Dosare ultrasecrete

Si un om al lui a murit pentru a trece linga El in Lumea Celor Vesnice:

'William Sloane Coffin dies at 81," The New York Times headline read last week. A subhead defined him as ''A preacher on behalf of the poor to the most prominent."

The Globe headline read, ''CIA agent became beacon of antiwar movement."


What made Bill Coffin famous was his rhetorical flair.:

"It is not enough to pray for peace. Work for justice!"

''War is a coward's escape from the problems of peace."

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

Bill Coffin defined himself by Jesus. And what did Bill love about Jesus, if not the paradox? The contradictions that added up to hope. Jesus, the peasant nobody who is Lord of the universe. Jesus, the victim who is victorious. Jesus, who can say, ''My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?" while also saying, ''Into Your hands." With that habitual rhetorical flair of his, Bill said, ''I don't know what is waiting for me after death, but I do know Who." I first met Bill Coffin 40 years ago, when I was a seminarian. He gave me a new idea of what the ministry could be. In large part because of him, I became a college chaplain -- and then, however timidly, a war resister. Once, I found myself in a jail cell next to his after a demonstration. Through a long and -- to me -- terrible night, Bill led the cellblock in choruses from Handel's ''Messiah." Even now, when I hear its sweetest refrain -- ''Comfort ye!" -- I hear his resonant voice. I am consoled and emboldened by both.

Through the decades, Bill faithfully maintained his commitments. He was a firm critic of the unnecessary war in Iraq, and he never stopped decrying America's unbroken bondage to nuclear weapons. But with his unfailing generosity of spirit, he never stopped embodying the hope that oppositions, even of the kind that still divide his beloved America, can b
e overcome.