From the Good & the Beautiful to Species Extinction & the Ugly

I was inspired by the recent death of Brendan Doyle, a musician and early teacher in the creation spirituality movement, to recall some of his teaching methods for deriving the spiritual riches that musicians bring to our lives. And how he utilized the four paths of creation spirituality to draw out the spirituality and wisdom that are there.

I also remarked that this methodology has been taken up by other teachers of creation spirituality, including but not limited to cosmologist Brian Swimme and engineer Bernard Amadei.

In many ways, art and music are the yoga of the West (and that is true of many other societies as well). It is so important that we remain connected to our experiences of beauty of all kinds during this time of upheaval and chaos we find ourselves in. There is a reason why the mystics identify God as “Beauty itself,” as I pointed out in those previous meditations.

Beauty is found not just in what we call “the arts” but also in sport and, of course, in nature with its wealth of diversity and beauty. Many astronauts and cosmonauts have had their lives changed forever by their encounter with seeing the Earth as an object of inestimable beauty from the unique vantage points that happen in space. And they report a kind of reverence and gratitude that wells up inside them. Such experiences are mystical experiences special to our times.

And the beauty of the universe is pouring into our lives on a daily basis from the regular feeding of pictures of our universe from Webb and other telescopes, feeding us photos regularly.

Does humanity kill beauty when we kill other species? Thomas Berry reminds us that a species is a once-in-a-lifetime event. When a species goes extinct, it is gone forever.

The ugliness of calling climate change a “hoax” and doing nothing about it emanates from the MAGA president and leader of the Republican Party today, bending over to please fossil fuel companies. It is immoral, unjust, and just plain ugly. Killing the beauty and diversity of species not only upends their right to exist but also shrinks the pool of beauty for our ancestors to come.

The Guardian posted the following headline: “‘Death Sentence’: Trump Administration to open habitats of endangered species to logging and mining.’” And a subtitle reads: “Habitat destruction strongest driver of species loss, with legislation keeping 99% of listed species from going extinct.”*

Last Friday, the Trump administration repealed a crucial part of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with a new rule “that will open habitats of imperiled wildlife to development, logging, mining and other uses.” Since 1975, the word “harm” has included habitat destruction that kills or injures wildlife. The Supreme Court in 1995 reiterated this when loggers tried to get it changed.

But now, the Trump administration has changed the definition of “harm” by stripping out habitat modification. This means, while the law still holds that you cannot shoot a threatened woodpecker, if you cut down the forest where it dwells, that’s okay. The Trump administration accomplished this by changing how the word “harm” is interpreted. **

The main reason species are on the brink of extinction is that “there is almost no place left for them to live.” Habitats have been paved over, burned, or transformed. “Habitat protection is essential for their survival.” **

And for the survival of the human spirit. Ask your children and grandchildren.

Do the MAGA people have children and grandchildren? Do they ever take them to the woods or introduce them to nature’s wonders and beauties? Is beauty a value? One wonders. 

To be continued.

* Gabrielle Canon, “‘Death sentence’: Trump administration to open habitats of endangered species to logging and mining,” The Guardian, July 10, 2026.

** Mariah Meek, Karrigan Börk, “How redefining one word strips the Endangered Species Act’s ability to protect vital habitat,” The Conversation, July 11, 2026.

Banner Image: “Ecocide=Genocide.” Protest signs from the People’s Climate March, 2014. Photo by Joe Brusky, on Flickr.

Queries for Contemplation

Do you see the Cosmic Christ, an Image of God, a Buddha nature in other species? Do you sometimes feel reverence in their presence and do you seek to enable them to continue? Do you want future generations to experience them?

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings in Creation Spirituality