"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth

[dweller]

and too small for anything but love."

RIP William Sloane Coffin.

William Sloane Coffin: Prophetic Voice for Peace

The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, who died on Wednesday, April 12 at the age of 81, was an inspiration for millions of people of faith who sought peace and nonviolence in a broken world. The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the world’s oldest spiritually-based peace movement, honors Coffin as one of its most prominent members and one who practiced what he preached.

As chaplain at Yale University, senior pastor at the Riverside Church, and prominent member of countless interfaith groups, William Sloane Coffin turned his pulpit into a megaphone to broadcast the call for peace. His ceaseless critique of the war machine, support for conscientious objectors, advocacy for civil rights, and leadership in the nuclear freeze movement – which drew millions of people into an awareness of the immorality of the United States’ effort to stockpile nuclear weapons – are a legacy to the world.

“Now, with talk of nuclear attacks against Iran, Bill’s spirit and courage are needed more than ever,” said FOR Executive Director Pat Clark. “The Fellowship of Reconciliation calls our members and supporters to draw on Coffin’s lifelong model of stepping boldly into the places where the cry for peace is most needed.”


In December 2005, FOR launched people-to-people delegations to Iran, focused on building peace and trust between ordinary citizens of two nations whose governments have demonized one another as enemies. The delegations draw on Coffin’s own legacy of travel to regions in conflict with the U.S. government – which included a trip to Iran in 1979 during the hostage crisis.

“Bill Coffin died as he lived – fully awake and in touch with the world around him. Bill was a lover of life and gave generously of his intellect, his energy, and his passion that all might know and live in a world where peace and justice are possible,” said the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, a FOR member who worked side by side with Coffin in the peace movement.

FOR pays tribute to William Sloane Coffin, whose prophetic theological and political ministry challenges us to build a world without war and to develop right relationships with all of humankind.

wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sloane_Coffin

Peace.
dp

[beam me up scottie]

1. RIP.

I wish I had met Mr. Coffin, I think I would have liked him.

The WP has a great article about him:

William Sloane Coffin Jr.; Chaplain Was Lifelong 'Disturber of the Peace'

By Matt Schudel and Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 13, 2006; Page B06

William Sloane Coffin Jr., 81, a Presbyterian clergyman and former Yale University chaplain whose early activism against the Vietnam War brought him international notoriety during a lifelong career of civil disobedience, died April 12 at his home in Strafford, Vt. He had congestive heart failure.

From the moment in 1958 when Mr. Coffin roared onto Yale's campus atop his motorcycle, he signaled that his presence would mean a distinctly radical approach to the social, political and moral upheaval that defined the next decade.

**************

He was arrested in Alabama in 1961 while participating in the interracial Freedom Riders movement that challenged segregationist laws. He was later arrested in Baltimore and St. Augustine, Fla.

**************

Mr. Coffin offered men who refused to obey the draft the sanctuary of his Yale chapel in New Haven, Conn., an act that ushered one of the country's leading institutions of higher education into the debate about the war.

On Oct. 16, 1967, Mr. Coffin and Dr. Benjamin Spock led a demonstration in Boston at which nearly 1,000 men handed over draft cards. After the rally, dubbed "Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority," Mr. Coffin helped present the draft cards to the Justice Department.

He, Spock and others were subsequently convicted of conspiracy to aid and abet disobedience of the Selective Service Act. The charges were overturned or dropped during the next few years. He also had a hand in retrieving three released U.S. prisoners of war in Hanoi in September 1972.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/12/AR2006041201736.html?nav=rss_email/components

*I know I posted a couple more paragraphs than I should have, mods, but hopefully you will forgive my disobedience in the spirit in which this disturber of the peace did it.:)

[dweller]

2. Reflections of a Firebrand

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0318-02.htm

As Chronic Heart Failure Saps His Health, Activist Minister William Sloane Coffin Offers Advice to a 'Young Doubter'
by Elizabeth Mehren


STRAFFORD, VT -- From a corner of his parlor here, the fiery Presbyterian minister gazed through lace curtains at a spindly tree made bare by winter. A sparrow that defied the elements to take up residence peered back. Beyond lay the snow-covered village Common, the hub of the 18th century town where William Sloane Coffin has lived on and off for a quarter-century.

At 80, Coffin has come home to spend his final days. Doctors gave him six months to live when they diagnosed chronic heart failure after a series of strokes. That was 2½ years ago.

No less defiant than when he was arrested as a Freedom Rider during the civil rights movement or when he protested the Vietnam War as chaplain of Yale, Coffin heeded medical opinion by writing another book.

When "Credo" came out late in 2003, Coffin put pen to paper again and produced "Letters to a Young Doubter," to be published in July.

more...

dp

[beam me up scottie]

3. kick

from a militant atheist

[charlie]

4. Sometimes a little truth is dangerous, too

Coffin earned the enmity of the Bushes 40 odd years ago when little Dubya first went to Yale. For whatever reason, his daddy told him to look up Coffin. Remarking on Poppy's recent electoral loss to Ralph Yarborough, he purportedly told Shrub, "your father lost to a better man." Coffin has said he doesn't remember saying that, but it's exactly the sort of slight the Bushes collect like money. To this day, Babs talks about how her little pookums and the whole fucking family were crushed by the Rev's meanness.

[beam me up scottie]

5. Damn, charlie.

You're like a walking Wiki!

[charlie]

6. Thanks, scottie

I've been thinking about Rev Coffin these past 6 years. He was always in the news in the late 60s, tireless, fierce, and unrepentant. We need the likes of him now, much more than we ever did back then. These are darker days.

[beam me up scottie]

7. The more I hear about him,

the sorrier I am that I didn't know him.

You're right, we need more fearless leaders like him.