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The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality
ON
"There is no smaller package in the world that that of a person all wrapped up in himself."
ON
"Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without."
"An abundance of wisdom in an economy of words" by a leading activist preacher.
William Sloane Coffin offers here a powerful antidote to the politics of the religious right with a clarion call to passive intellectuals and dispirited liberals to reenter the fray with an unabashedly Christian view of social justice. Refusing to cede the battlefield of morality to conservatives, he argues that "compassion demands confrontation," as he considers such topics as homophobia, diversity, nuclear weapons, and civil discourse.
No stranger to controversy, Coffin became famous while chaplain at Yale in the 1960s for his active opposition to the Vietnam War. Jailed as a civil rights "Freedom Rider," indicted by the government in the Benjamin Spock conspiracy trial, he attained popular immortality as Reverend Sloan in the Doonesbury comic strip. Now in his 70s and retired as pastor of New York's Riverside Church, Coffin has lost neither his fire nor his wit. The seven pieces collected here are peppered with memorable aphorisms and pithy, political one-liners meant to turn bitterness to anger and anger to action. "I stress anger because the country as a whole is despiritualized by moral lassitude," he writes. "Having gotten used to genocidal weapons, are we now going to get used to starving children?"
Unafraid to call himself a Christian, Coffin reclaims Jesus and the Bible from religious fundamentalists in his call for liberalism and justice. The "simplicity, beauty, and difficulty of Jesus' message" informs much of Coffin's thinking as he strives to restore spirituality to intellectual life. Politics and religion, long taboo at polite dinner parties, are powerfully reunited here.
"There is no smaller package in the world that that of a person all wrapped up in himself."
ON
"Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without."
"An abundance of wisdom in an economy of words" by a leading activist preacher.
William Sloane Coffin offers here a powerful antidote to the politics of the religious right with a clarion call to passive intellectuals and dispirited liberals to reenter the fray with an unabashedly Christian view of social justice. Refusing to cede the battlefield of morality to conservatives, he argues that "compassion demands confrontation," as he considers such topics as homophobia, diversity, nuclear weapons, and civil discourse.
No stranger to controversy, Coffin became famous while chaplain at Yale in the 1960s for his active opposition to the Vietnam War. Jailed as a civil rights "Freedom Rider," indicted by the government in the Benjamin Spock conspiracy trial, he attained popular immortality as Reverend Sloan in the Doonesbury comic strip. Now in his 70s and retired as pastor of New York's Riverside Church, Coffin has lost neither his fire nor his wit. The seven pieces collected here are peppered with memorable aphorisms and pithy, political one-liners meant to turn bitterness to anger and anger to action. "I stress anger because the country as a whole is despiritualized by moral lassitude," he writes. "Having gotten used to genocidal weapons, are we now going to get used to starving children?"
Unafraid to call himself a Christian, Coffin reclaims Jesus and the Bible from religious fundamentalists in his call for liberalism and justice. The "simplicity, beauty, and difficulty of Jesus' message" informs much of Coffin's thinking as he strives to restore spirituality to intellectual life. Politics and religion, long taboo at polite dinner parties, are powerfully reunited here.
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First published October 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 18, 2019
He quotes Pope Pius VI: "If you want peace, work for justice."
His first lecture is the question Can the spiritual and the secular meet? I am not comfortable with the so-called "spiritual" when it seems to advocate tax cuts for the rich and taking away health care for the poor. There ain't nothing remotely spiritually about that, Folks. Reverend Coffin agrees with me.
He complains about how David Duke won 69 percent of the white born-again Protestant vote in Louisiana.
Karl Marx to a group of church people: "You Christians have a vested interest in unjust structures which produce victims to whom you can then pour out your hearts in charity."
The three things Reverend Coffin thinks we need are "wonder, anger, and love."
The title comes from Archbishop Helda Camara of Brazil: "the heart is a little to the left." Compassion is politically liberal. Ain't that the truth.
Some people who claim to be Bible literalists are actually selective literalists. They ignore most of the weird stuff.
John Kenneth Galbraith: "The comfortable are in control."
We cut taxes for the rich and social programs for the poor. You would think "the greedy were needy and the needy were greedy."
We give welfare checks for the rich, school vouchers at the expense of public schools.
The Reverend is sure that "no word of God is God's last word."
He believes "confrontation is necessary to shake up the complacent." He quotes Jesus who "came not to bring peace but a sword."
