I recently watched a very fine documentary about Ulysses S. Grant, whose military genius helped win the Civil War and get Lincoln reelected president.*
Though I rarely read about the exploits of generals, war is a fact of human history, and learning Grant’s story opened my eyes to the elements that shape decision-makers in that field. This being the 250th anniversary of the birth of America, we are reminded of how the nation was born under General Washington and saved under Lincoln and General Grant, who stood up to slavery and the Confederacy.
The blood and death of the Civil War remind us of the severe price many paid in the Civil Rights Movement (see my previous DM). The emasculation of the civil rights laws by the current SCOTUS echoes the perilous times of the Civil War.
A statement from Lincoln’s second inaugural address comes to mind: “With malice toward none and charity toward all, let us bind up the nation’s wounds.”
What a far cry these words from the first Republican president are in contrast to the current (and last?) Republican president. Where is the “Charity toward all”, or “binding up the nation’s wounds”, or “malice toward none” in MAGA world?
Instead, much of MAGA rhetoric spews hatred and malice toward foreigners, immigrants, trans people, and others who may be different. Creating chaos and division that feeds on greed and war-making seems central to the MAGA project—just as Hildegard laid out in her antichrist painting in the 12th century.
Accusations of rape by immigrants began when the MAGA leader first descended a golden escalator announcing his run for the presidency ten years ago. Denigration of the other makes daily headlines.
Not the “binding up of the nation’s wounds,” but the exacerbation of the nation’s wounds marks the MAGA agenda. Ripping away SNAP benefits from the poorest children in our country and the killing of the poorest children in Africa due to dismantling USAID characterize the MAGA agenda.
Not the healing of divisions, but a continual effort to pour gasoline onto those different from oneself echoes in much right-wing media. Cruelty and injustice reign when billionaires are raised up by tax breaks while millions are thrown off healthcare to pay for those cuts.
MAGA malice serves corruption. The first act of the new Attorney General this week was to promulgate a new executive order that no emails between the president and other government officials can be made public. In other words, no subpoenas need be honored if next year’s Congress actually seeks to do oversight over the way the executive branch has been conducting its business.
Malice toward Mother Earth is on rapid fast-forward. Clean air and water laws are being gutted, as well as programs to support sustainable energy, and climate change is called a “hoax.”
Corruption reigns not only with politicians, but with SCOTUS members too. We now learn that Justice Samuel Alito has held oil and gas investments while passing decisions on fossil fuel questions before the court. Nor will he recuse himself from the upcoming case deciding whether Suncor Energy and Exxon can be shielded from lawsuits brought by state and local governments.
Alito recently voted to overturn the Chevron doctrine, thus making it harder to regulate environmental protection and protect public health. In 2007, he argued that greenhouse gas emissions cannot be regulated under the EPA. Since being on the Court, his net worth has grown from $1.1 million in 2005 to $8.4 million in 2024. A big chunk from oil and gas holdings.
So much for “malice toward none, charity toward all.” The “all” includes future generations of humans and other species, all beloved by the Creator.
* Grant, Netflix documentary on Ulysses S. Grant’s rise from humble beginnings through Civil War leadership to the Presidency.
Banner Image: L: Abraham Lincoln’s portrait photo by Alexander Gardner, 1863; Wikimedia Commons. R: Donald Trump’s mugshot, by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, State of Georgia. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Are you also struck by the gap between the first Republican president and the current one? What lessons can we learn from this cataclysmic chasm? Does character matter after all in a president or any other leader?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson and Jen Listug: Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
8 thoughts on ““Malice Toward None, Charity Toward All”: Two Republican Presidents”
I have been following Matthew Fox for about 5 years and for the last couple of weeks, I cannot open any of the links in his Daily Meditations. I do not have trouble with any other platform and was wondering if anyone else is having this problem.
Hi Barbara, when I experience access issues of that kind, clearing the browser cache and/or checking and sometimes turning off momentarily (and reactivating later) my add-ons (ad blocker, cookie eraser, pop-up windows prevention, tracker protection, etc, all under setting/privacy-security) often resolves the issue. Just a thought. I hope you find a solution.
Unfortunately, there are many examples of wounded masculinity and destructive toxic patriarchy in US history, up to the present times with Trump and his many MAGA followers and enablers. This very shadow history of destructiveness, greed, racism, misogyny, and social injustices began along with other Western empires towards Indigenous people (genocide ), our Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures, a little over 500 yrs. ago, and continues even more destructively with militarism, capitalistic materialism and greed.
In the last few DMs, we have been reviewing the deeper roots of this wounded and spiritually unbalanced masculinity and toxic patriarchy with its consequences of destruction and social injustices on humanity and Sacred Earth/Her living creatures. We maintain Our Faith and struggles for Love, Wisdom, Truth, Peace, Justice, Healing, Strength, Freedom, Transformation… Divine Feminine/Masculine energies within and among Us, along with the Spirits of Our Light workers/ancestors, in Our Human and planetary Sacred Cosmic evolution of Loving Diverse Oneness (All physical/non-physical spiritual dimensions/Beings), of Our Source Co-Creator….
Yes character matters. However today many don’t know how much that
really means. We have a culture and society mired in the via Negativa.
It is a time for sorrowful lamentations. A tragic time, a turning point and I feel it will get much worse.
The elders have deserted the gateway;
the young men have given up their music,
Joy has vanished from our hearts;
our dancing has been turned to mourning.
The garland has fallen from our heads.
(Jer 5: 14-16)
“What a far cry these words from the first Republican president are in contrast to the current (and last?) Republican president.”
The two words and question mark in parentheses in today’s DM, ring like a toll bell. They have two meanings and the one I fear the most echoes a statement made in July 2024 during the presidential campaign and applauded by a brand of Christians I would love to see confronted to the Christ whose second coming they pray for: “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE7xoHJkgvE
American Democracy, “send not to know for whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.”
Reading this got me thinking about the Black Madonna, and how darkness always comes before light. The darkness of the womb is a place of nurturing and growth before being birthed into the light. This gives me great comfort, and my newly acquired deep faith assures me that there will be light.
Indeed there is so much light now! In some ways I wonder if the darkness we see and that was articulated in this post has ALWAYS been present and we are just more aware of it now that technology has made the world smaller. Regardless, everywhere I look I see people choosing light over darkness.
It probably does need to get even darker still, in order to shake people like me out of their privilege. If I look around at my neighborhood, my town, my friends and acquaintances — nothing has really changed in the past 10 years! If I didn’t read the news occasionally I’d have no idea of all the bad stuff happening far away.
But hasn’t this always been the case? Yin-yang, dark-light, masculine-feminine…. We are entwined in a world of dualities. We see what we choose to see. It’s all about our choices. There has always been darkness – sometimes way worse than today — and there has always been light. I choose to see the light. And I have faith that the Black Madonna (and the emerging Green Man) has things under control. There’s a larger plan in action that we can’t see.
Mark, I agree with you. Darkest before dawn, and so we hope, because we know the Easter story. As we hope, we act, graced by the Christ in whom we live and act. Joining with many in support of challengers to the disaster quo, I trust what truth, solidarity, love and justice are building by the minute each day. As our ancestors and other kin have said, “*Maranatha*!”
Thank you for this. I was literally contemplating the difference in the parties at the beginning of this current country yesterday…. will we be able to watch a play of your conversation with lovely Mirabai!????? I would love to tune in- yet am at a memorial. Thank you 🙏 ❤️🔥