William Sloane Coffin Quotes
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I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.
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Truth is always in danger of being sacrificed on the altars of good taste and social stability.
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We put our best foot forward, but it's the other one that needs the attention.
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It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one.
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I'm not OK, you're not OK-and that's OK.
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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.
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Compassion and justice are companions, not choices.
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There is nothing anti-intellectual in the leap of faith, for faith is not believing without proof but trusting without reservation.
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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...?
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Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.
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Faith handles the ultimate incongruities of life, humor handles the more immediate ones.
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Jesus is both a mirror to our humanity and a window to divinity, a window revealing as much of God as is given mortal eyes to see. When Christians see Christ empowering the weak, scorning the powerful, healing the wounded, and judging their tormentors, we are seeing transparently the power of God at work.
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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.
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It's too bad that one has to conceive of sports as being the only arena where risks are, [for] all of life is risk exercise. That's the only way to live more freely, and more interestingly.
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Christ came to take away our sins, not our minds.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We must be governed by the force of law, not by the law of force.
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I asked an 85 year old professor, 'What makes you cry?' He said, 'Whenever I see or hear the truth.'
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We have sold our birthright of freedom and justice for a mess of national security.
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When a man is drowning, it may be better for him to try to swim than to thrash around waiting for divine intervention.
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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.
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Of God's love we can say two things: it is poured out universally for everyone from the Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet; and secondly, God's love doesn't seek value, it creates value. It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement.