Remembering Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (June 1, 1924 - April 12, 2006)

Rarely do we encounter people who were at the nexus of so many powerful movements as was William Sloane Coffin, but that is no doubt the result of his living life fully and in the service of the greater good. Sadly, William Sloane Coffin died yesterday, April 12, at the age of 81. He was a powerful preacher and a leading voice for progressive religious people, and he will be missed.

A veteran of the military and the CIA, he attended divinity school and later became the chaplain at Yale University. As a leader in the civil rights and peace movements of the 1960s and 1970s, he was perhaps best known for his opposition to the Vietnam War and encouraging his students to resist the draft. Dr. Coffin went on to become the senior minister of the Riverside Church in New York City and later served as president of SANE/Freeze (now Peace Action), the nation's largest peace and justice group.

In a 2004 interview with “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly,” he reflected on his life saying, "Joy in this world comes from self-fulfillment. Joy is a more profound experience than mere happiness. When you feel a sense of undeserved integrity because you think you're in the right fight — against segregation, against the war in Vietnam, against the stupid and cruel discrimination against gays and lesbians — these are the right fights, I feel very deeply. And the sense of self-fulfillment which comes from being in the right fight is a wonderful thing."

May he experience an eternity of great joy and may we all know the joy he described by carrying on his righteous work.