Week of 3/3-8/2025: Moral Outrage & Fasting from Billionaires
March 3, 2025: Anti-Christ Strikes Again: Putin, Trump, Vance vs. Zelenskyy
In light of what’s going on in the current regime in Washington, use of the word anti-christ feels more appropriate than ever. The label was further concretized when we witnessed the spectacle in the Oval Office as the president and vice-president verbally attacked a man more brave than either of them could ever hope to be. We are speaking, of course, of Zelenskyy. Trump attempted to change the narrative, insisting that it was Ukraine which started the war and not Putin. Clearly, our traitorous president continues to be under Putin’s thumb. We are reminded of the wisdom spoken by Thomas Aquinas, about how tyrants prefer the company of bad people over good people. (For example, Putin instead of Zelenskyy.)
March 4, 2025: Aquinas on Oligarchy, Democracy & American Politics Today
In light of the despicable bullying of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday, Aquinas’s words about tyranny seem especially prescient. The disregard of the common good is greater under an oligarchy than under a democracy. But worst of all is a tyranny where the advantage of one man is sought.…A tyrant is constrained to destroy good people’s confidence in one another, lest they gather together to throw off his yoke. Therefore, he sows discord among them….Security is banished and everything is uncertain when people are cut off from law and depend on the will, I would even say the greed, of another.…(Avarice) gives rise to restlessness by hindering one with excessive anxiety and care, for ‘an avaricious man shall not be satisfied with money.’ (Ecclesiastes 5:9)
March 5, 2025: Lech Wałęsa Writes Trump about the “Horror” of His Attack on Zelenskyy
Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Peace Prize winner, first democratically elected president of Poland, sent a scathing letter to the President of the United States. He said: We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski with fear and distaste.… Walesa said that expecting gratitude for material help given is insulting. Instead, gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the frontline for more than 11 years…(against) Putin’s Russia.…We remember President Reagan who without hesitation called the USSR the “Empire of Evil” and gave it a decisive fight.…Human life is priceless, its value cannot be measured with money. Gratitude is due to those who make the sacrifice of blood and freedom. It is obvious for us, the people of “Solidarity,” former political prisoners of the communist regime serving Soviet Russia.
March 6, 2025: A Thank You to Rev. Dorsey Blake, Carrier of the Legacy of Howard Thurman
Matthew’s friend and colleague, the Reverend Dorsey Blake, who was vice president of the University of Creation Spirituality from its beginning to its closing, died this week. He was pastor at Howard Thurman’s Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco for 31 years. That church was the first consciously interfaith and interracial church in the United States. Matthew says that he owes Dorsey a lot, for he was the first to introduce Matthew to Howard Thurman. At UCS, Dorsey taught a class each year on “King, Gandhi, and Thurman” and also a class on “Urban Spirituality.” Dorsey was a champion of justice and represented his community with grace and righteous anger.
March 7, 2025: Lent Reconsidered: Stardust vs Ashes, Fasting From Billionaires
At this time in our country and world, perhaps Lent calls for us to go deeper than giving up chocolate. Sister Emily TeKolste is the Grassroots Mobilization Organizer for Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, a social justice movement headed by Catholic Sisters (think: “Nuns on the Bus”). Sister Emily asks the question: “Have you thought of giving up billionaires for Lent? And not just for Lent but for after Lent, too?” Sister Emily sees billionaires not only as a policy failure, but a moral failure. She says: We’re committed to coming together to elect leaders who will make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes so that we can live in a world that looks more like the Kingdom of God: where everyone has clean water to drink, healthy food to eat, a safe place to live, and time to spend with our loved ones.
March 8, 2025: Further Fasts For Lent, 2025
In this Lenten season, we would be wise to listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah. Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6) What if we also choose to fast from fascism and Christofascism? An organization called Faithful America is calling on Americans to fast from injustice and billionaires and corporations that are stoking hate, and to take a Lenten boycott pledge that shows solidarity with others. They invite us to sign a pledge to boycott mega-stores and chains that are owned by multibillionaires. Instead, we are encouraged to build relationships with local businesses that need and deserve our support. To sign the pledge, click HERE.*
*SIGN THE PLEDGE: Boycott pro-Trump corporations for Lent this year. Faithful America.
Banner image: Protest in small-town America on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2025. Photo by Cynthia Greb. Used with permission.
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
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
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