Sacred Vows and Defending Democracy

Week of 9/22-27/2025:

Sacred Vows & Defending Democracy

This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Some are penned by Matthew Fox (MF), and some by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG).

September 22, 2025: Humor Repressed, Savage Capitalism Alive & Well in the Media (MF)

It is a sad and dangerous day when the president of the U.S. teams up with large corporations to kill humor and satire in the country. Such goings-on are a canary in the coal mine of American democracy.

Those who yearn to be strongmen are rarely gifted with a sense of humor—and never toward themselves. They hate being laughed at. So it was with Putin, and so it is with the current man in the Oval Office. Mussolini defined fascism as “the marriage of government and corporations.”

That marriage is tightening daily in today’s America. Savage capitalism is greed with no guard rails. Welcome to an America where our only gods are Greed and Grievance.

Upon receiving the Mark Twain prize at the Kennedy Center in 2022, Jon Stewart described comedians as “the banana peel in the coal mine.” Video by Now This Impact.

September 23, 2025: Peter Thiel, Carl Schmitt, & Silicon Valley’s New Religion (MF)

The billionaire in the White House is busy gilding the White House itself while calling the media an “enemy of the people.” One big influencer, ultra-right Peter Thiel, contributed over 13 million dollars to Vance’s senate campaign in Ohio, thus buying him his political future.

Thiel is currently teaching a four-part seminar in Silicon Valley on the topic of “The Anti-Christ.” Prior to 1933, Carl Schmitt advised German President von Hindenburg to bypass Parliament and rule by presidential decree. (Sound familiar?)

When Hitler outmaneuvered them, Schmitt joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and helped coordinate their seizure of power. Schmitt became Thiel’s mentor, and Thiel, Vance’s. It is clear we will have to fight for our democracy.

Thiel’s political theology and apocalyptic imagination are shaping the worldview of some of the most powerful people in the world. Matthew Fox offers a much-needed counterpoint, October 8-9. Click HERE to register.

September 24, 2025: Vows (part I) (GG)

Last’s week meditation on the Order of the Sacred Earth caused GG to reflect on the concept of vows. One vow that many of us make is the wedding vow. GG has found that many people experience great angst when they are unable to continue with a marriage, blaming themselves for breaking a vow.

GG counsels thus: We need to understand that we don’t carry our vows, and we are not morally responsible for them. It is our vows that carry us, as long as they can. He continues: What is truly spiritual about a vow is that we utter it in response to a call from the divine depth of our hearts.

We are not at fault if we utter it in complete sincerity, but subsequently find it was perhaps not the correct vow for us. A vow needs to be deep enough to support a series of moral commitments through life, but broad enough to accommodate different circumstances that may arise. Most especially, it must warm our heart and kindle our imagination.

September 25, 2025: Vows (part II) (GG)

Making a solemn vow is a powerful antidote to distraction. It focuses both thoughts and actions. When there is something wrong with your vow or the manner in which you took it, it may feel like a cage, but when things are correctly aligned, your vow is a source of energy. It is common when people with good intentions gather for rituals and vow-taking that the Shekhina, Holy Wisdom, is present.

Making a vow is a very powerful tool, especially in trying circumstances. Who am I? I am one who is becoming whom I pledged to become, and no amount of evil can change that.

St Clare professes religious vows to St. Francis,

depicted in a window from the Holy Family convent of the

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. Wikimedia Commons.

September 26, 2025: Vows (part III) (GG)

Matthew, in his book Order of the Sacred Earth, teaches about how the making of vows can be re-envisioned during these postmodern times. For instance, when men take vows to become a monk, there are essentially four vows: poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability.

Poverty can mean a commitment to simple living, and the rejection of overt consumerism. Because sexual relations can be very holy, perhaps Chastity can mean foregoing wanton or casual sex. Obedience can be promised to an ideal or a community. Stability used to mean never leaving the monastery.

Perhaps now it can be reinterpreted as faithfulness to a bioregion, which can be properly defended only when it is well-known and well-loved. May we become fierce and loving in defense of both our Earth and our democracy.

September 27, 2025: Original Blessing & “Innate Goodness” as Medicine During Dark Nights (MF)

In times of struggle and darkness, it is important to reconnect to the cosmos and to Mother Earth and all who dwell on her. When the book Original Blessing came out 32 years ago, it greatly disturbed the Vatican, which at the time was heavily invested in the concept of original sin. In their fury, they forgot their own lineage, as when Thomas Aquinas talked about “original goodness” and Hildegard spoke about how love ruled the world from the beginning.*

Recently, Matthew was drawn to two contemporary people thinking along these same lines. One is Aaron Stern, co-founder and president of the Academy of the Love of Learning, who offers a powerful story triggered by a poem called “Safety Net” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trammer.

Aaron writes about “the presence of innate goodness,” a “wellspring of goodness,” saying “it was somehow who I was.” You can read both the full poem and essay, HERE.

Matthew Fox, Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century, p. xiii

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

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

Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action (by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Listug)

Prayer: A Radical Response to Life

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

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation (by Matthew Fox and Adam Bucko)