Robert Kennedy ran for president saying "at stake is our claim to our moral leadership of the world." I think that is a legitimate claim that we are losing.
St. Augustine: "Never fight evil as if it were something that arose totally outside of yourself."
His first lecture is the question Can the spiritual and the secular meet? I am not comfortable with the so-called "spiritual" when it seems to advocate tax cuts for the rich and taking away health care for the poor. There ain't nothing remotely spiritually about that, Folks. Reverend Coffin agrees with me.
He complains about how David Duke won 69 percent of the white born-again Protestant vote in Louisiana.
Karl Marx to a group of church people: "You Christians have a vested interest in unjust structures which produce victims to whom you can then pour out your hearts in charity."
The three things Reverend Coffin thinks we need are "wonder, anger, and love."
The title comes from Archbishop Helda Camara of Brazil: "the heart is a little to the left." Compassion is politically liberal. Ain't that the truth.
Some people who claim to be Bible literalists are actually selective literalists. They ignore most of the weird stuff.
John Kenneth Galbraith: "The comfortable are in control."
We cut taxes for the rich and social programs for the poor. You would think "the greedy were needy and the needy were greedy."
We give welfare checks for the rich, school vouchers at the expense of public schools.
The Reverend is sure that "no word of God is God's last word."
He believes "confrontation is necessary to shake up the complacent." He quotes Jesus who "came not to bring peace but a sword."
Robert Kennedy ran for president saying "at stake is our claim to our moral leadership of the world." I think that is a legitimate claim that we are losing.
St. Augustine: "Never fight evil as if it were something that arose totally outside of yourself."
January 29, 2009
After reading about 3 sentences of William Sloane Coffin, the hairs on my arms stand straight up. And they never go down.
January 23, 2019
Recently rediscovered when unpacking a box of books, the essays or sermons, while dated are yet contemporary. Steeped in the Christian narrative, his approach to the world was expansive. The prophetic, meaning insighful and critical, voice remains necessary.
August 31, 2020
My progression of understanding the teachings of Jesus have filled a spectrum perhaps wider than most. Like many, I adhered to the structure and form of the Bible quite literally in my early years, mostly concerned with the affairs of the next life and the rigidity of a set of parameters I though were essential to belief. What has happened over the succeeding years can only be described as a slow tearing of my foundations into the middle ground of love and doctrine that God has been drawing me into. My beliefs have softened, even perhaps liberalized, but I hope in the process I've become more human, more drawn to the realities of social injustice, and more open to discussion than preaching. Coffin's set of essays has confirmed for me the holiness of my progression towards openness. His words hit like hammers on an anvil, each one adding the weight of responsibility for defending human rights and decrying the injustices of our age. This book is a literal treasure trove of useable quotations, such as one of my favorites, "Virtue in mainline churches may be better focused, but moral outrage is feeble. Most Protestant churches are down to management and therapy." Coffin may be too quickly labeled as a waffling Christian leftist, but to anyone wishing to apply that label I would quickly counsel them to look at his own human condition, his neighbor next to him, and see as Coffin states that "We need to claim the kinship of all people, to recover the prophetic insight that we belong to one another, every one of us from the pope to the loneliest wino on the planet." Thanks to Brent Kaneft for opening my eyes to an author who writes my heart.
August 15, 2021
I marked this book as "to read" due to a recommendation. I can't remember the source of the recommendation, but I am so appreciative. My heart is definitely a little to the left. Because my little corner of America is more rightward leaning than left, I sometimes feel isolated, unsteady, and insecure. Coffin's essays encouraged my heart and assured me that I am not alone.
In the first essay titled 'The Spiritual and the Secular: Can They Meet?' Coffin quoted 1 Corinthians 13:2.
. . ."though I have all faith so as to move mountains" and "understand all mysteries and all knowledge but have not love, it profits me nothing."
He adds, "I believe that. I believe it is better not to live than not to love."
This first essay weaves wonder, anger, and love into a triad of ways to live and move in this world that are sorely needed. He makes a case for each, and wraps it up with the potential rewards.
"Wonder, anger, love. with that trinity of spiritual benefits you can live an ordinary life extraordinarily well. With that trinity the spiritual and the secular can not only come into closer harmony, they can become dynamically integrated!"
You'll have to read the book (or at least the first essay), to understand how anger can benefit us all!
In the first essay titled 'The Spiritual and the Secular: Can They Meet?' Coffin quoted 1 Corinthians 13:2.
