Amen, EKO. 🙏 Thank you for sharing the Truth behind and underneath it all. The Living Gospel of Jesus is twofold: 1) The Fatherhood of God, and 2) The brother/sisterhood of humanity. That is the Ice Cream. It doesn’t matter what flavor of ice cream you choose to find your way to Father. The only thing that matters is that you choose to follow and live the Living Gospel.
Excellent article. Honestly I cried when I read it. When will the killing stop? We all have to get on our knees and pray. I hope repentance brings a revival like we have never seen. God Bless you and your family!
I love your writing, but in this one, you equate Islam with Christianity in seeking unity with others, I believe you miss the mark. Understanding Islam must be divided into two categories. Mecca and Medina. Mecca came first, with an accommodating religion (and all encompassing political and social system). When Muhammad was rejected and fled to Medina, his teaching changed: now it was invite all non-believers to the faith, then kill, enslave, or dominate those who refuse. The Quran is not written in order of the Suras. Because of later contradictions by Muhammad, the latest version of the contradictions “abrogates” the earlier versions. Muhammad’s life is the example to follow for Muslims. He beheaded captives, raped female prisoners, married a child, and urged followers to use sex slaves. All of the horrors practiced by ISIS in recent years were following Muhammad’s example he demonstrated in his life. Islam is a system of domination, enslavement, and conquest. It always has been. It is not “the religion of Peace.” It has no corollary to Christianity.
George, you’re right about Muhammad’s history. I’m not defending it.
Jesus was God incarnate. Muhammad was a mortal teacher with serious flaws. Islam’s institutional history includes forced conversion and violence.
But that’s not what this article is about.
This article is about recognizing that when a Nigerian Christian farmer is being hacked apart and a Palestinian Muslim mother is buried under rubble, the same banks are financing both sides.
The enemy isn’t the Muslim praying five times a day. The enemy is the system that arms us both and profits when we kill each other over doctrine.
I’m not asking you to accept Islam as theologically valid.
I’m asking you to see who profits from Christians and Muslims killing each other. And to stop playing their game.
I agree the hidden forces behind many/most conflicts are those who profit greatly supplying both sides.
I see Muslims as God’s creations (I consciously remind myself of this and am determined to be compassionate to all of God’s creations) while keeping in mind the horror that is Islam as written and even worse as practiced.
It is a fine line between the spiritual recognition of Christian and Muslim “brotherhood” and the practical. While any human being, even those who commit horrific crimes, is spiritually my brother for whom I have great compassion for his human weaknesses (as I have human weaknesses), there must be great clarity of context in discussing this, especially in print. The Muslim who simply prays 5 times per day may be no threat to me and mine, yet to the 90+ percentile supports the terrible crimes of the Gazans and ISIS and anything furthering the umma’s dominance. That spiritual essence, that all people are God’s creations, does not work in the same way when discussing worldly concepts linking a religion that is certainly benign after its Reformation and the other’s religion that, after its Wahibist reformation is, again voracious.
Dear George, You are correct. All religious beliefs are not equal. Without evil actions, how are we to understand goodness? I feel for the inhabitants of Gaza. We must remember that the Gazans voted for Hamas. After October 7th, the ONLY answer for Gazans was to repudiate Hamas. It is little different than German "Christians" supporting and cheering on Hitler; Or even Liberals celebrating Charlie Kirk's death. To find truth and goodness is up to the individual soul—no blanket blame statements. I agree with EKO on hierarchical religious systems and their control and manipulation of narratives. Be free, do what is right, and support the good wherever you can. Namaste'
Why is that when the name Gaza comes up we never hear the name Suez Canal in the same discussion? You can't discuss one without the other. Gaza and the Suez Canal are two sides of the same coin. It's the same issue. Seems the entire planet missed the prophetic meaning of the Evergreen container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021, which happens to run through Egypt!! This issue has been going on since the 1970s when it was determined that the Suez Canal needed replacement and that said replacement was destined to pass right through Gaza instead of Egypt. Decades of negotiations at the global level, widely published and televised. Nobel prizes awarded, yet it seems no one paid attention to the largest civil engineering global infrastructure crisis in over a century.
Has anyone ever wondered why Yasser Arafat was actually a civil engineer and an Egyptian? The connections are hitting us like a baseball bat across the forehead but seemingly without any effect.
Love this thought and we need more people writing, reading and discussing it!
