The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Protestant Social Activist, Dies at 81
The RNS obituary of William Sloane Coffin, by Jason White and Adelle M. Banks (linked above), makes for interestng reading. Coffin was, among other things, a paratrooper in WWII, translator for Patton, CIA agent, activist minister and model for a Doonesbury character.
Quote:
In 2004, Coffin, slowed by a stroke, did not seem bothered by death.
“We should cooperate gracefully with the inevitable,” he told a reporter. “If you don’t come to grips with death early on, but know you’ll die, it will make you insecure.
“And that’s the worst thing that humans can do, try to secure themselves against insecurity. With money. Or power. Pretending that life will go on forever. And it makes others pay a gruesome price.”
