We woke up this morning to the horror of poisonous smoke engulfing Tehran, a city of 10 million persons. Netanyahu, always buttressed by the current American president in spite of his record of genocide in Gaza, chose to bomb oil depots in Iran.
The Guardian—a media source I highly recommend in contrast to the sick-billionaire owned media of the United States I criticized in yesterday’s DM—described the scene this way: Thick black smoke was still rising in the sky, soot covered the streets and cars, balconies filled with black gunk and the toxic air had filled the lungs as Tehran woke up after a night of airstrikes on the city’s oil depots on Sunday.
People described the situation in their homes and on the streets, some calling it ‘apocalyptic’. With the sun blotted out, disoriented people in Iran’s capital had to turn on their lights to see through the gloom.*
Does this not stir every atom in our bodies to rise up against the evil regimes in Washington and Israel that are pouring acid rain onto fellow human beings?
Does this not put the lie to political propaganda that the war is about regime change–but we care about the people of Iran?
The people of Iran are coughing for their lives today because our country, with the largest military in the world, is now supporting a country that deliberately bombs oil depots and spreads fear, death, and literal darkness.
One citizen of Tehran, an activist and former political prisoner, said, “This is truly a crime against humanity.”
What does creation spirituality say about air, healthy air? That it is a miracle of existence, as our existence itself is a miracle. So much has to go right for the air on Earth to be so finely tuned that humans and the other species we share the world with can live and flourish.
Air is sacred. Period. An original blessing. We cannot take it for granted. That is why so many religious traditions teach us to practice breathing—the most basic of survival mechanisms—as a spiritual practice. To learn to say “Thank You” for the air.
That is why the sacred scriptures identify spirit with breath. As do many spiritual traditions in the world. In Africa, words for spirit, air, and dance are identical. There is no dancing in Tehran today. And there won’t be for many days and months.
“Authorities warned of toxic acid rain, and many residents woke up with pain in their throats and eyes burning.” Tehran residents say their government cannot be counted on to help them in any way—they are on their own.
We are told the streets of Tehran are filled with many cats. The cats won’t be lasting long in Tehran either.
“Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.” Now Iran is threatening to send its missiles into oil depots in neighboring countries where America and Israel have backers.
America is out front with its sick ally and war criminal, Mr. Netanyahu, in this crime against humanity and against all life on earth. The response from the American president is that he is worried that this strike will raise the price of gasoline even more.
There are things more evil than the doubling of oil prices being brought about by this Netanyahu/Trump/Hegseth War. There is the poisoning of holy air that kills people just as surely as the rising of the seas and the disappearance of clean water (which will also be affected by the bombing of oil depots).
Regime change? Yes, it’s time for that. In Tehran, in Jerusalem, and in Washington. It can’t come soon enough.
* Deepa Parent, “‘Dark, like our future’: Iranians describe scenes of catastrophe after Tehran’s oil depots bombed,” The Guardian, March 8, 2026.
Banner Image: A burning oilfield during Operation Desert Storm, Kuwait, 2007. Photo by Jonas Jordan, United States Army Corps of Engineers, Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How sick are you of the folly of the Iran war and its evil consequences? How caring are you for Iranians who have the same right to breathe healthy air as we do and all creatures on earth do? What can we do about this unholy war?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Trump and the MAGA Movement as Antichrist
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings in Creation Spirituality
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
7 thoughts on ““A Crime Against Humanity” – The Sacred Air We Take For Granted”
The ongoing war in the Middle East, like most wars, is very tragic with the loss of innocent lives and the disruption of normal living, including the destruction of the environment. Like you said Matthew, the end of authoritarian and inhumane leadership in Washington, Israel, and Tehran, “can’t come soon enough”! We have to continue praying and resisting for healthier and more humane leadership to end the madness of this war and replace these inhumane and autocratic regimes.
As the song goes, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” Together with God, in Christ and guided by the Intercessor/Advocate, it is for us to move of our own free wills to do what we can according to our insights and talents, to take some part in the removal of the obvious evils now running amok under numerous de facto dictators, whose name is “legion.” In all humility, we must be as sure as we can that we are working with God’s motives paramount. As Jesus said, “Fear is unnecessary; what is needed is trust,” which implies deep, sincere obedience to the God with the name of Love for all God’s creatures. As Paul the Apostle urges, we will pray at all times, and be sure to include thanks.
We may have universal views, but we must act in the here and now, with our material means. For examples, words we express to our friends, fellow citizens (perhaps in protest demonstrations), letters to the editor in local, regional and national media outlets; financial support to organizations with records of success in courts of law opposing crimes done by the enemy; support with actions and money to politicians pledged to resist legislatively the enemy’s many wrongs.
And as we contemplate the infinite loving power of immanent God, let us also rejoice, despite the pollution, suffering and chaos we endure in union with our creaturely family throughout the world.
Amen! And thank you for doing what you can; we all can do something. I am grateful for you and all the others who are taking action either from afar or there on the ground in the midst of terror and horror; neighbors help neighbors in these situations. I take heart from all the people who show up in their own way. Utter depravity is behind the actions of our government, which are based on nothing but greed–for money and for power. Such excess will eventually fall of its own weight, but probably not in my lifetime. Whatever little I can do will hopefully benefit coming generations.
The toxic, poisonous gaslighting, sucking the oxygen from our planet, setting it on fire, emanates from the Trump regime, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.
Amen.
I think it is up to the Iranians to decide what government they want, not the USA, certainly not Israel, and nobody else for that matter. The arrogance of the USA in murdering and kidnapping heads of state is mind-blowing! who do they think they are? The rest of the world is coming to the conclusion that hitler was a gentleman by comparison.
In Essays on Contemporary Events: The Psychology of Nazism, Bollingen Series, 1989, p. 59, Jung writes: “A more accurate diagnosis of Hitler’s condition would be pseudologia phantastica, that form of hysteria which is characterized by a peculiar talent for believing one’s own lies. [. . .] Nothing has such a convincing effect as a lie one invents and believes oneself, or an evil deed or intention whose righteousness one regards as self-evident. [. . .] Hitler’s theatrical, obviously hysterical gestures struck all foreigners (with a few amazing exceptions) as purely ridiculous. [. . .] It is also difficult to understand how his ranting speeches, delivered in shrill, grating, womanish tones, could have made such an impression. [. . .] A sorry lack of education, conceit that bordered on madness, a very mediocre intelligence combined with the hysteric’s cunning and the power fantasies of an adolescent, were written all over this demagogue’s face. [. . .] He behaved in public like a man living in his own biography, in this case as the sombre, daemonic ‘man of iron’ of popular fiction, the ideal of an infantile public whose knowledge of the world is derived from the deified heroes of trashy films. [. . .] Encountering only slight and in any case ineffective opposition from within, the nation of eighty millions crowded into the circus to witness its own destruction.”
All resemblance to actual persons . . . is, of course, not fortuitous.