me a confusion when identifiying with the downtrodden and taking sides for them and with them becomes identifying with a political party.
I certainly don’t follow that argument. If those who charged Martin Luther King Jr with a need to stick to the gospel in order for them to understand his point, they were making a rod for their own back. The same can be said for the Civil War. Jesus’ message was all about Love and “to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” There’s a purity in this message, a directness. What did the accusers of MLK not understand?
My Faith is very important in helping me to cope and understand that spiritually We’re each uniquely in different stages of Our human evolution. The mystics and saints of the past and present , and good people in general, have contributed to this Faith and general understanding of Our human evolution. This Faith and understanding includes the Presence of Our SOURCE CO-CREATOR’S SPIRIT Of DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM with-in each of Our Unique Eternal Divine Souls and with-in Our LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS with All Living Beings in All spiritual realms of Our Sacred Evolving COSMOS, including Beautiful Sacred Mother and the Angelic Spiritual Realms, in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT… COMPASSIONATE COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
Thanks, Gianluigo. Excellent article.
Thank you.
The chasm between those who support the Particularly Obnoxious Tendencies and Unhinged Style of POTUS and those who are appalled by his behavior is similar to the chasm between the altered mindset of the addict and common sense. Ad-dicere, the Latin root of “addiction”, literally means “to pledge allegiance to”. Carl Jung aptly described addiction as “the equivalent on a low level of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in mediaeval language: the union with God.” No amount of reasoning can bridge that chasm. The “deep game that is being played here, on a spiritual level” is what Jung also called “spiritus contra spiritum”, i.e. higher spirit vs lower spirit. Expressed in Christian language, “Christus contra antichristum” is indeed a valid description, but there are many other words for it.
Yes. And does this mean that we are destined never to overcome this dualism? I agree that it cannot be overcome by reasoning, and I agree that such overcoming cannot mean capitulating to insanity and cruelty. But I was trying to talk about how it hurts because there are people on the other side as well.
Yes, “There are people on the other side as well” and both sides of the chasm are hurting (albeit not for the same reason). Yet I believe that the side that hurts the most is the side of the addict, the side where MAGA is a helpless cry for the faded dream of “les trente glorieuses,” a kind of millenarianism in reverse, whose golden age is behind, fueling resentment and blame for “the other side” when the unsustainability of the dream is only to blame. No human power can do anything about it. “Hitting bottom + Grace” is the only proven healing formula. Many tears ahead, I am afraid. Thank you, Gianluigi, for your daily meditations.
Thank you Gianluigi.
Thank you.
I think that remembering that Jesus did not “take sides” except against hypocrisy, abuse of the “least of these”, greed, etc. helps. He did not attack people personally so much as identifying those practices that were against the great commandment. He himself was attacked for hanging around with the sinners of the day. He did not seem to want to do away with the Law but rather to fulfill its deep meaning beyond specific practices. At least, that is my understanding. If we want to follow Jesus, it seems to me we always need to remember the great commandment and be compassionate toward all, without being foolishly sentimental, as you have said. Love does not mean approving of or condoning behavior but it does mean respecting the person as a beloved child of God just as I am, and as hard as it is to see a holy image in the face of a hater. If I move back far enough from the daily carnage and my feelings about it, is it possible that this upheaval is necessary and may ultimately in fact result in some good? I am part of this Chasm, like it or not, and I would rather try to engage in peaceful protest and quiet resistance than to avoid it all. I would like to be able to see what I might have in common with those of a different mind-set, which requires me to acknowledge my own shadow side and see what I might be projecting.