Corruption vs. The Common Good

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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox

Week of 3/10-15/2025:
Corruption & Christian Nationalism
vs. the Common Good

3/16/2025

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March 10, 2025: Senator Blows Whistle on Putin-Like Corruption in First Weeks of New Administration

Senator Chris Murphy, in a recent speech on the Senate floor, names several blatant examples of corruption committed by Trump in his first six weeks, comparing it to what has become normalized in Russia under Putin. Here are a few of the more egregious examples: 1) Any CEO can meet with Trump for $5 million. 2) The IRS is being cut by 7000 workers–specifically including those who audit millionaires, billionaires, and corporations. 3) $400 million was approved to buy armored Teslas, which is of course Musk’s company. And Musk, of course, is the man who bought the election and now owns Trump. 4) Fossil fuel CEOs who backed Trump’s campaign are rewarded, while clean energy companies are attacked. Senator Murphy said, “Corruption has happened before—but never this openly or this frequently.”

Senator Chris Murphy Exposes Trump’s Corruption | The Billionaire Power Grab #trump #elon #doge #cnn

Senator Chris Murphy exposes Trump’s corruption: The Billionaire Power Grab. Video by Insight News.

March 11, 2025: Archetypes of the “Trickster” & the “Antichrist” in this Historical Moment

Tonight is the second round of our gathering called “From Darkness to Dawn” consisting of four conversations with host Cameron Trimble, Matthew, and four notable spiritual teachers and activists. In our first conversation, Mirabai Starr and Matthew interacted on the topic of “The Dark Night and the Call to Courage.” Response to the conversation and discussion was profound. In tonight’s Conversation with Andrew Harvey, we will be engaging on the topic of “The Trickster Unveiled – Archetypes in the Age of MAGA.” Next week, Bishop Yvette Flunder will speak on how faith communities can rise with courage and lead transformative action in these challenging times. In the fourth week, Father Adam Bucko and Matthew will explore how we turn reflection into meaningful action.

March 12, 2025: The Common Good, not Greed, as the Root of Government

In the midst of the craziness happening in Washington, let’s turn our talk to the common good. In his commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics, Aquinas says: The common good of the state cannot flourish unless citizens are virtuous—at least those whose business it is to govern. Aquinas also said: The common good of many is more godlike than the good of an individual. He also teaches: The sum total of the Christian religion consists of compassion. He also reminds us of the following: 1 John 3:18: ‘Let us not love in word, nor in speech, but in deed and in truth.’

March 13, 2025: Aquinas on Justice, the Cosmos, the Common Good & the Rich

Aquinas teaches that all of nature follows a love of the whole. Each part of creation naturally loves the common good of the whole more than its own particular good.…Each and every creature exists for the perfection of the entire universe. Aquinas warns that the super wealthy must be checked if they do not put it to the common good. In his Commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics, he warns that when one who has too much exceeds the mean…we will know by this mean what we ought to take from those who have more and give to those who have less. Exceeding the mean “is against divine justice,” for justice and the common good go together. How against the common good are all the mass firings being perpetrated by the man in the White House and his political sugar daddy and richest man on Earth?

Senior economist explains local impact of DOGE’s federal worker job cuts

Senior economist/researcher Brad Hershbein of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research discusses the potential ripple effect from federal layoffs, going beyond immediate job losses. News4JAX The Local Station

March 14, 2025: MAGA vs. the Common Good: An Amazingly Synchronistic Moment

Michael Ian Black, an actor and writer, watched a “Viral ‘Debate’ between liberal commentator Sam Seder and twenty young MAGA conservatives.* He found his blood pressure rising, and he turned it off before it was over. He said it was because he still believes that representative democracy remains the best form of government yet devised. The “promise of a common good, is the fundamental divide between my vision and that of the current administration.” Black said that when fact-checking the young MAGA folks, he found that their claims “were almost all incorrect” but never mind because “the MAGA worldview is not informed by facts but by feelings.”
Black believed we were capable of “identifying that which binds us, otherwise known as the common good.” Unfortunately, MAGA “rejects this” and in doing so, “rejects America.” A MAGA youth said Christian Nationalism should replace democracy in America.

March 15, 2025: “Christian Nationalism”—and Its Opposite: Join Me Saturday Morning

In yesterday’s DM, we found young MAGAs espousing Christian nationalism. Of course, Christian nationalism is not in any way “Christian.” Jesus doesn’t preach hatred. Recently Matthew discovered a talk by Rabbi Abraham Heschel given to a gathering of 2000 Roman Catholics in 1969.** In his talk, he brought up the Auschwitz death camps. He said: It is with…anguish that I recall that it was possible for a Roman Catholic church adjoining…Auschwitz to offer communion to the officers of the camp, to people who day after day drove thousands of people to be killed in the gas-chambers. Our understanding of Jesus has often been distorted by overemphasizing dogma and underemphasizing experience. Mysticism is the experiential side of healthy religion that leads to a Yes for existence and love and truth and justice.

WHAT IS CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM | Spiritual journey |

What is Christian Mysticism? Self Discovery

* Michael Ian Black, “The Viral ‘Debate’ Video That Proves Most MAGA Voters Are a Lost Cause.” The Daily Beast, March 12, 2025.

** Abraham Joshua Heschel, “On Prayer,” The Open Siddur Project, 1969.

Banner image: “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” Signs at a protest in small town Pennsylvania on International Women’s Day, 2025. Photo by Cynthia Greb. Used with permission

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