. . ."though I have all faith so as to move mountains" and "understand all mysteries and all knowledge but have not love, it profits me nothing."
He adds, "I believe that. I believe it is better not to live than not to love."
This first essay weaves wonder, anger, and love into a triad of ways to live and move in this world that are sorely needed. He makes a case for each, and wraps it up with the potential rewards.
"Wonder, anger, love. with that trinity of spiritual benefits you can live an ordinary life extraordinarily well. With that trinity the spiritual and the secular can not only come into closer harmony, they can become dynamically integrated!"
You'll have to read the book (or at least the first essay), to understand how anger can benefit us all!
January 26, 2025
The Heart Is A Little To The Left
6/2025.
I was introduced to William Sloane Coffin by my pastor over the Christmas season last year. And this book, a small volume on public morality, seems just right for a week when evangelical leaders are abandoning Jesus’ teachings altogether to invent a “sin of empathy” and our political leaders are calling for the deportation of a Bishop who stood up, respectfully but firmly, to power in the name of the powerless.
And from the (literal) first page, WSC picks up the baton and runs. He calls us back to the prophetic vision (the same Bishop Budde embodied, speaking plain truth to the most powerful man in the world).
More subtle, though, is his call for academia and religious communities to seek common ground for their mutual benefit. He sees both institutions as necessary for reform and that one without the other leads to deficiencies: academia without moral conviction and religion without academic rigor.
There is so much here that I’ve underlined and noted and marked up. But maybe this says it best: “We Americans have so much, and we’re asking of ourselves so little. What we are downsizing more than anything else are the demands of biblical justice.”
6/2025.
I was introduced to William Sloane Coffin by my pastor over the Christmas season last year. And this book, a small volume on public morality, seems just right for a week when evangelical leaders are abandoning Jesus’ teachings altogether to invent a “sin of empathy” and our political leaders are calling for the deportation of a Bishop who stood up, respectfully but firmly, to power in the name of the powerless.
And from the (literal) first page, WSC picks up the baton and runs. He calls us back to the prophetic vision (the same Bishop Budde embodied, speaking plain truth to the most powerful man in the world).
More subtle, though, is his call for academia and religious communities to seek common ground for their mutual benefit. He sees both institutions as necessary for reform and that one without the other leads to deficiencies: academia without moral conviction and religion without academic rigor.
There is so much here that I’ve underlined and noted and marked up. But maybe this says it best: “We Americans have so much, and we’re asking of ourselves so little. What we are downsizing more than anything else are the demands of biblical justice.”
February 10, 2020
We are reading this for a study at church and the collection of essays from Coffin could just as easily be written today as they were 20 years ago. He covers secularism, politics, homophobia, the authority of the Bible, self-righteousness, nationalism, war and violence, civility in democracy, and multiculturalism. Coffin was the chaplain of Yale University for nearly two decades and brings a level of thoughtful reflection to subjects that typically generate reactionary voices.
December 19, 2022
“Perhaps for too long in the humanities we’ve given primacy to concepts, to objective analysis, so that the truth *before us* somehow doesn’t get *in us.* For example, we all give intellectual assent to the notion that all people are created equal, but how many of us feel the monstrosity of inequality? That’s qualitatively another kind of knowledge.”
January 13, 2020
A pitifully short series of essays on ethics from someone who embodies a more constructive, inclusive, and thoughtful form of Christianity than what mainstream bullshitty televangelists and homophobes preach.
March 15, 2023
Love his writing and only wish I could have listened to him deliver these sermons live. His writing is inspiring and obviously based on, but not drowning in, biblical references. His words are more true today than ever.
March 12, 2021
Excellent little book on advocating for peace and justice. Highly recommend.
October 27, 2023
Required reading. Period.
May 24, 2023
Nothing that really stands out here, but all these essays/speeches are a nice read and would have been enjoyable to hear.
January 6, 2016
A brief and enjoyable book from an important voice from the later half of the last century. William Sloane Coffin was a minister at Yale during the Viet Nam War (where he was immortalized in the comic strip Doonsebury as Rev. Sloan), and as the pastor in New York's storied Riverside Church. Rev. Coffin was a religious liberal, or a Left wing Protestant, or a Progressive Christian, or something like that. He was a remarkably intelligent man, or so it seems to me. Erudite, thoughtful, and willing to push back as hard against the age as the age pushed against him (to paraphrase Flannery O'Connor), Rev. Sloan's sermons appeal to the better angels of our nature, and push us to look at the world through the eyes of prophetic outrage at the injustices, the unfairness, and the mindless grinding of the machines of this world. I like this guy. I wish I could have heard him preach.
