Essay

Think Globally, Act Locally

A WORLD CHRISTIAN interview with Jacques Ellul
from the government or
Jacques Ellul
some international orga
is a prominent French Soci
nization. It must be at the
ologist and teaches Marx
local leyel I\'here each of
ism at the University of
us li\es. It's at this local
Bordeaux, France. Convert
lenl that love is
ed from Marxism to Christ
expressed and can be
as an adult, Ellul quickly
recei\'ed by those who
won notoriety with unset
need it. 50 the Christian's
tling works such as The
responsibility is to imag
Technological Society, The
ine and create solutions
Political Illusion and Pro
of love to the situations
paganda. Ellul has author
that exist specifically
ed more than 60 books and
where they are.
400 articles. His latest
books include The Subver
sion of Christianity a11 d wc: WHAT QUALJFIES A
Jesus and Marx. Christian to act locally'
Gordon Aeschliman and JE: EACH CHRISTIA!\ HAS
Sherrie Steiner Aeschliman received some gift from
of WORLD CHRISTIAN the Holy Spirit, which
magazine interviewed will allow him to
Ellul at his home in Bor respond. That is his
deaux last summer. equipment.
GORDON AESCHLIMAN
wc: You SAY THAT THE CHRISTIAN MIS ety that are suffering in any way at this wc: c.",'\ THE CHRISTL"''' ACTUALLY
sion is to Think Globally, Act Locally. present time. This, then, is our mandate change society'
to act locally.
JE: YES. THE MEDIA A'\D THE CHURCH
JE: YES, BECAlSE THE CHRISTIAN HAS BEEN
present us a very fragmented \'iew of the
./ffd_
transformed. Romans 12:2 says we are no
world. This is true, for example, in our
~ longer to conform to the ways of society
understanding of Israel, South Africa and
but be transformed. We become trans
the Palestinians. I must gain information /lEach Christian
formed, and then we become transform
both by listening to my Christian conte\t
ing agents by God's love.
and by stepping outside of it. Thinking has received son1e gift
globally means letting go of the security
WHAT IS OUR PRIMARY M1SSION AT
that comes with belonging to my group' from the Holy Spirit;
Wc:
the local level?
viewpoint
And I must put the current I\'orld situ
which will allow
ations against their historical continuum.
JE: HOPE. WE MUST BRING HOPE TO
I must recognize injustices in nation
hin1 to respond. "
people. Not in the sense of, "Don't worry,
today, but I must also ask to what degree
things are going to get better just around
that nation has improved its human
the corner." We offer hope that brings
rights record over time, Those advances
sense and meaning to life.
are a necessary part of filling in the frag Christian love presumes, personal
Today, human beings are so cast down
mented picture. But Christians must relationships. Christian love requires the
and discouraged that our job is not to put
admit that we do not have all the global recognition that whatever the problem
more burdens on them and make their
answers. Our first responsibility is to be may be at the individual or group level,
condition worse. Our first step is to bring
present and active in all the parts of soci- the ultimate answer is not going to come
them to the foot of the cross of Christ.
WORLD CHRISTIAN 0 FEBRUARY 1989
23
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wc: WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR THE PERSON?
JE: THERE THE MODERN PERSON REALIZES
how much Cod loves him. He realizes
that if Christ died it was, "because of me,
because of my sins." In essence, at the
foot of the cross he is discovering sin
faced with forgiveness in Christ, the gift
of God with his experience of
life.
we; Do YOl vIJ\'J rVANGELlSM?
JE: Ir's 1\,01 1\ Qurs'J rON OF REPEATING
theologicill formulas, Bible verses and
evangelical slogans. It is a matter of deal
ing with people at a much more pro
found level-giving them a basis, a real
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basis for understanding why they are
there, and why God loves them and how
God loves them in a personal way.

