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. The Road Ahead

"The Lessons of War" (p. 7)
"Coercion vs. Cooperation" (p. 54)
"One Citizen's Shining Light" (p. 57)

Even as the Bush administration carries on empire as usual, the world is seeing the growth of a peace movement that is bigger, more proactive, and more global than ever before. Two CultureWatch reviews put this movement in the context of past victories and current fears. Jonathan Schell's new book describes the growing power of nonviolent action, from India to South Africa and the former Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Wendell Berry critiques the U.S. government's response to terrorism.

2. Jim Wallis says, "Dissent in a time of war is not only Christian, it is also patriotic." How have you been educated to see yourself as a person of faith in a democracy? What is the war of symbols implicit in this statement?

3. Many major changes of the past century—including the demise of apartheid and the Soviet Union—have been accomplished mostly through nonviolent action. Why do you think nonviolent change does not get more attention in public discourse?

Resources

The Orion Society, which published Wendell Berry's work, aims to inspire and empower individuals and grassroots organizations to heal the world and the environment. (www.orionsociety.org)

The Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker group, offers action alerts about threats to civil liberties. (www.fcnl.org/issues/immigrant/civil-rights_indx.htm)

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Session II. The Other War

"The War at Home" (p. 20)
"Equal Justice?" (p. 24)
"Suffering Servants" (p. 44)

Sanho Tree argues that the government's "war on drugs" throws money and people's lives away into a mushrooming prison system, while keeping drug prices high enough to motivate drug traffickers to be lethally efficient. In the United States, although poor people and people of color are not more likely than others to use drugs, they are much more likely to be arrested and imprisoned. Meanwhile, U.S. narco-dollars fuel Colombia's civil war, which kills 30,000 a year.

1. Did Sanho Tree's article change your previous impressions about "the drug war"—its economics, its racial disparities, and its sheer scale? If so, how?

2. Do you know of anyone in your family or circle of acquaintance who has used or sold illegal drugs? If they have stopped, what factors—including treatment, faith, family, friends, and job opportunities—seemed to have helped them? What effects would (or did) incarceration have on them?

3. How did you feel when you read about the plight of Colombians caught in the crossfire between the paramilitaries and the guerillas? Does the story change how you feel about the drug war in the United States? What could you or your congregation do to promote justice in this area?

Resources

The Sentencing Project analyzes the social consequences of mass imprisonment. (www.sentencingproject.org)

"The War On Drugs, Proposition 36, And A Vision For Restoration," by Progressive Christians Uniting. California is the largest state to pass a law mandating treatment instead of prison for nonviolent drug offenders; this 20-page guide gives an in-depth, faith-based analysis of how treatment laws can be made to work effectively. Order at cpu@tstonramp.com or 909-397-5850.

The Mennonite Central Committee offers firsthand accounts of the situation and its work in Colombia. (www.mcc.org/areaserv/latinamerica/colombia/index.html)

The Center for International Policy offers a wealth of news on and analysis of Colombia's conflict and U.S. involvement. (www.ciponline.org/colombia)

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Session III. Art and Soul

"Through a Glass, Brightly" (p. 34)
"Dangerous Art" (p. 36)
"Lament, Dissent, and Dancing" (p. 48)
"Marching Toward Jerusalem" (p. 50)

Art is dangerous, and that's a good thing. A stained glass exhibition in New York points out the communal nature of art—how works are commissioned and experienced in the "intersections of individuals." Those intersections can include conflict, as Virginia Maksymowicz describes; art can also, as Julie Polter and Danny Duncan Collum point out, inspire or unify a movement.

1. What was your reaction to the different visual images in the stained glass exhibit and in "Dangerous Art"? What purposes can art have other than beauty?

2. How have different kinds of art—music, art, and architecture—played a role in your faith experience, as an individual or as part of a community? Do you experience dissonance between your faith and any kinds of art you've encountered?

3. At what times in your life has music caused you to feel close to a group of people—or separate from them?

Resources

See suggestions for protest music in "The Beat Goes On" (Sojourners, May-June 2003, page 51).

Deep Natural, by Michelle Shocked. Frequent protest singer Shocked focuses her righteous, soulful energy on her personal faith. (Mighty Sound, 2002)

OOOH! (Out of Our Heads), by the Mekons (Quarter Stick, 2002). See photos of the art show that accompanied the album. Included are vegetable heads made by children, a giant spinning head, and a pile of shrunken heads. (oooh.org.uk/pages/show01.htm)

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Session IV. The Least of These

"The Devil's in the Details" (p. 18)
"No Place at the Table" (p. 52)

Adam Taylor describes how a growing grassroots movement impelled President Bush to pledge substantial help to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean—and how the administration is trying to water down the AIDS bill currently being considered in the House and Senate. Meanwhile, a book review of Growing Up Empty: The Hunger Epidemic in America reveals stories of people in the United States who do not have enough to eat—and the government policies that contributed to their plight.

1. Adam Taylor compares the Student Global AIDS campaign to the civil rights movement's Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In what ways might the AIDS campaign have the same spirit as SNCC?

2. Are you involved with a campaign against hunger or AIDS? Do your religious beliefs lead you to the same or different actions on these two issues?

Resources

Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger group, offers updates on TANF legislation currently before the Senate. (www.bread.org/issues/working_from_poverty_to_promise/recent_developments.html)

Call to Renewal, a network of churches united against poverty, is organizing a national mobilization to "Put America's Poor on the National Agenda," June 9-11, 2003, in Washington, D.C. (www.calltorenewal.com)

The Global AIDS Alliance offers updates on pending AIDS legislation. (www.globalaidsalliance.org)

The Student Global AIDS Campaign helps empower young people to raise awareness and affect policy. (www.fightglobalaids.org)

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, 2001, 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.