In yesterday’s DM, we celebrated the teaching of Jesus about good trees that bear good fruit and his advice to judge people by the fruit they bear. It seems appropriate after 7 months of the MAGA administration to judge the fruit it is bearing.
Jesus reminds us, in Luke’s gospel, that the key to bearing good or bad fruit lies in the goodness or badness in the heart. Evil is a heart problem for him. “A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws from what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.” (Lk 6. 43-45)
What is the fruit of the current Project 2025 underway in the MAGA administration and its sycophants in Congress? Let us list them.
The death already of 90,000 people, mostly in Africa, who were dependent on aid from USAID.
The anticipated death of hundreds of thousands more in the years to come.
The brain drain of scientists who are fleeing American universities to find work in China, Canada, Australia and Europe—anyplace other than the U.S.
The shutting down of PBS and NPR, leaving especially rural areas with no news but far right-wing billionaire-fed propaganda.
The loss of health care for about 17 million Americans.
The loss of food benefits for children and the poor—about 7.4 million of them. Thus, sicker Americans and shorter life spans.
An increase in global warming and more and fiercer hurricanes (from warmer oceans primarily), flash floods, wildfires, drought from the gutting of EPA standards and laws passed under Biden.
An increase of diseases such as asthma and many more because of dirtier air and water due to EPA shutdowns.
The endangerment of future generations of humans and millions of other species because MAGA denies climate change and refuses to do anything about it.
An increase of measles and AIDS and many other diseases due to campaigns against vaccines.
The loss of trust in education.
The loss of trust in the law and justice and the thoroughly compromised SCOTUS.
The loss of trust in government itself.
The loss of healthy laughter due to the shutdown of the Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert.
The gradual loss of sound journalism because of attacks on NBC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN.
The rise of anti-gay and anti-trans movements spreading hate and division.
The diminishing of voting for people of color.
The loss of healthy relationships with other countries who have been our allies since WWII.
The rise of totalitarianism as manifested in places like Hungary and Russia and MAGA.
Increased distrust of America’s promises by allies in Europe and around the world.
The impoverishment and oppression of women by laws controlling their bodies and forbidding abortions even for miscarriages and other complications beyond one’s control.
Rendering the super-rich even richer (less taxes for Elon Musk—yeah!) by lowering their tax rates.
About $ 4 trillion in greater debt to be paid for by middle class Americans because the very wealthy and big corporations will not be paying their share of taxes.
Greater stress between classes as the lower classes are forced to pay more taxes.
The continued increase of patriarchy and patriarchal power and the diminishment of progress made by women, minorities and the disabled.
More friction between between concerned citizens and the national guard and the military.
Said Jesus: “A bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness in his heart.” Such badness spreads. Welcome to Trump’s America. A lot of bad fruit and badness and mortal, that is, deadly sins, floating around.
This is only a partial Litany of badness. Bad trees give birth to very bad and rotten fruit.
See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Original Blessing.
Banner image: MAGA cult. Photo by James McNellis. Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Do you sense an increase in badness and bad fruit from bad trees and bad hearts at this time in history? Can naming it assist our moving beyond it? What else gets us to move beyond it?
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.
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.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
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5 thoughts on “Bad Trees bearing Evil Fruit: A Litany of Mortal Sins of MAGA”
Thank you Matthew. You’re calling out MAGA’s bad fruit by spelling out this litany of evil inflicting trauma on all of us ,including mother earth. For me to cope with the trauma, I must honestly look at the damage, the pain and suffering that is being violently inflicted on all of us. I cannot turn away from or deny the ugly reality of this trauma. I’m trying to honor my feelings of pain, anger, sadness, disgust and fear. Can we validate our feeling to motivate us to take action? I’m trying to work out how compassion can work with justice and connect me to a deeper love within myself and for all of Creation. It was a wonderful experience to take action on No Kings Day. I want opportunities to gather with others to give ourselves the strength and Hope we need to take action and speak truth to the dangerous powers that are in opposition to the model of compassion that Jesus offered to humanity. Your writings give hope for all of us to be connected to this greater power of compassion. My prayer is that we remain strong and remember the powerful message of Julian of Norwich, “All will be well”
Thank you for this “Litany of Mortal Sins of MAGA” which, however accurate and necessary, should not hide the fact that it describes the metastatic phase of a slow cancer called GREED that migrated to North-America with the very first colons. Both expressions “greed is the mother of all evil” and “Trump is a symptom, not a cause” are accurate. If compassion dictates action to alleviate the symptoms, as long as the underlying illness is not recognized and treated, the prognosis remains dire. The miracle remedy for greed is GRATITUDE. This is a description, not an indictment.
Yes! Yes! Thank you Matthew for continuing to be a prophet with the Truth about the destructiveness and inhumanity of the authoritarian and racist Trump administration, the enabling/sycophant Republican congress, the greedy oligarchs and their multinational corporations, the unsupreme SCOTUS, and the conditioned ignorant MAGA movement.
We must retain Faith and awareness that many millions of Americans did not vote for Trump
(unfortunately millions did not even bother to vote), so hopefully many more good humane Americans will vote wisely to save our democracy in the many upcoming local, county, state, and national elections in the future. In the meantime we also work together to serve and maintain our democratic institutions.
Our inner and outer spiritual journeys as human beings around the world with God’s Spirit of LOVE~WISDOM – Truth, Peace, Justice, Healing, Transformation, Compassion, Loving Diverse ONENESS… continue being essential in Our evolution with Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth, and with All physical/nonphysical spiritual dimensions and Beings in the Sacred Evolving Cosmos and the Eternal Angelic realms….
Thank you for today’s post, and your question: “What else can move us beyond it?” This is a question that I ask myself everyday.
Of course, what is happening today is a manifestation of a much larger “problem” — lack of respect for all humanity and the earth and institutions which are based on power and control. So how do we as individuals proceed? One of my answers for myself is to maintain and cultivate a strong spirit of truth and love and look for ways to maintain that spirit.
HIldegard’s prayer is helpful:
“I, God, am in your midst
Whoever knows me can never fall,
Not in the heights,
Not in the depths,
Nor in the breaths,
For I am love,
Which the vast expanses of evil
Can never still.”
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There is definitely an increase in visible “badness”, but as others have pointed out, it has been festering and has been kept hidden or under apparent control. As one example, Steven Miller has long been known and publicly revealed by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be a dangerous white supremacist. Now he is one of the closest “advisors” in the current administration. Naming all the various bad fruits is a necessary first step, I think. The ways to move beyond these revelations are those that people have practiced for millenia: the fruits of the spirit of goodness, beauty, truth, and love–love, patience, forgiveness, courage, integrity, perseverance, etc., and staying in community for support as ways to peacefully resist are discerned as a group. Trust in God (or whatever higher power you favor) to anchor us when all familiar structures are destroyed is essential. And so is a sense of perspective both historically–think of the plague years that wiped out a third or more of populations–and currently–think of the starving people in Gaza and elsewhere. We are not a third world yet. We have the agency of faith and action.