William Sloane Coffin Quotes

To show compassion for an individual without showing concern for the structures of society that make him an object of compassion is to be sentimental rather than loving.

Patriotism at the expense of another nation is as wicked as racism at the expense of another race. . . Let us resolve to be patriots always, nationalists never. Let us love our country, but pledge allegiance to the earth and to the flora and fauna and human life that it supports - one planet indivisible, with clean air,... soil and water; with liberty, justice and peace for all.

Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world. If your heart's full of hope, you can be persistent when you can't be optimistic. You can keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing. So while I'm not optimistic, I'm always very hopeful.

For Christians, the problem is not how to reconcile homosexuality with scriptural passages that condemn it, but how to reconcile the rejection and punishment of homosexuals with the love of Christ.

People who fear disorder more than injustice will only produce more of both.

For finally, we are as we love. It is love that measures our stature.

Human unity is not something we are called on to create — only something we are called on to recognize.

Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.

All of life is the exercise of risk.

Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.

We must be governed by the force of law, not by the law of force.

I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.

If your heart is full of fear, you won't seek truth; you'll seek security. If a heart is full of love, it will have a limbering effect on the mind.

The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. Only reverance can restrain violence - reverance for human life and the environment.

We are not loved because we are valued; we are valued because we are loved.

It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one.

Charity is only a waystation on the road to justice.

Fear destroys intimacy. It distances us from each other; or makes us cling to each other, which is the death of freedom.... Only love can create intimacy, and freedom too, for when all hearts are one, nothing else has to be one--neither clothes nor age; neither sex nor sexual preference; race nor mind-set.

The woman most in need of liberation is the woman in every man and the man in every woman.

Faith handles the ultimate incongruities of life, humor handles the more immediate ones.

It is often said that the Church is a crutch. Of course it's a crutch. What makes you think you don't limp?

In our time all it takes for evil to flourish is for a few good men to be a little wrong and have a great deal of power, and for the vast majority of their fellow citizens to remain indifferent.

Love is in the giver, not the gift.

The temptation to moralize is strong; it is emotionally satisfying to have enemies rather than problems, to seek out culprits rather than the flaws in the system.

The war against Iraq is as disastrous as it is unnecessary; perhaps in terms of its wisdom, purpose and motives, the worst war in American history... Our military men and women...were not called to defend America but rather to attack Iraq. They were not called to die for, but rather to kill for, their country. What more unpatriotic thing could we have asked of our sons and daughters...?

A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human.

We call on all members of America's religious communities, as a testament of our common faith, to join Faithful Security, and to take action immediately to break faith with nuclear weapons.

There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover's quarrel with their country, a reflection of God's lover's quarrel with all the world.

I asked an 85 year old professor, 'What makes you cry?' He said, 'Whenever I see or hear the truth.'

Only reverence can restrain violence - reverence for human life and the environment.

Christians have to listen to the world as well as to the Word - to science, to history, to what reason and our own experience tell us. We do not honor the higher truth we find in Christ by ignoring truths found elsewhere.

Nuclear Weapons merit unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation

We have sold our birthright of freedom and justice for a mess of national security.

It is terribly important to realize that the leap of faith is not so much a leap of thought as of action. For while in many matters it is first we must see then we will act; in matters of faith it is first we must do then we will know, first we will be and then we will see. One must, in short, dare to act wholeheartedly without absolute certainty.

Truth is always in danger of being sacrificed on the altars of good taste and social stability.

God knows it is emotionally satisfying to be righteous with that righteousness that nourishes itself on the blood of sinners. But God also knows that what is emotionally satisfying can be spiritually devastating.

Human beings who blind themselves to human need make themselves less human.

The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.

Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living.

Christians have no business thinking that the good life consists mainly in not doing bad things. We have no business thinking that to do evil in this world you have to be a Bengal tiger, when, in fact, it is enough to be a tame tabby—a nice person but not a good one. In short, Pentecost makes it clear that nothing is so fatal to Christianity as indifference.

In reality, there are no biblical literalists, only selective literalists. By abolishing slavery and ordaining women, millions of Protestants have gone far beyond biblical literalism. It's time we did the same for homophobia.

We put our best foot forward, but it's the other one that needs the attention.

Christ came to take away our sins, not our minds.

I'm not OK, you're not OK-and that's OK.

To be avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought.

Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are.

It is one thing to say with the prophet Amos, "Let justice roll down like mighty waters," and quite another to work out the irrigation system.

There is nothing anti-intellectual in the leap of faith, for faith is not believing without proof but trusting without reservation.