NEW HAVEN — In the autumn of his years, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin spends many afternoons admiring Vermont’s flaming fall foliage from his back porch, but he still ventures out to seek "potential converts" for his cause of peace and justice.

These days, he notes, that cause seems as important as when he was being arrested for leading opposition to the war in Vietnam.

Any Democrat, except Joe Lieberman, would be a vast improvement over George Bush.

Rev. William Sloane Coffin

Coffin, the former Yale University chaplain (1958-75) who inspired students during anti-war protests in the 1960s, came back to New Haven this past week to rejoin his former colleagues in the civil rights and peace movements.

The large ballroom at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale was filled with what Coffin calls, "ordinary people called to do extraordinary things."

Coffin presented the Yale Divinity School’s first William Sloane Coffin Peace and Justice Award to another longtime peace activist, Cora Weiss. But this was a night to pay tribute to Coffin, too.

In an interview, the Rev. Frederick Streets, current Yale chaplain, said Coffin is "a consistent voice of moral conscience for the nation. He has the prophet’s courage, spirit and vision and a pastor’s heart."

Coffin is 79 and cheerfully admits his health is failing. He has had a stroke and heart problems. He walks with a cane and sometimes needs help getting around.

But he laughs often in conversation and his voice remains firm and impassioned as he speaks out against America’s war in Iraq.

During an interview at the Omni before the awards banquet, Coffin said he had just seen a car with a bumper sticker reading, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

"We’re trying ignorance now and it’s proving mighty expensive," he said in reference to the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.

"It’s a terrible thing," he added, "to have squandered so much good will that was ours after 9/11. We have lost the admiration of the world."

In the weeks after the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Coffin said, President Bush "behaved very well. He called for tolerance and order. But then he went off in unilateral ways."

Coffin said many Americans like Bush "because he’s direct and decisive. But more important than being decisive is to make the right decisions. It’s better to be thoughtful. I think deep down he’s shallow."

Coffin declared that America’s war in Iraq went against international law and should not have been undertaken without U.N. support.

"I’m glad Saddam Hussein is somewhere else," Coffin acknowledged. "But we didn’t go to war to ‘liberate’ the Iraqis or because of weapons of mass destruction. We wanted to have our hands on the oil spigots."

Now, Coffin said, "We have to support our troops without supporting their original mission."

He said the Bush administration has to figure out a way to turn Iraq back over to the Iraqis and concentrate on fighting al-Qaida terrorists.

"It was predictable the war in Iraq would be an enormous recruiting opportunity for al-Qaida," he said.

"Now they’re piling into Iraq and making life miserable for everybody."

Coffin said terrorism is caused by political repression and economic exploitation. "We cannot prevail in the war against terrorism without economic justice."

He also criticized today’s college students, churches and U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn. (whom Coffin knew when Lieberman was a Yale undergraduate) for not doing more to oppose the war.

"Churches lack the vision and vitality for big subjects," Coffin said. "Too many of them are mesmerized by little subjects. They are monuments to irrelevance."

Unlike the students he worked with in the ’60s, Coffin said, "Today’s students are very discouraging.

Their level of consciousness is pretty good but their level of dedication is terrible." He attributed this to "the prevailing ethos in this country: ‘enrich thyself.’ "

He said his favorite Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination is another Vermonter, the state’s former governor, Howard Dean.

"But any Democrat, except Joe Lieberman, would be a vast improvement over George Bush," Coffin added.

Coffin described himself as "an incurable American patriot." He said there are two kinds of bad patriots: "uncritical lovers" of their country and "loveless critics."

He considers himself one of the good patriots, the kind who "carry on a lover’s quarrel" with their country.

In the interview and in his remarks to the crowd, Coffin said, "There are two major biblical imperatives: pursue justice and seek peace."

He also quoted the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, in an admonition Coffin said applies to members of the Bush administration: "You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor."

For those praising his achievements, Coffin answers: "It’s not a question of virtue. It’s a question of not wanting to live a boring life."

"To be with people like (the Rev. Martin Luther) King and ordinary African-Americans doing extraordinary things — that’s the most moving thing in the world."

©New Haven Register 2003

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