TMCnet News
EDITORIAL: William Sloane Coffin, activist(Hartford Courant, The (CT) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 14--The death of the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, an outspoken clergyman often referred to as the conscience of a generation, silences an eloquent voice for idealism. Mr. Coffin died at 81 in Vermont after devoting his life and ministry to the pursuit of social justice. A Presbyterian minister, he used his gifts of oratory and persuasion to effect political change. He became a nationally known figure while chaplain at Yale University in the heyday of the civil rights movement and during the Vietnam War. He continued to speak out against policies he did not agree with, from the Iraq war to corporate greed, until his death. To say that Mr. Coffin led an interesting and influential life is an understatement. He marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. on behalf of racial equality. He was arrested several times for acts of civil disobedience. He viewed these incidents as setting a moral example. He also spoke out against nuclear testing, poverty and world hunger. Most famously, he was a lightning rod for anti-war protesters during the Vietnam era. While chaplain at Yale, he collected draft cards from students resisting enlistment in the armed services. He turned the cards over to the U.S. Justice Department as a challenge to U.S. military policy. Given his position at Yale, that was an act of political courage of the sort he never flinched from. He was tried, along with pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock, for encouraging draft evasion but his conviction was overturned. He was immortalized as a character in "Doonesbury" by cartoonist and Yale alumnus Garry Trudeau. Mr. Coffin did not consider himself a peacenik. He served in the Korean conflict as a paratrooper and later with the Central Intelligence Agency engaged in anti-Soviet activities. He understood the need for international intervention to stop genocide in Bosnia. Still, he used the pulpit to campaign for causes he believed were the responsibility of man, not God, to rectify. "It's clear to me ... that almost every square inch of the Earth's surface is soaked with the tears and blood of the innocent, and it's not God's doing. It's our doing. That's human malpractice." And so, he concluded, humans have to take responsibility. Amen. |