William Sloane Coffin
Encyclopedia
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (June 1, 1924 – April 12, 2006) was an American liberal
Christian
clergyman and long-time peace activist. He was ordained in the Presbyterian church and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ
.
In his younger days he was an athlete, a talented pianist, a CIA
agent, and later chaplain
of Yale University
, where the influence of Reinhold Niebuhr
's social philosophy led him to become a leader in the civil-rights and peace movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He also was a member of the secret society Skull and Bones
.
He went on to serve as Senior Minister at the Riverside Church
in New York City
, and President of SANE/Freeze (now Peace Action
), the nation's largest peace and justice
group, and prominently opposed United States
military intervention from the Vietnam War
to the Iraq War. He was also an ardent supporter of gay rights.
. His paternal great-grandfather William Sloane was a Scottish
immigrant and co-owner of the very successful W. & J. Sloane
Company. His uncle was Henry Sloane Coffin
, president of Union Theological Seminary
and one of the most famous ministers in the U.S. His father, William Sloane Coffin, Sr. was president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
and an executive in the family business.
His mother, Catherine Butterfield, had grown up in the Midwest, and as a young woman spent time in France
during World War I
providing relief to soldiers, and met her future husband there, where he was also engaged in charitable activities. Their three children grew up fluent in French
by being taught by their nanny
, and attended private schools in New York.
William Sr.'s father, Edmund Coffin, was a prominent lawyer
, real estate developer, and reformer who owned Hearth and Home Corporation (see http://www.gvshp.org/south_villagemacsulgardhd.htm), a property investment and management firm that renovated and rented low-income housing in New York. Upon Edmund's death in 1928, it went to his sons William and Henry, with William managing the firm. When the Great Depression
hit in 1929, William allowed tenants to stay whether or not they could pay the rent, quickly draining his own funds, and at a time when the family's substantial W. & J. Sloane stock was not paying dividends.
William Sloane Coffin, Sr. died at home
in 1933 from a heart attack
he suffered returning from work on his oldest son Edmund's eleventh birthday. After this, his mother Catherine decided to move the family to Carmel, California to make life more affordable, but was only able to do this with financial support from her brother-in-law Henry. After years spent in the most exclusive private schools in Manhattan
, the three Coffin children were educated in Carmel's public schools, where William had his first sense that there was injustice—sometimes very great—in the world.
A talented musician, he became devoted to the piano and planned a career as a concert pianist
. At the urging of his uncle Henry (who was still contributing to the family's finances), his mother enrolled him in Deerfield Academy
in 1938.
The following year (when Edmund left for Yale University
), William moved with his mother to Paris
at the age of 15 to receive personal instruction in the piano
and was taught by some of the best music teachers of the 20th century, including Nadia Boulanger
. The Coffins moved to Geneva, Switzerland when World War II
came to France in 1940, and then back to the United States, where he enrolled in Phillips Academy
in Andover, Massachusetts
.
. While continuing his pursuit of the piano, he was also excited by the prospect of fighting to stop fascism
and became very focused on joining the war effort. He applied to work as a spy
with the Office of Strategic Services
in 1943, but was turned down for not having sufficiently "Gallic features" to be effective. He then left school, enlisted in the Army
, and was quickly tapped for becoming an officer. After training, he was assigned to work as liaison to the French and Russian armies in connection with the Army's military intelligence
unit, and where he heard first-hand stories of life in Stalin
's USSR
.
After the war, Coffin moved to New Haven, Connecticut
where his mother and brother were, and returned to Yale, where he would later become President of the Yale Glee Club
. Coffin had been a friend of George H. W. Bush
since his youth, as they both attended Phillips Academy (1942), and he brought Coffin into the exclusive Skull and Bones
secret society at the university in Coffin's senior year.
Upon graduating in 1949, Coffin entered the Union Theological Seminary, where he remained for a year, until the outbreak of the Korean War
reignited his interest in fighting against communism
. He joined the CIA as a case officer in 1950 (his brother-in-law Frank Lindsay
had been head of the OSS's Office of Policy Coordination which was one of the predecessors of the CIA) spending three years in West Germany
recruiting anti-Soviet Russia
n refugees and training them how to undermine Stalin's regime.
