Posted on 04/13/2006 11:15:13 AM PDT by blitzgig
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.
Mr. Coffin called himself a "Christian revolutionary" and believed that his outspoken activism sprang from the principles of his faith.
His 18-year tenure at Yale encompassed the civil rights struggle and the Vietnam War, each of which he confronted in bold and daring fashion.
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.
While his protests against racial segregation made news, his activities as a vocal and compelling critic of the war in Vietnam made him a celebrity. As early as 1965, he was convinced that the U.S. military presence in Vietnam was illegal and immoral.
"It's true that we're fighting Communists," he said at the time. "But it is more profound to say that we have been intervening in another country's civil war. The war is being waged with unbelievable cruelty and in a fashion so out of character with American instincts of decency that it is seriously undermining them."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I really believe that this liberal man did all he could to banish Christianity from the earth, but he ultimately went the way of all flesh, as it warns us in Scripture.
the Christian Left
His death is at least 40 years too late to do any good.
I'm reminded of what National Review said (paraphrasing) upon learning of the death of Bella Abzug: "she wupported every left-wing, procommunist and anti-American cause she could find. She will not be missed." As true in this instance as it was then. 'Nuff said.
Were there any who were for it?
Well now he's with Ho Chi Minh in Hell.
Mr. Coffin is in his coffin....
There is some sort of limerick floating around in there, I am sure.
I can't wait for this resurrection.
The headline on this article is one for the books....LOL!
I didn't know he was still alive.
Toss him a couple of cough drops. That will stop it.
And I read is as: William Sloane was not just dead, but "coffin dead".
Rubin, Coffin, Hoffman, Spock from the "Chicago 8" are gone.
How does the old joke go? If you cannot say something good about the dead, then don't say anything ..... good he's dead.
Roger Kimball's thoughts on Coffin here:
http://www.newcriterion.com/weblog/2006/04/rancid-radicalism-of-william-sloane.html
as opposed to 'coffin and hackin'....
I wonder if his possible successor will be the Reverend James Wallis of Sojourners?
There will always be theological liberals. I was once myself. But there is also "seeing the light" like I did. I just wish more conservative clergy would be out in the forefront of the vast array of issues out there today to counter the "Drive by Media" as Rush has dubbed them.
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