RIP, William Sloane Coffin

[whometense]

...Coffin, whose peaceful protests, fiery speeches and half-century of writing often melded Christian spirit with social justice to address the perils of militarism and U.S. foreign policy, attained popular immortality as "Reverend Sloan" in Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip.

"He had courage under fire," Yale alumnus and Massachusetts Sen.
John Kerry said in an e-mail to Reuters. "His conviction and character saved lives during the difficult years of Vietnam."

In an introduction to Coffin's 2003 book "Credo," author James Carroll recalled a night in 1972 when he and Coffin and other ministers were jailed for trespassing at the U.S. Capitol while protesting the war in Vietnam.

Carroll wrote that Coffin's baritone voice broke the jailhouse silence, singing Handel's "Messiah" and comforting the frightened ministers...