The Universal Law of Divine Oneness says we are all interconnected. We are supposed to help and love each other. It might be easy to love those who love us, but it’s a lot harder to love our enemies, especially when there is no justice for harms committed. Yet if the focus is on loving God, we can’t love God and hate others simultaneously, so understanding that concept helps.
But, what if all of our differences is our Creator’s design to help us figure out the law of Divine Oneness?
And, here’s a curve ball: What if the idea that everyone is at a different soul level in our journey of Life is true. If that’s correct, an infant soul is in survival mode and will do whatever it takes to survive and and not worry about harm to others.
Baby souls are traditionally fundamentalists, and all about law and order, but of course that depends on what type of law and order (and shariah law doesn’t sound civilized to most of us westerners).
A young soul is in power mode – ends justify the means - and probably makes up the majority of the politicians.
A mature soul would understand the depth of loving our enemies, but maybe not be successful in achieving that, and Old souls just understand it all.
If someone is a young soul trying to understand why baby souls do what they do, it’s like trying to explain algebra to a kindergarten kid. Not an easy task, if even possible.
When pondering all the craziness in the world, the idea that everyone is at a different soul level in the journey of Life starts making sense:
I agree with your concept Liz, but what you describe is the ego, not the soul. Yes the soul needs to grow, but never through doing harm. Harm is the domain of the ego. As the soul grows it increasingly replaces the ego. For example, if the soul grows by 10%, the ego is reduced by 10%. If it grows by 50%, the ego shrinks by 50% etc. The soul has no limits on its growth potential, but the ego can be whittled down to nothing. It may not be an easy task, but it's certainly doable.
This is a different idea than one lifetime with the soul eventually sitting in the passenger seat, metaphorically.
This would be the idea that our soul comes back to earth hundreds, if not thousands, of times to learn lessons necessary to better ourselves for the next level. Not very well known, but I find it interesting and it meshes with the idea of divine oneness.
human nature does not change. precisely why God uses the weak to mock the strong and the foolish mock the wise. Christ’s example turned/turns everything on its head.
As always such an excellent take on religion and politics and banking. If everyone just lived according to the 10 commandments society would be peaceful and thrive with Love and innovation.
You don't have to see enemies as brothers for the bloodshed to stop. Just see them as fellow human beings in need of a savior. That alone makes everyone equal!
Thank-you. This I will try to remember "This is what power fears most. Not your doctrine. Not your theology. But the recognition that believers can stop killing each other long enough to see who’s been selling arms to both sides since the beginning of time."
EKO, your reflections on the massacres in Nigeria and the wider pattern of human violence… touch something far deeper than politics or religion.
Rwanda, Ukraine, Palestine, Nigeria… different places, same story. Humanity keeps drawing lines between good and evil that conveniently fall outside ourselves, when in truth, as Solzhenitsyn wrote, that line runs down the center of every human heart.
It’s easy to blame empires, regimes, or ideologies, but the pattern seems older; woven into our nature itself. People are driven first by the primal needs: food, water, shelter, sex and family. Beyond that, our motivations become more abstract, malleable and often easily manipulated. Status, wealth, recognition, and the illusion of control. Entire cultures have been conditioned to chase these illusions, to live in psychological systems that reward obedience and punish thought. Most people inherit their conflicts and live out someone else’s script, while a few awaken and see above it all, but too often use that awakening for their own gain of power and profit.
So the real question becomes: so what?
We recognize the pattern, but what then?
When something as horrific as October 7 happens, even the kindhearted long for a tangible end, for justice, for safety.
Many Israelis carry the inherited memory of the Holocaust… A trauma that whispers “never again” in their blood. The abused become the armed, and the cycle of defense and destruction turns again. The Palestinians, The Israelis distant cousins, have their own list of abuses, slights and persecution that are drilled into their minds from birth.
I fear this conflict is as old as the universe. Whether the Creator designed it as the crucible that gives meaning to consciousness, or whether it’s something more quantum and eternal, I can’t say.
But if both treachery and love are woven into the fabric of existence, perhaps our calling is not to end the conflict, but to navigate it with courage and principle.
I have no easy hope to offer here, only the conviction that this is far more complex than I can fathom. So I will pray for courage, discernment and wisdom as I continue to question almost everything and look for the underlying story that we are certainly a part of.
Is there a new insight here? Buy on the cannons, sell on the trumpets has been a saying for a long time. Of course there are parties who profit from war and may do their part to help foment it. Is there anything actionable on the part of us plebeians? The common citizen is effectively a pawn in a game of sovereign governments and financiers regardless of possessing this insight.
