Credo, by William Sloane Coffin

(Westminster-John Knox Press, $14.95 hard cover)

[3-11-04]

William Sloane Coffin was perhaps the leading "public preacher" of his generation. A classmate of the first George Bush at Yale, Coffin had far more varied experience, and far more varied influence than the first George Bush -- pianist and singer, liaison with the French and Russian military during WWII, CIA agent, chaplain at Williams College for one contentious year, chaplain at Yale University for many more (in the process of which he entirely altered the image of the college chaplain), participant in the Freedom Rides and confidant of "Martin" (MLK Jr.), opponent of the Vietnam War and founder of Clergy and Laity Concerned, pastor of Riverside Church, president of Sane/Freeze, agitator even during his "retirement" in Vermont. His combination of faith, learning, and activism is very Presbyterian.

There are several books by and about Coffin. This one is different, consisting of "wit and wisdom" excerpts collected by Stephanie Egnotovich by poring through his many sermons and speeches. It should not be a surprise that "blurbs" on the dust jacket have been written by Bill Moyers, Garry Trudeau, Ellen Goodman, and Marian Wright Edelman. Barbara Wheeler reports that at Union Seminary there was a book party recently, with Meryl Streep and Daniel Day Lewis joining the usual theologues, and Bill Coffin was "in great form, despite his very serious health problems."

Coffin has a distinct preaching style, always to the point, driven by an irrepressible energy and sense of adventure. The content is never hateful or selfish, always generous and self-giving. The attitude penetrating his discourse is not that "the world owes me a living" but that "I owe the world and God a life" (12).

He loves to turn a thought inside out: "what distortion of the gospel it is to have limited sympathies and unlimited certainties, when the very reverse -- to have limited certainties and unlimited sympathies -- is not only more tolerant but far more Christian" (144). "God is always beckoning us toward horizons we aren't sure we want to reach" (146); and "faith in Jesus Christ, far from diminishing the risks, inspires the courage to take them on -- all of them, including the risk of intellectual uncertainty" (144). He relishes the recklessness of faith: "First you leap, and then you grow wings" (7). And it is not done without counting the costs. It's one thing, Coffin says, to scorn pleasure like a sourpuss; it's another "gently to lay aside a pleasure, recognizing that a lot of things have gently to be laid aside in this world if we are to seek the pearl of great price" (124).

This spirit of venture and self-dedication has found expression, of course, not only in Coffin's preaching but in his life, and he urges others to do the same. "It's so much easier to beat your breast than to stick your neck out" (18). "Hope resists, hopelessness adapts" (19). And there are direct political implications, of course: "you cannot set the captive free if you are not willing to confront those who hold the keys" (43). "Love your enemies" does not mean "Don't make any" (67, 152).

Coffin has much to say about the present evil age in the U.S. When the U.S. tries to "lead the world" but refuses to "join it" (84); when the real "axis of evil" is "environmental degradation, pandemic poverty, and a world awash with weapons" (111); when conservatives "appeal to the political center by attacking the moral center" (36); when economic interests "make even governments more accountable to the market than to their own citizens" (68); when the common good is identified with "the good of those in power" (73); when "enrich thyself" is the prevailing ethos -- then "common integrity is made to look like courage." He goes on, "In the words of a le Carré character, 'You have to think like a hero to behave like a decent human being'" (60)

And yet his is a politics of hope. If "politics is the art of the possible," it is also "the art of making possible tomorrow what seems impossible today" (70). This is not a naive hope. Like Reinhold Niebuhr at the beginning of The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, he says, "Democracy is not based on the proven goodness of the people but on the proven evil of dictators" (103). And yet the best answer to this problem, he says, is increased participation by all the people. He reminds us that twenty of the twenty-six amendments to the Constitution mandate "an extension of democracy" (44). If it is true that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," another overlooked form of corruption is "failure to assume responsibility for power," "the indifference and negligence of the many" (52).

He finds Christological grounding for this hopefulness: ". . . if Jesus never allowed his soul to be cornered into despair, and if it was to those furthest from the seats of power that he said, 'You are the salt of the earth, . . you are the light of the world'-- who then are we to quit 'fighting the good fight of faith'?" (114)

He interprets Jesus' saying about children in a new way: "It's children who want to save the seals, the whales, and all the rest of us to boot. It's kids who sell cookies for causes, bake bread for brotherhood, save pennies to fight pollution. . . . But . . . we encourage them to outgrow it, as though generosity were a pair of short pants. Do you think Jesus would bless that view of growing up?" (127)

Internal Christian debates enter the picture, too. "The problem is not how to reconcile homosexuality with scriptural passages that condemn it, but rather how to reconcile the rejection and punishment of homosexuality with the love of Christ" (39), for "everything biblical is not Christ-like" (159).

There are words that speak to our concerns about the unity of the church: ". . . in joining a church you leave home and home town to join a larger world. . . . By joining a church you declare your individuality in the most radical way in order to affirm community on the widest possible scale" (142-43). "Church is where all hearts are one so that nothing else has to be one" (149).

Great coverage on Coffin. I wonder if you have seen the new biography on Coffin. It is warts and all, faith and struggle, and an inspiring background to face his impending departure to the better land he knows. As someone who was active in his parish for ten years I can attest to its honesty and inspiration. It is no right wing hatchet job, but paints a real life in the struggle for faith and justice seeking maturity in private life and family that we all face, though for most of us it is seldom public.

William Sloane Coffin Jr.: A Holy Impatience by Warren Goldstein
Yale U 2004 ISBN 0-300-10221-6

PEACE!

'Nothing to complain about'

Social-justice firebrand Coffin is anticipating a gentle, quiet death

Alexa Smith of Presbyterian News Service writes a moving account of a visit with Bill Coffin, as he nears the end of a full and active life in the struggle for peace and justice.

also