Table Talk

Come to the Table

Invite your friends, pass the cookies, and dig into Sojourners. Table Talk discussion guides provide a gathering place for communities to discuss issues of faith, politics, and culture—local and global. Table Talk offers a smorgasbord of questions (enough for four sessions, if you want to arrange it that way), as well as resources for further study and action. You bring dessert.

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Session I. Community Spirit

"Saving the Corporate Soul" (p. 20)
"Exorcise That!" (p. 10)

Is your workplace in tune with your values? David Batstone describes how corporations often value profit over their workers' well-being and the interests of other stakeholders. Meanwhile, a group of ministers in Portland is concerned with another kind of large organization—the executive branch of the U.S. government. Inspired by theologian Walter Wink, the ministers see the government's rush to war with Iraq as a spiritual issue.

Questions to Consider

1. What are some of the most important ways in which your workplace and the government do, and do not, reflect your values?

2. Batstone suggests various reasons why it might be in a corporation's best interests to act morally—because it will motivate workers, garner good publicity, and avoid governmental interference. Yet present-day corporate culture still finds it "terrifying" even to be asked how much profit is enough. Why do you think that the average corporation does not currently "think of itself as a part of a community as well as a market"? What would a corporation run on Jesus' economic values look like?

3. Theologian Walter Wink argues that each social entity—whether church, government, corporation, or social club—has its own spiritual identity, or "angel," which can be fallen or redeemed. Does this argument change your perception of how Christians ought to relate to corporations or the government? If so, how?

4.According to Wink and the "social exorcists" in Portland, Oregon, the biblical response to fallen social powers is prayer. In what ways might prayer augment the strategies David Batstone suggests for "saving the corporate soul"?

Resources

Saving the Corporate Soul--and (Who Knows?) Maybe Your Own: The Eight Principles for Creating and Preserving Integrity and Profitability Without Selling Out, by David Batstone. (Jossey-Bass, 2003). Batstone examines the present-day corporate crises as spiritual more than just financial.

The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millenium, by Walter Wink. (Doubleday, 1998). This accessible, one-volume introduction to Wink's theology applies the Bible to today's world in far-reaching ways.

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. An ecumenical coalition that presses companies to be socially and environmentally responsible, in part through shareholder resolutions. (www.iccr.org)

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Session II. We Are Family

"No Longer Strangers" (p. 26)
"Seeing the Faith of the Enemy" (p. 34)

As a nation of immigrants, the United States is not only the most religiously diverse country in the world, it's also home to a Christian community that is more ethnically diverse than ever before. What challenges and rewards does this diversity offer?

Questions to Consider

1. Sociologist Robert Bellah says that, in many ways, the United States remains an "overwhelming monocultural society." If you were an immigrant (or if you are an immigrant), in what ways might you feel overwhelmed by settings you have been in this week?

2. Does your church, or one in your town, share a building with a congregation that is mainly of a different ethnicity? How might this sharing enrich the experiences of both congregations? What problems arise? Is there symmetry in the way that the two churches relate to each other?

3. What Bible stories or passages come to mind when you think about exile and oppression? Read one of these stories. Discuss ways in which these stories might have a particular meaning to people who have come to the United States fleeing oppression or extreme poverty.

4. In your church or in church statements in the media, have you heard references to Iraq's 720,000 Christians (or Palestine and Israel's 180,000)? How do you understand your commitment to the body of Christ as it surpasses national boundaries?

Resources

See "Accompanying the Displaced" and "Suggested Readings" (Sojourners, March-April 2003, pages 28-29).

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Session III. Radical Hope

"Fearless and Full of Hope" (p.30)
"We Didn't Quit" (p. 31)

In his decades of activism, Philip Berrigan didn't just burn draft cards and hammer on nuclear weapons—he poured out his life, love, and energy. The eulogy by his daughters, Kate and Frida, powerfully evokes his commitment to justice, nonviolence, and community.

1. Philip Berrigan's behavior in prison showed "that freedom has nothing to do with where your body is and who holds the keys and makes the rules. It has everything to do with where your heart is and being fearless and full of hope." In what situations in your life do you feel as if you are not free to show God's love?

2. Which of Berrigan's lessons, as his daughters describe them on p. 32, strike you most? How might you be able to practice them in your own life?

3. Like Berrigan, in his later years Martin Luther King Jr., drew links between racism, economic injustice, and U.S. militarism overseas. The recent prayer service for peace in the Washington National Cathedral included, among its readings from King, his statement that "Anyone who feels...that war can solve the social problems facing [hu]mankind is sleeping through a revolution." What might these words inspire you to think and do?

Resources

Fighting the Lamb's War: Skirmishes With the American Empire, by Philip Berrigan and Fred A. Wilcox. Berrigan's probing autobiography gives a deeply honest and moving account of his activism. (Common Courage Pr, 1996)

The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, by Daniel Berrigan. A provocative play, based on the trial transcripts of the Catonsville anti-war action, that explores the Christian affirmation of life amid a culture of death. (Beacon Press, 1970)

Investigation of a Flame. Lynne Sachs' 45-minute 16mm documentary portrait of Philip Berrigan and the Catonsville Nine. (www.hi-beam.net/mkr/ls/flame.html)

The Plowshares Movement Chronology. This Web page gives history on Plowshares anti-nuclear actions and links to Plowshares groups in the U.S. and abroad. (www.plowsharesactions.org)

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Session IV. An Inconvenient God

"Listen Up!" (p. 36)

According to Thomas Cahill, prophets "tell us what is true right now," including the ways in which our world is not pleasing to God. Inconvenient? Very—but, for people of faith, it's worth it to see "beyond the surface realities to the deep truth of human affairs."

Questions to Consider

1. What insights are gained by Cahill's comparisons between today's world and those criticized by Amos, Micah, and Mary?

2. Cahill speaks out against various ways in which our country and planet fail (and jail) the poor. Which of his critiques resonate most with you? What in your personal history or experience relates to this issue?

3. Are there circumstances in your life in which having a view "not confined to the politics or circumstances of the moment, however appalling" would bring you closer to Christ?

Resources

Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus, by Thomas Cahill and Luann Walther (Editor). (Anchor Books, 2001)

The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, by Thomas Cahill. (Anchor Books, 1999)

The Simple Way. This small Christian community in Philadelphia recently declared Jubilee on Wall Street. See the results of their prophetic action at www.thesimpleway.org/journey/december02.html.

SojoCircles

SojoCircles is a network of local groups that meet regularly to pray, dialogue, and build community in churches, families, and neighborhoods. Organized by Sojourners after Sept. 11 to discuss issues of peacemaking and social justice, SojoCircles includes groups from Australia to Wisconsin. Sojourners provides an organizer's packet with tips on meeting facilitation, resources for publicity, and links to SojoCircles around the world. Want to join? Contact sojocircles@sojo.net or call 1-800-714-7474.