He grew increasingly disillusioned with the role of the CIA and the United States due to events including the CIA's involvement in overthrowing Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran
in 1953, followed by the CIA's orchestration of the coup
that removed President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala
in 1954.
and earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1956, the same year he was ordained a Presbyterian
minister
. This same year he married Eva Rubinstein, the daughter of pianist Arthur Rubinstein
, and became chaplain at Williams College
. Soon, he accepted the position as Chaplain of Yale University, where he remained from 1958 until 1975. Gifted with a rich bass-baritone voice, he was an active member of the Yale Russian Chorus
during the late 1950s and 1960s.
With his CIA background, he was terribly dismayed when he learned in 1964 of the history of French and U.S. involvement in South Vietnam
and how it differed from what the U.S government public position was, especially regarding broken promises to hold a referendum in the south about unification with North Vietnam
. He was in early opposition to the Vietnam War
and became famous for his anti-war activities and his civil rights activism. With Abraham Joshua Heschel
, John C Bennett, and Richard Neuhaus among others, he was one of the founders in the early 1960s of the Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam, organized to resist President Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war. He had a prominent role in the freedom rides, challenging segregation and the oppression of black people. As chaplain at Yale in the early 1960s, Coffin organized busloads of Freedom Riders to challenge segregation laws in the South. Through his efforts, hundreds of students at Yale University
and elsewhere were recruited into civil rights and anti-war activity.
He was jailed many times, but his first conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court. In 1962, he joined SANE: The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy
, an organization he would later lead.
Coffin was approached by Sargent Shriver
in 1961 to run the first training programs for the Peace Corps
. Coffin took up the task and took a temporary leave from Yale, working to develop a rigorous training program modeled on Outward Bound
and supervising the building of a training camp in Puerto Rico
.
Coffin used his pulpits as a platform for like-minded crusaders, hosting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu
and Nelson Mandela
, among others. Fellow Yale graduate Garry Trudeau
has immortalized Coffin (combined with Coffin's protege Rev. Scotty McLennan
) as "the Rev. Scot Sloan" in the Doonesbury
comic strip. During the Vietnam War years, he and his friend Howard Zinn
often spoke from the same anti-war platform. An inspiring speaker, Coffin was known for optimism and humor: "Remember, young people, even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat."
By 1967, Coffin increasingly concentrated on preaching civil disobedience and supported the young men who turned in their draft cards. He was, however, uncomfortable with draft-card burning
, worried that it looked "unnecessarily hostile." Coffin was one af several well-known intellectuals who signed an open letter entitled "A Call to Resist Illegitimate authority", which was printed in several newspapers in October 1967. That same month, he raised the possibility of declaring Battell Chapel at Yale a sanctuary for resisters, or possibly as the site of a large demonstration of civil disobedience. School administration barred the use of the church as a sanctuary. Coffin later wrote, "I accused them of behaving more like 'true Blues than true Christians'. They squirmed but weren't about to change their minds.... I realized I was licked."
And so on January 5, 1968, Coffin, Dr. Benjamin Spock
(the pediatrician and baby book author who was also a Phillips Academy alumnus), Marcus Raskin
, Michael Ferber, and Mitchell Goodman
(all signers of "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority") were indicted by a Federal grand jury
for "conspiracy to counsel, aid and abet draft resistance." All but Raskin were convicted that June, but in 1970 an appeals court overturned the verdict.
Coffin remained chaplain of Yale until December 1975. In 1977, he became senior minister at the Riverside Church
—an interdenominational congregation affiliated with both the United Church of Christ
and American Baptist Churches
, and one of the most prominent congregations in New York City. He was controversial, yet an inspirational leader at Riverside. He openly and vocally supported gay rights when many liberals still were uncomfortable with homosexuality. Some of the congregation's socially conservative members openly disagreed with his position on sexuality.
His progressive Christianity led The Nation
to call him "the true heir to Martin Luther King, Jr." after Martin Luther King's death.
program at Riverside, and hired Cora Weiss (a secular Jew he had worked with during the Vietnam War and had traveled with to North Vietnam in 1972 to accompany three released U.S. prisoners of war
) which was uncomfortable for some parishioners. Broadening his reach to an international audience, he met with numerous world leaders and traveled abroad. His visits included going to Iran
to perform Christmas
services for hostages being held in the U.S. embassy during the Iran hostage crisis
in 1979 and to Nicaragua
to protest U.S. military intervention there.