Anything short of that is propagan
da-giving ".omeone something that can

II .Jesus Christ as
II the Truth" presumes
I JOIN SPEARHEAD I
and includes what
liN MEXICO I he has done for me
it's relationship."
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I wc: ARE WE TO 'J!SII'JGUISIT BETVvFI N
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dogmatic thinking and the truth, or is
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JE: THE TRUTH OF JL:oUS CHRIST 1S siMP] Y,
I D Please send me your Spearhead brochure. I
"I am the Truth." That is not dogma.
Ivery period has its dogmas and doubts.
I I Name
I
But Jesus Christ as "the Truth" presumes
Address
and includes what he has done for
City/State/ Zip
me-il's relationship. In all my contacts
with the non-Christian world, I have
FEBRUARY 1989 0 WORLD CHRISTW,
24
I
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noticed again and again their amazement
at the face-to-face fact that for us the
h'uth is not an idea, a theory or a dogma,
but the truth is a person, And that is the
most startling aspect about the Christian
belief. We don't often see the importance
of this, but non-Christians see this as the
remarkable, unique thing about Chris
tianity
I can actually believe and experience
that God is in me and with me all the
time in all the world, You see, in a sense
the gospel is irrational. It cannot be
grasped outside of relationship, and we
know that anv real personal encounter is
irrational. Once we are able to grasp that,
we have personal access to God, And
when we enter into that reality, suddenly
the Gospel becomes completely rational.
WC: CAN YOU GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OF
"acting locally" in your own life?
JE: iN MY TOWN WE HAVE REACHED OUT TO
marginalized juvenile delinquents who
are unable to integrate into society. Our
initial objective was not to convert them
to Christianity, nor was it to take a boy
liThe basic problem
is always the same:
finding someone
to love and accept
not to judge... "
who was stealing and stop him. Our
work was not a question of moralistic
teaching because most of these young
people are violent and hardened simply
because nobody has shown interest in
them and loved them. Nobody talkc; to
them,
Our work with them consisted of cre
ating a situation in which we could talk
to them, listen to them, tolerate them and
put up with all the stupid things they do
or say
All these young people were stealing
WOJ{LD CHRISTIAN 0 FEBRUARY 1989
motorbikes, They would use them to play
chicken by seeing who could come clos
est to the cliff by a lake without stopping.
They would see who jumped off the bike
closest to the edge before it went over
and into the water. So at one point one of
the key members who was working with
them in this project said, "Well that's
very exciting, but maybe it would be
more exciting to start diving into the lake
to bring the motorbikes up and see who
can repair them so that they can be used
again." The group of young people
thought that was an exciting idea, This
has given birth to a club of underwater
diving. In the following years the drop in
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TO KNOW HIM AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN
25
juvenile delinquency was startling. We
had a group of 250 of these really tough
kids.
The basic problem is always the same:
finding someone to love and accept-not
to judge them In this very room I have
met with many of these young people
who came to me when they had prob
lems they couldn't handle and we talked
together to try to find a solution right in
this room. I've also had the role of keep
ing away the police, judges and courts
that were often after these young peo
ple-we wanted enough time to actually
get these young people to a solution.
You ARE A PROFESSOR OF MARXISM,
used to be active in Marxism and today
as a Christian you find helpful insights in
the \1arxist model as a means of under
standing the role of economics in the
world. Marx said that Christianity paci
fies people, gives them a fillse hope that
lets them deny their current pain and
suffering.
JE: .\JOT QUITE. MARX'S CONFLICT WITH
Christianity had more to do with how
religion was used to manipulate people
for the good of industry and State. He
wasn't opposed to the actual content of
Christian ity. In fact Marx considered
Christianity the very highest creation of
the human spirit and the soul of a soul
less world.
Religion does not have to pacify. In
fact, today you can list a multitude of
organizations and groups dedicated,
because of love, to doing something very
practical in the world.
When someone is in a situation of
hopelessness, where he can't get out-his
conduct, his health or whatever it may
be-when in that context he can touch
face-to-face someone who 10v('s him,
does not reject him, does not judge him,
this manifestation of Christian love leads
to real hope.
I must say that love is the most impor
tant of Christian qualities. That is what
moves him to act locally. And this love is
not primarily a drive to convert others.
Love is a long process tha t ul bmatel y
brings another to the place where he rec
ognizes that the love I have shown him is
simply a reflection, a practical reflection,
FEBRUARY 1989 0 WORLD
26
of the love that God has for him and for
me and has shown through me to him.
wc: WHAT CHALLEl\CES FACE THE
church in today's pluralistic society?
JE: WE MUST REFUSE TO CONFORM TO
current ideologies. For instance, in
France, after the liberation in '45, the vast
majority of ideologies were seeking to
reconcile Christianity with Communism.
And from 1960 on it was reconciling
Christianity with Maoism. l\;ow in the
last ten years the big subject has been rec
onciling Christianity to Islam, reading the
'II must say that
love IS the
most Important of
Christian qualities.
That is what moves him
to act locally. !I
Bible from the Islamic point of view. So,
given the terrible attitude and conduct of
Israel, the new reading of the Bible is that
the Jewish people are not the chosen and
that Palestine is not the promised land.
Christians have a message that is dis
tinctly different to everybody else. Now
our responsibility is to reaffirm that by
our lives. The temptation comes to assim
ilate Christianity into the latest thing the
modern world brings to us.
wc: WHAT ENCOURAGEMENT CAN VOL
give today's activists?
JE: IN TODAY'S FRAGILE WORLD, WHAT
we're telling people is that God's love is
the only thing we don't have to fear-the
one thing that makes all other fears disap
pear. Our message is not that you can
become more comfortable as a Christian,
but that you can gain more faith to serve
people in an increasingly fragile world...
WORLD CHRISTIAN 0 FEBRUARY 1989
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