“Hard” is correct - particularly when there is one significant religious sect with the clearly stated goal of either 1) converting or 2) killing any non Muslim. I get the general argument against profiting from conflict, but fail to see the rationale in this example.
Islam’s institutional doctrine includes conquest. Christianity’s did too.
Every religion that merged with political power became an empire-building tool.
See my 10+ articles on the topic.
But the Nigerian farmer and Palestinian mother aren’t empires. They’re just individuals seeking God while being harvested by systems that profit from their mutual slaughter.
BECAUSE the victim list is a lot longer then the enemy list.
Praying for victims can be more emotionally draining due to you learning about there trauma.
Corporate religion keeps praying and sending there tithe to Ukraine and The State of Israel.
Corporate religion keeps praying and sending there tithe to Ukraine and The State of Israel.
Corporate religion keeps praying and sending there tithe to Ukraine and The State of Israel.
Shit, we have yet to pray for All the victims.
People keep praying more for the enemy while the enemy creates more victims.
But every Sunday Corporate religion repeatedly prays and blesses the enemy.
What about all the victims? Our enemies are not the same as God's enemies.
Jesus states how we should treat OUR enemies.
We should treat our enemies with mercy and compassion.
Why?
Because we are not God.
In the past we have NOT had a clear picture who the real enemy is due to generations of deception, manipulation, and slavery.
Hints Jesus preaching mercy on your enemy.
I still have many victims to pray for, they need mercy more then ever.
I don't have the time our energy to pray for GOD's enemy,
BLESS THEIR HEART
Psalms 139:21-22 KJV
21Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? 22I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
Thanks Eko for providing a space for us to express and share our feelings and experiences, may God bless you and yours.
Truly love the discussions here. Thank you.
You know I like to stir the pot, but that's how you know what's actually cooking.
stirring the pot also keeps it from burning. 😉
Amen, EKO. 🙏 Thank you for sharing the Truth behind and underneath it all. The Living Gospel of Jesus is twofold: 1) The Fatherhood of God, and 2) The brother/sisterhood of humanity. That is the Ice Cream. It doesn’t matter what flavor of ice cream you choose to find your way to Father. The only thing that matters is that you choose to follow and live the Living Gospel.
Excellent article. Honestly I cried when I read it. When will the killing stop? We all have to get on our knees and pray. I hope repentance brings a revival like we have never seen. God Bless you and your family!
I love your writing, but in this one, you equate Islam with Christianity in seeking unity with others, I believe you miss the mark. Understanding Islam must be divided into two categories. Mecca and Medina. Mecca came first, with an accommodating religion (and all encompassing political and social system). When Muhammad was rejected and fled to Medina, his teaching changed: now it was invite all non-believers to the faith, then kill, enslave, or dominate those who refuse. The Quran is not written in order of the Suras. Because of later contradictions by Muhammad, the latest version of the contradictions “abrogates” the earlier versions. Muhammad’s life is the example to follow for Muslims. He beheaded captives, raped female prisoners, married a child, and urged followers to use sex slaves. All of the horrors practiced by ISIS in recent years were following Muhammad’s example he demonstrated in his life. Islam is a system of domination, enslavement, and conquest. It always has been. It is not “the religion of Peace.” It has no corollary to Christianity.
George, you’re right about Muhammad’s history. I’m not defending it.
Jesus was God incarnate. Muhammad was a mortal teacher with serious flaws. Islam’s institutional history includes forced conversion and violence.
But that’s not what this article is about.
This article is about recognizing that when a Nigerian Christian farmer is being hacked apart and a Palestinian Muslim mother is buried under rubble, the same banks are financing both sides.
The enemy isn’t the Muslim praying five times a day. The enemy is the system that arms us both and profits when we kill each other over doctrine.
I’m not asking you to accept Islam as theologically valid.
I’m asking you to see who profits from Christians and Muslims killing each other. And to stop playing their game.
Thank you.
I agree the hidden forces behind many/most conflicts are those who profit greatly supplying both sides.
I see Muslims as God’s creations (I consciously remind myself of this and am determined to be compassionate to all of God’s creations) while keeping in mind the horror that is Islam as written and even worse as practiced.
