Remembering William Sloane CoffinMemory Eternal. Posted by tripp at April 20, 2006 02:46 PMby Jim Wallis
Bill Coffin has died. Rev. William Sloane Coffin was likely the
most influential liberal Protestant clergyman and leader of his
generation. One of the first white men to go South and be
arrested in the civil rights movement, one of the first church
leaders to dissent from the Vietnam War, one of the first moral
voices against the nuclear arms race, Bill was a prophetic voice
of Christian conscience to both church and state for many
decades.Bill died at his final home in Vermont of congestive heart
failure but, as many have testified, his heart never failed a
generation committed to putting their faith into action. While
apparently unafraid of death, Bill Coffin (unsurprisingly)
defied it to the very end. Seemingly on the edge of death for
month after month, Bill kept publishing new books, giving new
speeches, founding new organizations, hosting a legion of
pilgrims saying their last goodbyes and being ministered to once
again by the prophet-pastor, and somehow finding the time to
keep encouraging countless friends in the struggle for social
justice and peace - including regular phone calls to our home to
cheer me on during the God's Politics book tour. He would see a
television interview and call just to offer his encouraging and
wise words. Sometimes he would speak to Joy while I was on the
road, and send me his good advice, "Tell Jim to let his success
go to his heart but not to his head."I remember a special dinner for Bill, hosted by his friends,
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund,
and Rev. John Chane, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington. It was
billed as Bill Coffin's likely last visit to Washington, D.C.,
(it was) and a host of interesting people turned up. Dan Rather,
then-CBS anchor, testified to the consistent moral voice that
Bill Coffin offered to journalists such as him. Joe Hough, the
president of Union Seminary, named him a genuine prophet for our
time. Marian spoke of how impressed a young generation of civil
rights activists was with the active support of a northern white
clergyman.And in an extraordinary story, Bill Moyers described an
interview he once did with the Religion News Service while still
press secretary in Lyndon Johnson's White House. After stepping
into the makeshift phone booth used for phone interviews, the
religion reporter kept challenging the administration's
arguments for the Vietnam War, and kept citing anti-war points
made by a young chaplain at Yale - Rev. William Sloane Coffin.
No matter what Moyers' rebuttals, the reporter kept coming back
with Coffin's clear theological and political objections to the
war. After the interview, a frustrated Moyers instructed an aide
to "find out who this guy Coffin is" and to get his arguments
against the war. He got them; Moyers read them carefully, and
the encounter with Coffin's prophetic critique was the beginning
of Moyers own change of heart on Vietnam and, eventually, many
other things. I don't know if Bill had ever heard that story
quite before, but the influence on Moyers was stunning to all of
us in the room.I had the job of helping Bill get up to the podium for his
remarks in response to all the tributes he had received (strokes
had diminished his mobility and slurred his words but had not
dulled the sharpness of his mind or cooled the warmth of his
heart.) In introducing Bill to speak to all of us, I described
how this young evangelical with a growing social conscience had
failed to find many in his own contemporary faith tradition to
learn from, but had discovered this liberal chaplain at Yale and
senior minister at The Riverside Church who was more faithful to
the gospel at the point of its social and political
implications. I gave Bill a big smile and tearfully testified
that, "On the biblical matters of justice and peace, Bill Coffin
was one of the most evangelical Christians of our time."Today is Bill Coffin's memorial service at The Riverside Church
in New York City. Many will testify to his prophetic courage,
his indomitable spirit, his great humor, and his pastoral care.
And many, such as me, will just be grateful to have been one of
his many friends. Now Bill goes to God."The one true freedom in life is to come to terms with death,
and as early as possible, for death is an event that embraces
all our lives. And the only way to have a good death is to lead
a good life.... The more we do God's will, the less unfinished
business we leave behind when we die." - William Sloane Coffin,
June 1, 1924 to April 12, 2006