Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Organizing has never been one thing — and understanding the difference might be the most important question facing the left today.
Week 4 of Theology for Troublemakers gets into the work: the history, theory, and practice of social justice organizing in America. Gary Dorrien traces the arc from Eugene Debs and the Wobblies to the Wagner Act, from Saul Alinsky's Back of the Yards to the broad-based community organizing networks reshaping congregations and cities today. Along the way, he recovers the forgotten story of Johnnie Tillmon and Beulah Sanders — the poor Black women who actually built the welfare rights movement — and asks what organizing rooted in sacred values looks like versus organizing that just wins winnable issues.
In this live Q&A, Gary joins Tripp Fuller to push on the questions Week 4 raised:
— Why has the dream of a farmer-labor third party failed so many times in American history — and does it matter?
— What did Taft-Hartley actually do to the American labor movement, and are we still living in its shadow?
— What's the difference between mobilizing people and genuinely organizing them?
— Can broad-based community organizing scale — and should it?
— What does it mean to organize on the basis of sacred values rather than just winnable issues?
This is the conversation for anyone who has ever felt the gap between what our faith demands and what our institutions actually do about it.
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Want to go further? Theology for Troublemakers is a full course with Gary Dorrien — one of the leading voices in Christian social ethics, professor at Union Theological Seminary, and author of the landmark Black Social Gospel trilogy. The course covers the social gospel, Reinhold Niebuhr, democratic socialism, community organizing, and more.
Join the class at homebrewedclasses.com
Organizing has never been one thing — and understanding the difference might be the most important question facing the left today.
Week 4 of Theology for Troublemakers gets into the work: the history, theory, and practice of social justice organizing in America. Gary Dorrien traces the arc from Eugene Debs and the Wobblies to the Wagner Act, from Saul Alinsky's Back of the Yards to the broad-based community organizing networks reshaping congregations and cities today. Along the way, he recovers the forgotten story of Johnnie Tillmon and Beulah Sanders — the poor Black women who actually built the welfare rights movement — and asks what organizing rooted in sacred values looks like versus organizing that just wins winnable issues.
In this live Q&A, Gary joins Tripp Fuller to push on the questions Week 4 raised:
— Why has the dream of a farmer-labor third party failed so many times in American history — and does it matter?
— What did Taft-Hartley actually do to the American labor movement, and are we still living in its shadow?
— What's the difference between mobilizing people and genuinely organizing them?
— Can broad-based community organizing scale — and should it?
— What does it mean to organize on the basis of sacred values rather than just winnable issues?
This is the conversation for anyone who has ever felt the gap between what our faith demands and what our institutions actually do about it.
---
Want to go further? Theology for Troublemakers is a full course with Gary Dorrien — one of the leading voices in Christian social ethics, professor at Union Theological Seminary, and author of the landmark Black Social Gospel trilogy. The course covers the social gospel, Reinhold Niebuhr, democratic socialism, community organizing, and more.
Join the class at homebrewedclasses.com
