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From SojoNet

Remembering William Sloane Coffin
by Jim Wallis
Bill Coffin has died. Rev. William Sloane Coffin was likely the most influential liberal Protestant clergyman and leader of his generation. One of the first white men to go South and be arrested in the civil rights movement, one of the first church leaders to dissent from the Vietnam War, one of the first moral voices against the nuclear arms race, Bill was a prophetic voice of Christian conscience to both church and state for many decades.

Bill died at his final home in Vermont of congestive heart failure but, as many have testified, his heart never failed a generation committed to putting their faith into action. While apparently unafraid of death, Bill Coffin (unsurprisingly) defied it to the very end. Seemingly on the edge of death for month after month, Bill kept publishing new books, giving new speeches, founding new organizations, hosting a legion of pilgrims saying their last goodbyes and being ministered to once again by the prophet-pastor, and somehow finding the time to keep encouraging countless friends in the struggle for social justice and peace – including regular phone calls to our home to cheer me on during the God’s Politics book tour. He would see a television interview and call just to offer his encouraging and wise words. Sometimes he would speak to Joy while I was on the road, and send me his good advice, “Tell Jim to let his success go to his heart but not to his head.”

I remember a special dinner for Bill, hosted by his friends, Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, and Rev. John Chane, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington. It was billed as Bill Coffin’s likely last visit to Washington, D.C., (it was) and a host of interesting people turned up. Dan Rather, then-CBS anchor, testified to the consistent moral voice that Bill Coffin offered to journalists such as him. Joe Hough, the president of Union Seminary, named him a genuine prophet for our time. Marian spoke of how impressed a young generation of civil rights activists was with the active support of a northern white clergyman.

And in an extraordinary story, Bill Moyers described an interview he once did with the Religion News Service while still press secretary in Lyndon Johnson’s White House. After stepping into the makeshift phone booth used for phone interviews, the religion reporter kept challenging the administration’s arguments for the Vietnam War, and kept citing anti-war points made by a young chaplain at Yale – Rev. William Sloane Coffin. No matter what Moyers’ rebuttals, the reporter kept coming back with Coffin’s clear theological and political objections to the war. After the interview, a frustrated Moyers instructed an aide to “find out who this guy Coffin is” and to get his arguments against the war. He got them; Moyers read them carefully, and the encounter with Coffin’s prophetic critique was the beginning of Moyers own change of heart on Vietnam and, eventually, many other things. I don’t know if Bill had ever heard that story quite before, but the influence on Moyers was stunning to all of us in the room.

I had the job of helping Bill get up to the podium for his remarks in response to all the tributes he had received (strokes had diminished his mobility and slurred his words but had not dulled the sharpness of his mind or cooled the warmth of his heart.) In introducing Bill to speak to all of us, I described how this young evangelical with a growing social conscience had failed to find many in his own contemporary faith tradition to learn from, but had discovered this liberal chaplain at Yale and senior minister at The Riverside Church who was more faithful to the gospel at the point of its social and political implications. I gave Bill a big smile and tearfully testified that, “On the biblical matters of justice and peace, Bill Coffin was one of the most evangelical Christians of our time.”

Today is Bill Coffin’s memorial service at The Riverside Church in New York City. Many will testify to his prophetic courage, his indomitable spirit, his great humor, and his pastoral care. And many, such as me, will just be grateful to have been one of his many friends. Now Bill goes to God.

“The one true freedom in life is to come to terms with death, and as early as possible, for death is an event that embraces all our lives. And the only way to have a good death is to lead a good life…. The more we do God’s will, the less unfinished business we leave behind when we die.” – William Sloane Coffin, June 1, 1924 to April 12, 2006

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There is much ado being made about The Gospel of Judas , and rightly so I suppose. One can read excerpts from this gospel at the National Geographic website and I’ve just begun to do that. An Interview with the author Marvin Meyer on NPR’s Talk of the Nation today was well done, in my opinion. Since I have yet to read the gospel itself, I can’t comment on it with any integrity. However, I’d like to share some of my first impressions.

I was raised in a Bible church. Although the current form of Bible churches are not a place I am readily comfortable, I have to say I am very thankful to have been raised in one. First of all because it was through the Bible church of my infancy that I came to knowing Jesus Christ within my own being. Secondly, because I learned to read, love and respect the Bible as an instrument through which God speaks – not only to church leaders but to any person who reads it.

It was in that very same Bible church that I heard that Judas had submitted to God’s will in playing the role of betrayer. Our very faith depended on someone playing that role and being forever reviled. The logic is inescapable. This has also been the understanding of Christian mystics of whom Gnostics were only one type.

The Canon of 66 sets of writings that we call the Bible were chosen as the only scriptures to be read as part of public worship. This was long before the printing press and long before anyone imagined the scriptures being available to anyone and everyone to read. The sorts of teachings in the so-called “Gnostic Gospels” ( a term currently being used to describe any writings outside of the canon rather than the technical term of gnosticism) were teachings for persons of devotion and practicioners of rigorous spritual disciplines. The spiritual truths (as opposed to historical facts) contained are not for the masses.

To give an analogy: I try to walk several miles a day whenever possible. Sometimes I can walk a few blocks and sometimes I can walk three miles. However, I cannot run a marathon. If that were my goal, I would have to truly discipline myself with rigorous physical practice over a long period of time. I may or may not reach that goal. I wouldn’t expect to just walk out the door and run a marathon.

In the same way, spiritual truth requires daily spiritual discipline in order to be “seen.” This sort of truth is beyond words or logical argument. It doesn’t even have much to do with theology. It is only secret in the sense that the experience of running a marathon is a secret experience. This sort of discipline is required not because God wants to make it hard for us to know God, but rather because our fragile egos can’t handle knowing God unless we “abide” in Christ:

“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” John 15:4

There are a variety of spiritual pracrtices and exercises designed to melt away the layers of delusion (sin) by abiding in Christ. When you do this, nothing will shake your faith because you will know

“the true light, which enlightens everyone, (has come) into the world.” John 1:9

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I’ve been quite negligent about writing in this space or any other for the past month. We’ve been in the process of moving – my 29th life-time move and I hope my last. We’ll be octogenarians by the time we are truly homeowners rather than mortgage-payers, but what a joy! We live on a mountain-side (large hills or old mountains depending on one’s perspective) with a babbling brook 50 feet below. During a walk in the forest and along the creek, we found fossils of sea shells here in the middle of farm land far from the sea. At night we can see bright and infinite stars in this endless universe. In this middle-age of life, it seems as if I have returned to earth and found it’s beauty. This ancient earth reminds me that this time we call life is just a mere flicker of flame. May your flicker of life be brilliant:

“for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” Romans 8:19

“Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” Psalm 150:6

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I keep finding business cards that I’ve collected over the years – a few stuffed in a rarely used drawer. a few more tucked in this book or that. This one had a saying on the back: “Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better yesterday.” I thought it was profound when I heard it and it is even more profound now. Fascinating to me that it was written on a business card of someone whom I needed to forgive. Sometimes it is easy to forgive and other times, it takes sacrifice and effort. In fact, I think forgiveness is so central to practicing the Way of Christ that I’m dedicating a permanent page to it. See the link in the upper right hand corner of this site.

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