Christians Must 'Get Their Heads Out of the Sand' and Help Persecuted Believers, Says Aid to the Church in Need Chairman (Part 2)
CP: Do you think these Muslim countries will ever treat Christians as equals?
Marlin: That's the ideal. It sort of worked in Lebanon for decades. That is now changing. The only way you can have a somewhat democratic society where all people have guaranteed basic rights is by realizing [rights come from God, not government].
It's sad to say in the Western world, particularly Europe, they do not believe that rights come from the hand of God [anymore]. That is the warped mentality we endure today.
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In the Muslim world, until the mainstream Muslims stand up to these radicals, it will get worse and worse. That's the only way we can get to some sort of semblance where Christians may not be treated as equals, but be recognized as people of the Book. And as Muhammed said, in his judgement, "Jews and Christians heard from God, but they were incomplete. Muslims are complete." The radical Islamic groups reject that thought.
CP: Why are Christians in the West unfamiliar with the history of Christianity in the Middle East?
Marlin: It's part of the failure of the education system in the U.S. In Western Europe they try to deny all connection to Christianity. When they were trying to put together the European Union Constitution, they refused to recognize and admit that Christianity is the basis of the culture of Europe.
We have several generations now that know very little about the history of their nation, let alone the history of Christianity.
To me, this is part of the plan. If you remember, the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci told Joseph Stalin to forget [trying to use economic tactics to take over countries,] if you want to destroy nations and get power, destroy the culture and history.
We now have generations of kids who live in this politically correct, multicultural world where they're taught that all cultures are equal, which is of course absurd. Nazi and Stalin cultures are evil. They are not all equal.
These kids are not learning anything about their nation's cultural roots and Christianity. So you have this great void. If the media, secular press and nations don't want to focus [on these issues in the Middle East,] it just doesn't exist anymore.
Secondly, in Catholic education the emphasis is always on Christianity in the West. Although we learned basic Church history [during my time in the Catholic system, which was during its peak era,] there was not enough time spent on it. And nowadays, there is zero time spent on it because of the political correctness and multiculturalism of the educational system, which to me has become not educational systems, but propaganda institutes to promote the ideological vision of certain groups.