In 1987, he resigned from Riverside Church to pursue disarmament activism full time, saying then that there was no issue more important for a man of faith. He became president of SANE/FREEZE (now Peace Action
), the largest peace and justice organization in the United States. He retired with the title president emeritus in the early 1990s, and then taught and lectured across the United States and overseas. Coffin also wrote several books. He cautioned that we are all living in "the shadow of Doomsday," and urged that people turn away from isolationism and become more globally aware. Shortly before his death, Coffin founded Faithful Security, a coalition for people of faith committed to working for a world free of nuclear weapons.
. The loss of their son Alexander in a car accident in 1983 inspired one of Coffin's most requested sermons. Coffin's daughter Amy lives in California, and his son David
is a musician in Boston
, Massachusetts
.
Although he was given only six months to live in early 2004 due to a weakened heart, Coffin lived with his wife Randy in the small town of Strafford
, Vermont
, a few houses away from his brother Ned, until his death nearly two years later at age 81.
Liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
clergyman and long-time peace activist. He was ordained in the Presbyterian church and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
.
In his younger days he was an athlete, a talented pianist, a CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
agent, and later chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, where the influence of Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...
's social philosophy led him to become a leader in the civil-rights and peace movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He also was a member of the secret society Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
.
He went on to serve as Senior Minister at the Riverside Church
Riverside Church
The Riverside Church in the City of New York is an interdenominational church in New York City, famous for its elaborate Neo-Gothic architecture—which includes the world's largest tuned carillon bell...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and President of SANE/Freeze (now Peace Action
Peace Action
Peace Action is a peace organization formed through the merger of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign...
), the nation's largest peace and justice
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
group, and prominently opposed United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military intervention from the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
to the Iraq War. He was also an ardent supporter of gay rights.
Childhood
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. was born into the wealthy elite of New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. His paternal great-grandfather William Sloane was a Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
immigrant and co-owner of the very successful W. & J. Sloane
W. & J. Sloane
W. & J. Sloane was a furniture and rug store in New York City that catered to the wealthy.-History:The company was founded as a rug importer and seller on March 2, 1843 by William Sloane who had just emigrated from Kilmarnock, Scotland, a town famous for weaving fine carpets and rugs. In 1852 his...
Company. His uncle was Henry Sloane Coffin
Henry Sloane Coffin
Henry Sloane Coffin was president of the Union Theological Seminary, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA, and one of the most famous ministers in the U.S...
, president of Union Theological Seminary
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...
and one of the most famous ministers in the U.S. His father, William Sloane Coffin, Sr. was president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
and an executive in the family business.
His mother, Catherine Butterfield, had grown up in the Midwest, and as a young woman spent time in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
providing relief to soldiers, and met her future husband there, where he was also engaged in charitable activities. Their three children grew up fluent in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
by being taught by their nanny
Nanny
A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
, and attended private schools in New York.
William Sr.'s father, Edmund Coffin, was a prominent lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, real estate developer, and reformer who owned Hearth and Home Corporation (see http://www.gvshp.org/south_villagemacsulgardhd.htm), a property investment and management firm that renovated and rented low-income housing in New York. Upon Edmund's death in 1928, it went to his sons William and Henry, with William managing the firm. When the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
hit in 1929, William allowed tenants to stay whether or not they could pay the rent, quickly draining his own funds, and at a time when the family's substantial W. & J. Sloane stock was not paying dividends.
Home
A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...
in 1933 from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
he suffered returning from work on his oldest son Edmund's eleventh birthday. After this, his mother Catherine decided to move the family to Carmel, California to make life more affordable, but was only able to do this with financial support from her brother-in-law Henry. After years spent in the most exclusive private schools in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, the three Coffin children were educated in Carmel's public schools, where William had his first sense that there was injustice—sometimes very great—in the world.
A talented musician, he became devoted to the piano and planned a career as a concert pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. At the urging of his uncle Henry (who was still contributing to the family's finances), his mother enrolled him in Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....
in 1938.