Generally speaking, I am a big fan of the Christian Left. Brian McLaren, Marcus Borg, Shelby Spong, Shane Clairborne, etc. (I don't think I can list Rob Bell anymore. That dude has gone all Oprah, but man! He was good in his day). As I get a bit older, and perhaps a bit wiser, I am learning to think less about religion and more about God, and what the incarnation of Christ actually means to me. Not what it means to the Church (which is an important source of thinking on issues of faith), but what it means to me, personally. Rev. Coffin's brief sermon on the authority of the Bible really got me thinking, which I imagine was his point.
Rev. Sloane was a veritable quote garden for me: "I read the Bible because the Bible reads me," and "The truth shall set you free, but first it will make you miserable," and many other pithy, wise comments that have tremendous resonance for me. Maybe I will search YouTube and see if I can find a video of him preaching. That would be cool.
Anyhow, good book. Short and smart and thought-provoking. Highly recommended. If any one from the UCC is reading this review, you should know that Rev. Coffin singles out the United Church of Christ as an example of compassion and progress. I was proud for you all!
Generally speaking, I am a big fan of the Christian Left. Brian McLaren, Marcus Borg, Shelby Spong, Shane Clairborne, etc. (I don't think I can list Rob Bell anymore. That dude has gone all Oprah, but man! He was good in his day). As I get a bit older, and perhaps a bit wiser, I am learning to think less about religion and more about God, and what the incarnation of Christ actually means to me. Not what it means to the Church (which is an important source of thinking on issues of faith), but what it means to me, personally. Rev. Coffin's brief sermon on the authority of the Bible really got me thinking, which I imagine was his point.
Rev. Sloane was a veritable quote garden for me: "I read the Bible because the Bible reads me," and "The truth shall set you free, but first it will make you miserable," and many other pithy, wise comments that have tremendous resonance for me. Maybe I will search YouTube and see if I can find a video of him preaching. That would be cool.
Anyhow, good book. Short and smart and thought-provoking. Highly recommended. If any one from the UCC is reading this review, you should know that Rev. Coffin singles out the United Church of Christ as an example of compassion and progress. I was proud for you all!
September 22, 2015
Coffin is a master of the one liners and zinger turns of phrase. His brilliant assessment of the Four Moral Stages of the Bible has always stuck with me. His commentaries on the Vietnam War have also stuck with me. Coffin was inclusive and edgy--a rare combination. One time when he was giving an inclusive message based on the Gospels, a couple of people started heckling him... He stopped his message, pointed directly at them, and said sternly, "I'm trying to be inclusive here. Do you have a problem with that?" They stopped heckling. Then he returned to his message. This is an excellent primer of one of the masters of Liberal Mainline Christianity at its best.
-Amos Smith (author of Healing The Divide: Recovering Christianity's Mystic Roots)
-Amos Smith (author of Healing The Divide: Recovering Christianity's Mystic Roots)
January 16, 2010
Really enjoyed this collection of essays. I first found out about this author during a random scan of bookshelves in our public library. You don't have to agree with everything he says to admire his wit and way with words. His thoughts on "the warhorse" are very interesting to read as they were written 10 years ago, pre-9/11, pre-Iraq and Afghanistan, but they are so applicable. Each essay can be read in about 10 minutes. A great collection of quick reads that make you think!
July 30, 2015
Very simple, but meaningful defense of left liberalism as more consistent with Christian principles and values. I have to say that there was very little in there that I hadn't already thought for myself, but it was nice to read another spiritual leader defending left liberalism and critiquing right reactionary thinking.
January 10, 2009
Must read!!! I started underlining things I thought were particularly profound and ended up with a book full of pen markings. Coffin was not afraid to speak the truth to power and to do so in a way that is stirring, beautiful, and witty. He had a great gift, and I miss him.
October 23, 2008
Fantastic. One of my favorite books ever.
March 15, 2012
Don't know how I hadn't heard of this guy before. The first chapter alone blew my mind and I had to go get a pen and re-read it, underlining as I went.
July 24, 2011
A bit dated, but well worth reading: Coffin serves up some fine, pithy phrases, and his perspective is always illuminating.
January 13, 2014
Published in 1999 but they remain wise, prophetic words.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews