William Sloane Coffin, Peace Advocate, dies at 81

I’m so bummed. Reading his book, The Heart is a Little to the Left was one of my major “Aha!” moments on my spiritual path.

Here’s the New York Times story.

The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a former Yale University chaplain known for his peace activism during the Vietnam War and his continuing work for social justice, died Wednesday at his home in rural Strafford. He was 81.

Coffin had been suffering from congestive heart failure and had been under the care of a hospice, said his daughter, Amy Coffin.

”He was out in the sun. Everybody was talking and then he was gone,” Amy Coffin said. ”Physically he was pretty debilitated but spiritually he was not.”

I know that he has been in very poor health for several years, and he probably lived longer than many expected he would. Today I’m sad, though, that I never had the opportunity to tell him how much his writings meant to me.

Profile of William Sloane Coffin in the PBS Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly

From Common Dreams in 2003: William Sloane Coffin: Former Yale Chaplain Passionate As Ever

(That’s the one that included this quote: “Any Democrat, except Joe Lieberman, would be a vast improvement over George Bush.”)

Please share your favorite quotes from and memories of Bill Coffin in the comments here.