The following year (when Edmund left for Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
), William moved with his mother to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the age of 15 to receive personal instruction in the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and was taught by some of the best music teachers of the 20th century, including Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
. The Coffins moved to Geneva, Switzerland when World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
came to France in 1940, and then back to the United States, where he enrolled in Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
in Andover, Massachusetts
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
.
Early adulthood
When he graduated from high school in 1942, he enrolled in Yale University's School of MusicYale School of Music
The Yale School of Music is one of the twelve professional schools at Yale University and one of the premier music conservatories in the world....
. While continuing his pursuit of the piano, he was also excited by the prospect of fighting to stop fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and became very focused on joining the war effort. He applied to work as a spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
with the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
in 1943, but was turned down for not having sufficiently "Gallic features" to be effective. He then left school, enlisted in the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, and was quickly tapped for becoming an officer. After training, he was assigned to work as liaison to the French and Russian armies in connection with the Army's military intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
unit, and where he heard first-hand stories of life in Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
After the war, Coffin moved to New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
where his mother and brother were, and returned to Yale, where he would later become President of the Yale Glee Club
Yale Glee Club
The Yale Glee Club is a mixed chorus of men and women, consisting of students of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the Harvard Glee Club, founded in 1858, and the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club,...
. Coffin had been a friend of George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
since his youth, as they both attended Phillips Academy (1942), and he brought Coffin into the exclusive Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
secret society at the university in Coffin's senior year.
Upon graduating in 1949, Coffin entered the Union Theological Seminary, where he remained for a year, until the outbreak of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
reignited his interest in fighting against communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. He joined the CIA as a case officer in 1950 (his brother-in-law Frank Lindsay
Frank Lindsay
Franklin A. Lindsay is a former spy and business executive. Lindsay graduated from Stanford University in 1938 and ended up working for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. During the war he parachuted to the Slovene Partisans in 1944 and worked with them to blow up the rail lines...
had been head of the OSS's Office of Policy Coordination which was one of the predecessors of the CIA) spending three years in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
recruiting anti-Soviet Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n refugees and training them how to undermine Stalin's regime.
He grew increasingly disillusioned with the role of the CIA and the United States due to events including the CIA's involvement in overthrowing Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
in 1953, followed by the CIA's orchestration of the coup
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
that removed President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
in 1954.
The ministry and political activism
After leaving the CIA, he enrolled at Yale Divinity SchoolYale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
and earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1956, the same year he was ordained a Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
minister
Minister of religion
In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community...
. This same year he married Eva Rubinstein, the daughter of pianist Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
, and became chaplain at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
. Soon, he accepted the position as Chaplain of Yale University, where he remained from 1958 until 1975. Gifted with a rich bass-baritone voice, he was an active member of the Yale Russian Chorus
Yale Russian Chorus
The Yale Russian Chorus is a tenor-bass choral ensemble at Yale University, established in 1953 by Denis Mickiewicz, a student at the Yale Music School, and George Litton, president of the Yale Russian Club. The group sings a variety of secular and sacred Slavic choral pieces, from the 12th century...
during the late 1950s and 1960s.
With his CIA background, he was terribly dismayed when he learned in 1964 of the history of French and U.S. involvement in South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
and how it differed from what the U.S government public position was, especially regarding broken promises to hold a referendum in the south about unification with North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
. He was in early opposition to the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and became famous for his anti-war activities and his civil rights activism. With Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.-Biography:...
, John C Bennett, and Richard Neuhaus among others, he was one of the founders in the early 1960s of the Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam, organized to resist President Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war. He had a prominent role in the freedom rides, challenging segregation and the oppression of black people. As chaplain at Yale in the early 1960s, Coffin organized busloads of Freedom Riders to challenge segregation laws in the South. Through his efforts, hundreds of students at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and elsewhere were recruited into civil rights and anti-war activity.
He was jailed many times, but his first conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court. In 1962, he joined SANE: The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy
Peace Action
Peace Action is a peace organization formed through the merger of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign...
, an organization he would later lead.
Coffin was approached by Sargent Shriver
Sargent Shriver
Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., known as Sargent Shriver, R. Sargent Shriver, or, from childhood, Sarge, was an American statesman and activist. As the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, he was part of the Kennedy family, serving in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations...
in 1961 to run the first training programs for the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
. Coffin took up the task and took a temporary leave from Yale, working to develop a rigorous training program modeled on Outward Bound
Outward Bound
Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...
and supervising the building of a training camp in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
.
