CT on Ellul’s “Political Illusion”
Promises, Promises | Christianity Today
I’ve known about The Political Illusion but didn’t know much about what he says in it until it showed up in my Google Search results a few days back. Tonight I found this discussion of the book from Christianity Today, a magazine I generally have very little in common with other than being a Christian and living “today.” (The article is by Chuck Colson, with whom I also have very little in common. The fact that he wrote this piece almost makes me suspicious of how he’s using Ellul, who had some harsh things to say about conservative Christians.)
From the article, it seems that Ellul focuses on the problem of relying on government for everything. Although I’m critical of all the accusations of socialism (mostly because I feel that the free market is screwing people over and that something needs to change), I recognize that we can’t simply turn everything over to the government. This idea is one I’ve believed for a while, but I must admit that I’ve been reluctant to give any credence to the paranoiacs on the right.
I’m trying to keep my critical distance with all the policy debates going on, and hearing this idea from someone I trust intellectually (Ellul) helps. The church needs to take a stand for human rights, needs to stand up for the people who are getting squeezed by the capitalist system. But how to do this without simply leaving everything up to the government.
I’m convinced that an unregulated free market will continue to be a bad thing. But I don’t want the theocrats getting into office either. So what’s the option for the church to follow that can set an example of how to fix the system without relying more and more on the government?