It is a fine line between the spiritual recognition of Christian and Muslim “brotherhood” and the practical. While any human being, even those who commit horrific crimes, is spiritually my brother for whom I have great compassion for his human weaknesses (as I have human weaknesses), there must be great clarity of context in discussing this, especially in print. The Muslim who simply prays 5 times per day may be no threat to me and mine, yet to the 90+ percentile supports the terrible crimes of the Gazans and ISIS and anything furthering the umma’s dominance. That spiritual essence, that all people are God’s creations, does not work in the same way when discussing worldly concepts linking a religion that is certainly benign after its Reformation and the other’s religion that, after its Wahibist reformation is, again voracious.
Again, I always look forward to your work.
Dear George, You are correct. All religious beliefs are not equal. Without evil actions, how are we to understand goodness? I feel for the inhabitants of Gaza. We must remember that the Gazans voted for Hamas. After October 7th, the ONLY answer for Gazans was to repudiate Hamas. It is little different than German "Christians" supporting and cheering on Hitler; Or even Liberals celebrating Charlie Kirk's death. To find truth and goodness is up to the individual soul—no blanket blame statements. I agree with EKO on hierarchical religious systems and their control and manipulation of narratives. Be free, do what is right, and support the good wherever you can. Namaste'
Why is that when the name Gaza comes up we never hear the name Suez Canal in the same discussion? You can't discuss one without the other. Gaza and the Suez Canal are two sides of the same coin. It's the same issue. Seems the entire planet missed the prophetic meaning of the Evergreen container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021, which happens to run through Egypt!! This issue has been going on since the 1970s when it was determined that the Suez Canal needed replacement and that said replacement was destined to pass right through Gaza instead of Egypt. Decades of negotiations at the global level, widely published and televised. Nobel prizes awarded, yet it seems no one paid attention to the largest civil engineering global infrastructure crisis in over a century.
Has anyone ever wondered why Yasser Arafat was actually a civil engineer and an Egyptian? The connections are hitting us like a baseball bat across the forehead but seemingly without any effect.
Love this thought and we need more people writing, reading and discussing it!
The Universal Law of Divine Oneness says we are all interconnected. We are supposed to help and love each other. It might be easy to love those who love us, but it’s a lot harder to love our enemies, especially when there is no justice for harms committed. Yet if the focus is on loving God, we can’t love God and hate others simultaneously, so understanding that concept helps.
But, what if all of our differences is our Creator’s design to help us figure out the law of Divine Oneness?
And, here’s a curve ball: What if the idea that everyone is at a different soul level in our journey of Life is true. If that’s correct, an infant soul is in survival mode and will do whatever it takes to survive and and not worry about harm to others.
Baby souls are traditionally fundamentalists, and all about law and order, but of course that depends on what type of law and order (and shariah law doesn’t sound civilized to most of us westerners).
A young soul is in power mode – ends justify the means - and probably makes up the majority of the politicians.
A mature soul would understand the depth of loving our enemies, but maybe not be successful in achieving that, and Old souls just understand it all.
If someone is a young soul trying to understand why baby souls do what they do, it’s like trying to explain algebra to a kindergarten kid. Not an easy task, if even possible.
When pondering all the craziness in the world, the idea that everyone is at a different soul level in the journey of Life starts making sense:
https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/do-you-want-to-live-in-the-happiest?r=76q58
I agree with your concept Liz, but what you describe is the ego, not the soul. Yes the soul needs to grow, but never through doing harm. Harm is the domain of the ego. As the soul grows it increasingly replaces the ego. For example, if the soul grows by 10%, the ego is reduced by 10%. If it grows by 50%, the ego shrinks by 50% etc. The soul has no limits on its growth potential, but the ego can be whittled down to nothing. It may not be an easy task, but it's certainly doable.
This is a different idea than one lifetime with the soul eventually sitting in the passenger seat, metaphorically.
This would be the idea that our soul comes back to earth hundreds, if not thousands, of times to learn lessons necessary to better ourselves for the next level. Not very well known, but I find it interesting and it meshes with the idea of divine oneness.
So sad for everyone that we don’t know what we don’t know and even sadder when we think we know something.
“Every religion has been corrupted by power.”
human nature does not change. precisely why God uses the weak to mock the strong and the foolish mock the wise. Christ’s example turned/turns everything on its head.
So good. I have to believe we have hope for unity and peace.
As always such an excellent take on religion and politics and banking. If everyone just lived according to the 10 commandments society would be peaceful and thrive with Love and innovation.
I shall write about the 10 Commandments later this week
How timely. Lol. I am interested on your take about it. I know you will show incite that I have not thought about. I Look forward to it.
You don't have to see enemies as brothers for the bloodshed to stop. Just see them as fellow human beings in need of a savior. That alone makes everyone equal!