Coffin used his pulpits as a platform for like-minded crusaders, hosting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
and Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
, among others. Fellow Yale graduate Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
has immortalized Coffin (combined with Coffin's protege Rev. Scotty McLennan
Scotty McLennan
The Reverend William L. McLennan, Jr. — better known as "Scotty McLennan" — was born on November 21, 1948, son of William L. McLennan and Alice Polk Warner. He is an ordained minister, lawyer, professor, published author, public speaker and senior administrator at Stanford University...
) as "the Rev. Scot Sloan" in the Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
comic strip. During the Vietnam War years, he and his friend Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
often spoke from the same anti-war platform. An inspiring speaker, Coffin was known for optimism and humor: "Remember, young people, even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat."
By 1967, Coffin increasingly concentrated on preaching civil disobedience and supported the young men who turned in their draft cards. He was, however, uncomfortable with draft-card burning
Draft-card burning
Draft-card burning was a symbol of protest performed by thousands of young American men as part of the opposition to the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. Beginning in May 1964, some activists burned their draft cards at anti-war rallies and demonstrations. By May 1965 it was...
, worried that it looked "unnecessarily hostile." Coffin was one af several well-known intellectuals who signed an open letter entitled "A Call to Resist Illegitimate authority", which was printed in several newspapers in October 1967. That same month, he raised the possibility of declaring Battell Chapel at Yale a sanctuary for resisters, or possibly as the site of a large demonstration of civil disobedience. School administration barred the use of the church as a sanctuary. Coffin later wrote, "I accused them of behaving more like 'true Blues than true Christians'. They squirmed but weren't about to change their minds.... I realized I was licked."
And so on January 5, 1968, Coffin, Dr. Benjamin Spock
Benjamin Spock
Benjamin McLane Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its message to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do."Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand...
(the pediatrician and baby book author who was also a Phillips Academy alumnus), Marcus Raskin
Marcus Raskin
Marcus Raskin is a prominent American social critic, political activist, author, and philosopher, working for progressive social change in the United States....
, Michael Ferber, and Mitchell Goodman
Mitchell Goodman
Mitchell Goodman was an author who organized the protest that helped bring The Dr. Spock Trial into court. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War....
(all signers of "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority") were indicted by a Federal grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
for "conspiracy to counsel, aid and abet draft resistance." All but Raskin were convicted that June, but in 1970 an appeals court overturned the verdict.
Coffin remained chaplain of Yale until December 1975. In 1977, he became senior minister at the Riverside Church
Riverside Church
The Riverside Church in the City of New York is an interdenominational church in New York City, famous for its elaborate Neo-Gothic architecture—which includes the world's largest tuned carillon bell...
—an interdenominational congregation affiliated with both the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
and American Baptist Churches
American Baptist Churches USA
The American Baptist Churches USA is a Baptist Christian denomination within the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The organization is usually considered mainline, although varying theological and mission emphases may be found among its...
, and one of the most prominent congregations in New York City. He was controversial, yet an inspirational leader at Riverside. He openly and vocally supported gay rights when many liberals still were uncomfortable with homosexuality. Some of the congregation's socially conservative members openly disagreed with his position on sexuality.
His progressive Christianity led The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
to call him "the true heir to Martin Luther King, Jr." after Martin Luther King's death.
Nuclear disarmament
Coffin started a strong nuclear disarmamentNuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
program at Riverside, and hired Cora Weiss (a secular Jew he had worked with during the Vietnam War and had traveled with to North Vietnam in 1972 to accompany three released U.S. prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
) which was uncomfortable for some parishioners. Broadening his reach to an international audience, he met with numerous world leaders and traveled abroad. His visits included going to Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
to perform Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
services for hostages being held in the U.S. embassy during the Iran hostage crisis
Iran hostage crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...
in 1979 and to Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
to protest U.S. military intervention there.
In 1987, he resigned from Riverside Church to pursue disarmament activism full time, saying then that there was no issue more important for a man of faith. He became president of SANE/FREEZE (now Peace Action
Peace Action
Peace Action is a peace organization formed through the merger of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign...
