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Upon graduating from Yale University in 1949, Coffin entered the Union Theological Seminary, where he remained for a year, until the outbreak of the Korean War reignited his interest in fighting against communism. He joined the CIA in 1950, spending three years in Germany contacting anti-Soviet Russian refugees and training them how to undermine Stalin's regime. After leaving the CIA, he enrolled at Yale University Divinity School and earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1956, the same year he was ordained a Presbyterian minister.
The Reverend Coffin became Chaplain of Yale University from 1958 until 1975. He was in early opposition to the Vietnam War and became famous for his anti-war activities and his civil rights activism. He had a prominent role in the " freedom rides", challenging segregation and the oppression of black people
While chaplain at Yale in 1964 he was introduced to student George W. Bush and remarked "Yeah, I know your father, and your father lost to a better man." The reference was to George H. W. Bush, who had just lost his run for the Texas Senate. Coffin later said he didn't recall saying such a thing, and that if he did, it was said in jest. Coffin had been a friend of George H. W. Bush since his youth, as they both attended Phillips Academy (1942) and Yale together. It was Bush, in fact, who brought Coffin into the exclusive Skull and Bones secret society at the university.
In 1967, Coffin increasingly concentrated on preaching civil disobedience and supported the young men who turned in their draft cards. That October, he raised the possibility of declaring Battell Chapel at Yale a sanctuary for resisters, or possibly as the site of a large demonstration of civil disobedience. School administration barred the use of the church as a sanctuary. Coffin later wrote, "I accused them of behaving more like 'true blues than true Christians.' They squirmed but weren't about to change their minds.... I realized I was licked." And so, on January 5, 1968 Coffin, Dr. Benjamin Spock (who was also a Phillips Academy alumnus), Marcus Raskin , Michael Ferber , and Mitchell Goodman were indicted by a Federal grand jury for conspiracy to counsel, aid and abet draft resistance. All but Raskin were convicted that June. The government eventually decided to drop the charges.
Coffin remained chaplain of Yale until December 1975 when he retired to become senior minister at the Riverside Church in New York City.
In the 1980s he was a leader in the movement against nuclear weapons. He became president of SANE/FREEZE (now Peace ActionPeace Action is a peace organization formed through the merger of SANE (The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy) and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign (also known as "The Freeze"). It has mobilized for peace and nuclear disarmament since 1957. As of 200), the largest peace and justice organization in the United States. He retired as president emeritus in the early 1990s, and since then has taught and lectured across the United States and overseas. He has cautioned that we are all living in "the shadow of Doomsday," and has urged that people turn away from isolationism and become more globally aware.
Coffin lost his son in a car accident.
Note: merged with the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign in 19871987 is a common year starting on Thursday. Events January January 1 Nunavut's capital changes it name to Iqaluit from Frobisher Bay. January 3 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. January 4 An Amtrak train and was renamed SANE/FREEZE; it was renamed Peace ActionPeace Action is a peace organization formed through the merger of SANE (The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy) and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign (also known as "The Freeze"). It has mobilized for peace and nuclear disarmament since 1957. As of 200 in 1993
(After 9/11): The U.S. government should have vowed "to see justice done, but by the force of law only, never by the law of force."
"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."
"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."
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