In yesterday’s DM, we meditated on Rabbi Heschel’s remark that “man’s worship of energy has resurrected the demon of energy.”
To look into the face of the “demons of energy,” one want look no additional than the swamp land of Florida the place a spot referred to as Alligator Alcatraz was constructed not too long ago with our tax {dollars}.
This notorious $450 million Dachau-like detention camp now awaits the upcoming peak hurricane season. (Its flooring was already below water on its first evening of existence attributable to an atypical rainstorm.)
It has been referred to as a “ethical catastrophe zone—an environmental time bomb, a human abomination and a golden goose for Republican donors.” A “dying lure ready for a storm surge.” Detainees reside in “flimsy tents” surrounded by chain-link fencing. What might probably go incorrect?
We’re knowledgeable that the meals is maggot-infested, there isn’t a entry to bathing, 24-hour lighting and Bibles are forbidden. “They took the Bible I had they usually mentioned right here there isn’t a proper to faith,” one detainee mentioned.
It appears that evidently cruelty and sadism are at its core and the message Steve Miller and others need to mission to the nation. Apparently, our tax {dollars} are within the arms of sadists with limitless money to spend now that the newest price range invoice consists of billions of {dollars} for such establishments.
Greed can be within the combine. The place has been constructed by non-public contractors, CDRR Maguire, Doodie Calls and Garda World, who contributed over $2 million to PAC’s supporting governor Ron de Santis. The remainder of the Florida MAGA cult is cashing in as nicely by promoting ghoulish merchandise branded “Alligator Alcatraz.” Experiences are they’re “promoting like hotcakes” and donations to the state Republican occasion have surged.
In the meantime, environmental legal guidelines are being ignored—no environmental affect examine was made earlier than it was unexpectedly erected and environmental teams are suing based mostly on the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act. The endangered Florida panther can be jeopardized.
Says one commentator: “This isn’t America. This can be a grotesque perversion of justice, governance and fundamental human decency.”
It will not be America, however it’s MAGA and final time I regarded MAGA received an American election. So perhaps we must always look more durable: Perhaps hatred and sadism do lie within the coronary heart of (no less than some) Individuals together with the Republican senators and congresspeople who voted for the newest price range that assures that sadism and institutional violence flourish in our nation.
I’d hope that the 90 million Individuals who sat out the final election would possibly get up a bit (oh,that’s proper. MAGA and Florida have banished the phrase “woke” from our vocabulary, haven’t they?). Ninety million Individuals sat out the final election and 76 million voted for a felon 34 occasions over for president and Alligator Alcatraz is what all of us obtained. And SCOTUS in its infinite knowledge says the president can’t be prosecuted for crimes. So I’m sorry to say that I feel that is America. For now.
But it surely doesn’t must be if individuals select to intrude. Which is, as Rabbi Heschel instructs us, the work of the prophet. Which should be everybody with a conscience.
And allow us to not overlook that the identical individuals who introduced us Alligator Alcatraz are additionally aspiring to deliver concerning the finish of Nationwide Public Radio and PBS tv.
Why? As a result of they dare to report factual information–information which isn’t at all times flattering to the expensive chief. Will America plummet even deeper into ignorance because of this? Did voters vote for that? I hope not. Keep tuned. Resist. Protest. Intervene.
Laurie Woodward Garcia, “Swamp of Corruption: How Republican Donors Cashed In on Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Whereas Detainees Face Inhumane Situations.” Folks Energy United, July 12, 2025.
See Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Prophet for Our Occasions, pp. 7f.
See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Remodeling Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth.
And Fox, Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Banner Picture: The White Home occupant views the inside of “Alligator Alcatraz”: chain-link cages in canvas tents supported by aluminum poles. Official White Home picture, Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How are you selecting to intrude with the demons of energy which have given us Alligator Alcatraz and are fatly funded in the brand new price range handed by Congress? And with the hassle to close down NPR and PBS?
Advisable Studying
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally desires to introduce Eckhart to right now’s activists addressing up to date crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and plenty of others.
“Matthew Fox is probably the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a spot between Eckhart as a shamanistic persona and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to right now’s spiritual disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Writer of Religious Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead
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 typically used to unfold management and concern. Nonetheless, given right now’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this e-book 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 analyzing the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this e-book 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 quick 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 pictures, 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 quick obtain.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Remodeling Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling creator Matthew Fox provides a brand new theology of evil that essentially modifications the standard notion of fine 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 anybody single science. A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, creator of Quantum Theology: Religious 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 that means and apply of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the long run that guarantees private, social, and international 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
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the therapeutic and liberation present in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of each spiritual and political persuasion to unite in a brand new imaginative and prescient by means of which we study to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the present of a superb and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that gives a typical floor for spiritual seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Apply.
“I’m studying Liberating Presents for the Folks of the Earth by Matt Fox. He’s one which fills my coronary heart and thoughts for brand spanking new life regardless of a lot that’s violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a complete new route for Christianity—a route that’s in actual fact very historic and really grounded in Jewish pondering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is usually uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed method.
“Unique Blessing makes out there to the Christian world and to the human group a radical treatment for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these might have originated.” –Thomas Berry, creator, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story
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