), the largest peace and justice organization in the United States. He retired with the title president emeritus in the early 1990s, and then taught and lectured across the United States and overseas. Coffin also wrote several books. He cautioned that we are all living in "the shadow of Doomsday," and urged that people turn away from isolationism and become more globally aware. Shortly before his death, Coffin founded Faithful Security, a coalition for people of faith committed to working for a world free of nuclear weapons.
Personal life
Coffin was married three times. His first two marriages, to Eva Rubinstein and Harriet Gibney, ended in divorce. He was survived by his third wife Virginia Randolph Wilson (called "Randy"). Eva Rubinstein, his first wife and mother of his children, was daughter of pianist Arthur RubinsteinArthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
. The loss of their son Alexander in a car accident in 1983 inspired one of Coffin's most requested sermons. Coffin's daughter Amy lives in California, and his son David
David Coffin
David Coffin is a folk musician specializing in early music and sea music, based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He is the song leader for the Cambridge Revels music programs and is the director of an organization that conducts musical tours of Boston Harbor...
is a musician in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Although he was given only six months to live in early 2004 due to a weakened heart, Coffin lived with his wife Randy in the small town of Strafford
Strafford, Vermont
Strafford is a town in Orange County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,045 at the 2000 census. The town of Strafford was created on August 12, 1761 by way of a royal charter which King George III of England issued to Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, a few houses away from his brother Ned, until his death nearly two years later at age 81.
Sources
- Once to Every Man: A Memoir (1977)
- William Sloane Coffin, Jr.: A Holy Impatience (2004)
By Coffin
- Letters to a Young Doubter, Westminster John Knox Press, July 2005, ISBN 0-664-22929-8 (review and article from CommonDreams.org)
- Credo, Westminster John Knox Press, December 2003, ISBN 0-664-22707-4
- The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality, Dartmouth College, 1st edition, October 1999, ISBN 0-87451-958-6
- The Courage to Love, sermons, Harper & Row, c1982, ISBN 0-06-061508-7
- Once to Every Man: A Memoir, autobiography, Athenaeum Press, 1977, ISBN 0-689-10811-7
About Coffin
- William Sloane Coffin, Jr.: A Holy Impatience, by Warren Goldstein, Yale University Press, March 2004, ISBN 0-300-10221-6
- The Trial of Dr. Spock, William Sloane Coffin, Michael Ferber, Mitchell Goodman, and Marcus Raskin, by Jessica MitfordJessica MitfordJessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford was an English author, journalist and political campaigner, who was one of the Mitford sisters...
, New York, Knopf, 1969 ISBN 0-394-44952-5
External links
- A Politically Engaged Spirituality Video and transcript of Coffin's April 2005 speech at Yale Divinity School
- Interview with William Sloane Coffin from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, August 2004
- William Sloane Coffin: A Lover's Quarrel With America Video interview from Old Dog Documentaries
- William Sloane Coffin - Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword Sermon and interview.
- Profile of Coffin from Yale Alumni Magazine, March 2004
- Personal papers archive at Yale University
- Selected writings (PDF format)
- Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze, the merger of SANESaneSane is an English word meaning "of sound mind"; see Sanity.Sane or SANE may also refer to:* Sane Ancient Greek city* An archaeological site and a modern name of Sani, Greece*Sane, Mali...
and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign) - Faithful Security
Memorials
- Obituary from the New York Times
- Obituary from the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
- Obituary from the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
- Remembrance from the United Church of ChristUnited Church of ChristThe United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
(article and video) - Remembrance from The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
- Remembrance by William F. Buckley Jr. in the Yale Daily NewsYale Daily NewsThe Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...
- The Legacy of William Sloane Coffin by Rev. Scotty McLennanScotty McLennanThe Reverend William L. McLennan, Jr. — better known as "Scotty McLennan" — was born on November 21, 1948, son of William L. McLennan and Alice Polk Warner. He is an ordained minister, lawyer, professor, published author, public speaker and senior administrator at Stanford University...
- Tribute of Yale Class of 1968 to its "Permanent Chaplain "
- Obituary on Commondreams.org
- Photo gallery of Coffin from the Washington Post