Thank-you. This I will try to remember "This is what power fears most. Not your doctrine. Not your theology. But the recognition that believers can stop killing each other long enough to see who’s been selling arms to both sides since the beginning of time."
EKO, your reflections on the massacres in Nigeria and the wider pattern of human violence… touch something far deeper than politics or religion.
Rwanda, Ukraine, Palestine, Nigeria… different places, same story. Humanity keeps drawing lines between good and evil that conveniently fall outside ourselves, when in truth, as Solzhenitsyn wrote, that line runs down the center of every human heart.
It’s easy to blame empires, regimes, or ideologies, but the pattern seems older; woven into our nature itself. People are driven first by the primal needs: food, water, shelter, sex and family. Beyond that, our motivations become more abstract, malleable and often easily manipulated. Status, wealth, recognition, and the illusion of control. Entire cultures have been conditioned to chase these illusions, to live in psychological systems that reward obedience and punish thought. Most people inherit their conflicts and live out someone else’s script, while a few awaken and see above it all, but too often use that awakening for their own gain of power and profit.
So the real question becomes: so what?
We recognize the pattern, but what then?
When something as horrific as October 7 happens, even the kindhearted long for a tangible end, for justice, for safety.
Many Israelis carry the inherited memory of the Holocaust… A trauma that whispers “never again” in their blood. The abused become the armed, and the cycle of defense and destruction turns again. The Palestinians, The Israelis distant cousins, have their own list of abuses, slights and persecution that are drilled into their minds from birth.
I fear this conflict is as old as the universe. Whether the Creator designed it as the crucible that gives meaning to consciousness, or whether it’s something more quantum and eternal, I can’t say.
But if both treachery and love are woven into the fabric of existence, perhaps our calling is not to end the conflict, but to navigate it with courage and principle.
I have no easy hope to offer here, only the conviction that this is far more complex than I can fathom. So I will pray for courage, discernment and wisdom as I continue to question almost everything and look for the underlying story that we are certainly a part of.
If I was granted a wish, it would be to have this piece read aloud to every single legislative body on the planet…..every year!
Is there a new insight here? Buy on the cannons, sell on the trumpets has been a saying for a long time. Of course there are parties who profit from war and may do their part to help foment it. Is there anything actionable on the part of us plebeians? The common citizen is effectively a pawn in a game of sovereign governments and financiers regardless of possessing this insight.
Yeah, we’re pawns. Seeing it doesn’t change that.
But when you stop hating the people they profit from you hating, you become ungovernable to them.
That’s the actionable part.
Not policy change.
Personal refusal.
They need us fighting each other. Once we won’t, their game breaks.
“Hard” is correct - particularly when there is one significant religious sect with the clearly stated goal of either 1) converting or 2) killing any non Muslim. I get the general argument against profiting from conflict, but fail to see the rationale in this example.
Islam’s institutional doctrine includes conquest. Christianity’s did too.
Every religion that merged with political power became an empire-building tool.
See my 10+ articles on the topic.
But the Nigerian farmer and Palestinian mother aren’t empires. They’re just individuals seeking God while being harvested by systems that profit from their mutual slaughter.
When do we start praying for all the victims?
Has anybody prayed for all the victims yet?
Why?
BECAUSE the victim list is a lot longer then the enemy list.
Praying for victims can be more emotionally draining due to you learning about there trauma.
Corporate religion keeps praying and sending there tithe to Ukraine and The State of Israel.
Corporate religion keeps praying and sending there tithe to Ukraine and The State of Israel.
Corporate religion keeps praying and sending there tithe to Ukraine and The State of Israel.
Shit, we have yet to pray for All the victims.
People keep praying more for the enemy while the enemy creates more victims.
But every Sunday Corporate religion repeatedly prays and blesses the enemy.
What about all the victims? Our enemies are not the same as God's enemies.
Jesus states how we should treat OUR enemies.
We should treat our enemies with mercy and compassion.
Why?
Because we are not God.
In the past we have NOT had a clear picture who the real enemy is due to generations of deception, manipulation, and slavery.
Hints Jesus preaching mercy on your enemy.
I still have many victims to pray for, they need mercy more then ever.
I don't have the time our energy to pray for GOD's enemy,
BLESS THEIR HEART
Psalms 139:21-22 KJV
21Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? 22I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
Thanks Eko for providing a space for us to express and share our feelings and experiences, may God bless you and yours.
Great post looking forward to the next one.
Love, David