Thanks are as a result of Rachel Maddow who, in opening her present final night time, confirmed clips from Illinois governor JB Pritzker’s state of the state speech yesterday.
I reproduce right here the closing of his speech which feels to me to be a profound and unvarnished studying of the “indicators of our instances.”
Governor Pritzker is Jewish and he started this manner. I don’t invoke the specter of Nazis evenly. However I do know the historical past intimately—and have spent extra time than in all probability anybody on this room with individuals who survived the Holocaust. Right here’s what I’ve discovered—the foundation that tears aside your home’s basis begins as a seed—a seed of mistrust and hate and blame.
Mistrust, hate and blame have actually characterised our politics in America of late. January 6, 2020 won’t ever be erased from our recollections—nor ought to it.
The seed that grew right into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime in the past didn’t arrive in a single day. It began with on a regular basis Germans mad about inflation and searching for somebody accountable.
Somebody accountable. Resentment has been baked into MAGA politics for a very long time. It sizzles on each web page of Undertaking 2025.
Governor Pritzker:
I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is occurring in our nation proper now. A president who watches a aircraft go down within the Potomac –and suggests—with out information or findings—{that a} range rent is accountable for the crash. Or the Missouri Legal professional Basic who simply sued Starbucks—arguing that customers pay larger costs for his or her espresso as a result of the baristas are too ‘feminine’ and ‘nonwhite.’ The authoritarian playbook is laid naked right here: They level to a gaggle of people that don’t appear to be you and inform you accountable them on your issues.
I’ve only one query: What comes subsequent? After we’ve discriminated in opposition to, deported or disparaged all of the immigrants and the homosexual and lesbian and transgender folks, the developmentally disabled, the ladies and the minorities—as soon as we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our pals—after that, when the issues we stared with are nonetheless there staring us within the face—what comes subsequent?
All of the atrocities of human historical past lurk within the reply to that query. And if we don’t wish to repeat historical past—then for God’s sake on this second we higher be sturdy sufficient to be taught from it….
I swore the next oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible….My oath is to the structure of our state and of our nation. We don’t have kings in America—and I don’t intend to bend the knee to 1.
That very day Trump known as himself a “king” and the White Home distributed an image of him in kingly apparel.
I’m not talking up in service to my ambitions—however in deference to my obligations.
In the event you assume I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too quickly, think about this: It took the Nazi one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm hearth begins to burn, each good particular person higher be able to man a put up with a bucket of water if you wish to cease it from raging uncontrolled.
Right here he relays the story of Nazis who marched in Chicago in 1978. Twenty confirmed up however 2000 folks got here to protest and resist them. The march fizzled in ten minutes. It was Illinoisans who smothered these embers earlier than they may burn right into a flame.
Tyranny requires your concern and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your braveness. So collect your justice and humanity, Illinois, and don’t let the ‘tragic spirit of despair’ overcome us when our nation wants us essentially the most.
Thanks.
See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ.
And Matthew Fox, “Non secular Warriors” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Males: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104.
And Fox, “Non secular Warriorhood,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from Religion Traditions, pp. 404-422.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Remodeling Evil in Soul and Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
Banner Picture: “Hitler Trump.” Picture collage by JFXGillis on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you assume Governor Pritzker was overreacting and sounding the alarm too quickly? Do you agree that Democracy requires one’s braveness in place of concern, silence and compliance? And that braveness is an attribute of the religious warrior in all of us?
Really useful Studying
Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had at all times shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so usually used to unfold management and concern. Nonetheless, given immediately’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this ebook using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for inspecting the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this ebook with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For rapid entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion 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 photos, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for rapid obtain.
The Hidden Spirituality of Males: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he finds ten metaphors, or archetypes, starting from the Inexperienced Man, an historic pagan image of our elementary relationship with nature, to the Non secular Warrior….These timeless archetypes can encourage males to pursue their larger calling to connect with their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Each man on this planet ought to learn this ebook — to not point out each girl who needs to know the struggles, usually unconscious, that form the boys they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, creator of The Left Hand of God
One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from World Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all of the world traditions for his or her knowledge and their inspiration in a piece that’s excess of an inventory of theological place papers however a brand new strategy to pray—to meditate in a world religious context on the knowledge all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes which might be foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all of the world religious traditions provide knowledge about every.“Studying One River, Many Wells is like getting into the wealthy silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you learn this textual content, you replicate, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Actually no phrases can absolutely categorical my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to modern spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Remodeling Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling creator Matthew Fox gives a brand new theology of evil that essentially modifications the standard notion of excellent and evil and factors the best way to a extra enlightened remedy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Jap custom of the 7 chakras to the Western custom of the 7 capital sins, Fox permits us to assume creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we will do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a greater imaginative and prescient and depth of notion far past the grasp of anyone single science. A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, creator of Quantum Theology: Non secular Implications of the New Physics
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the which means and observe of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the longer term that guarantees private, social, and world therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the best way towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Effectively value our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
