Posted on 04/22/2006 3:56:19 PM PDT by rhema
"A long, long time ago I can still remember ..."
That's how Don McLean's No. 1 hit from 1971, "American Pie," begins. The news earlier this month was that William Sloane Coffin Jr., America's most famous liberal minister from the 1960s through the 1980s, had just died at age 81. Obituaries noted that Coffin, recipient of an elite education in New England and Paris, had thought of a career as a concert pianist, but became Yale University chaplain in 1958.
"February made me shiver, With every paper I'd deliver, Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step."
New Haven often has miserable winter weather, and the ideological slush within the Yale Daily News building from 1968 through 1971 was often as unpleasant as the freezing rain outside. So I went occasionally to Battell Chapel to hear Coffin's fiery sermons about the Sin of the Vietnam War. But his bad news of American evil was tempered by his good news that we bright students could remake ourselves into righteous beings.
"Did you write the Book of Love, And do you have faith in God above? If the Bible tells you so."
I had no faith in God or the Bible, and probably wouldn't have paid attention if Coffin had given biblical messages. I was impressed when he rode a motorcycle around campus and called himself a "Christian revolutionary." So were others: Gary Trudeau made him a character ("Rev. Sloan") in his Doonesbury comic strip and once enthused about Coffin: "Without him, the very air would have lost its charge. With him, we were changed forever."
"As I watched him on the stage, My hands were clenched in fists of rage ... As the flames climbed high into the night, To light the sacrificial rite, I saw Satan laughing with delight."
Coffin's hip sermons reflected the wisdom of both John Lennon and Vladimir Lenin. He advocated the "social gospel," pointing out accurately that many churches had turned their backs on the poor, but minimizing our desperate need for Christ while emphasizing the overthrow of social classes and traditional institutions. Coffin certainly was not responsible for my embrace of Marxism, but he and others made me feel my rage was righteous and my anger was more than angst.
"In the streets the children screamed, The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed, But not a word was spoken, The church bells all were broken."
Coffin moved on in 1977 to become chief minister at perhaps the leading social gospel church in the country, New York's Riverside. Two years later, he journeyed to Iran to meet with American hostages and then speak of America's "sins" in Iran. In 1987, just before Ronald Reagan's tough stand pushed the Soviet Union to decompose, Coffin left Riverside to head the SANE/Freeze movement's push for the United States to disarm.
"And the three men I admire most, The Father, Son and Holy Ghost, They caught the last train for the coast, The day the music died."
Right after graduating in 1971, I rode a bicycle from Boston to the Pacific Coast. Several years later, I came to admire the Trinity: The gospel message took root in my heart not in Yale's elegant chapel via an articulate minister, but in a plain and small California church where the preacher essentially had one sermon that he repeated every week, "You must be born again" -- through Christ's grace, not our own braininess.
"They were singing, bye-bye, Miss American Pie, Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry, Them good old boys was drinkin' whiskey and rye, Singin' this'll be the day that I die."
On April 12, William Sloane Coffin Jr., retired in Vermont, was -- his daughter said -- "out in the sun. Everybody was talking, and then he was gone."
That's what has happened to the social gospel, as well. A few Coffin epigones talk on in attempt to keep that ol' time religion alive, but evangelicals explain that God changes people one by one, and those people then change society.
ps.
George Bush was a Yale classmate and good buddies with Sloan up to the end.
May the souls of those killed by the Communists and Muslims find justice in his eternal disposition.
The Social Gospel has really been dead for decades now. It is no longer an organizing principle within mainstream Christianity. That is because it is another Gospel, not the true Gospel of Christ. Supporters had nothing to hold onto - not a risen Lord or forgiveness of sins or a new life, but only the next piece of Great Society legislation or America-bashing on the world stage.
Good riddance, I say.
That's too bad. Sloane did not preach the Bible if this article is any indication.
Bye, bye, William Sloane Coffin. You will not be missed.
But I did like that song. What a strange and mysterious song it was. What great music!
A long, long time ago I can still remember how that music used to make me smile and I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while but February made me shiver with every paper I delivered, bad news on the door step, I couldn't take one more step, I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride but something touched me deep inside, the day, the music, died. So...
CHORUS
Bye, bye Miss American Pie drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry an them good ol' boys were drinkin whiskey and rye singin this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.
Did you write the book of love and do you have faith in God above, if the bible tells you so, and do you believe in rock n' roll, can music save your mortal soul and can you teach me how to dance real slow? Well I know that you're in love with him cuz I saw you dancin in the gym you both kicked off your shoes and I dig those rhythm and blues. I was a lonely teenage bronkin buck with a pink carnation and a pick up truck but I knew I was out of luck, the day, the music, died. I started singin...
Chorus
Now for ten years we've been on our own and moss grows fat on a rollin stone but that's not how it used to be, when the jester sang for the king and queen in a coat he borrowed from James Dean and a voice that came from you and me, oh and while the king was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown the courtroom was adjourned, no verdict was returned, and while Lenin read a book on Marx, the quartet practiced in the park and we sang dirges in the dark, the day, the music, died. We were singin...
Chorus
Helter Skelter in a summer swelter the birds flew off with a fallout shelter, eight miles high and fallin fast, its the land that falled on the grass the players tried for a forward pass with the jester on the sidelines in a cast, now the half-time air was sweet perfume while the sergeants played a marching tune we all got up to dance oh but we never got the chance oh as the players tried to take the field the marching band refused to yield do you recall what was revealed, the day, the music, died. We started singin...
Chorus
Oh and there we were all in one place, a generation lost in space with no time left to start again, so come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candle stick because fire is the devils only friend, oh and as I watched him on the stage, my hands were clinched in fists of rage, no angel born in hell could break that satan's spell and as the planes climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial right I saw satan laughing with delight, the day, the music, died. He was singin...
Chorus
I met a girl who sang the blues and I asked her for some happy news but she just smiled and turned away, I went down to the sacred store where I'd heard the music years before but the man there said the music wouldn't play and in the streets the children screamed, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed but not a word was spoken, the church bells all were broken and the three men I admire most, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day, the music, died, and they were singin...
Chorus
They were singin... Bye, bye Miss American Pie drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry an them good ol' boys were drinkin whiskey and rye singin this will be the day that I die.
Short biography on Coffin:
http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=969
Pretty much what I said !
"They hobnobbed with the filthy rich and powerful all the while wagging a judgmental finger at the "bourgeois"
WHAT YOU SAID!
41.
Again my point !
Many pardons.
When I said George Bush I forgot to add "Sr."
However Sloan was a family friend to all the Bushes*(both Sr. and Jr) and was received by the family on cordial grounds.
And it bears repeating:
"Hypocrites All and to the Last"
Another one bites the dust. He's now a good Liberal.
Not much of a husband, either.
Coffin was married three times.
I imagine he's turned in his peace symbol for a millstone by now...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.