REFLECTIONS ON FAITH AND
LIFE FOR THE YEARS OF WINTER…
In the process of sorting,
I came across my partly-read copy of William Sloane Coffin’s Credo. As one does with most things
sorted, rather than passing it on, I began to read it again.
When he died in 2006, he
was the same age I am now. As I reread him, I realize that Coffin and I led
very similar lives across our equal number of years.
He was a city child of wealth
and privilege. I am a farm kid who grew up on Aid to Dependent Children.
He was the grandson of
Henry Sloane Coffin, the most famous clergyman of his generation, Moderator
[Head Honcho] of The Presbyterian Church in the USA and President of Union
Seminary in NYC. I am the grandson of Arthur Harrison McFarland, who took a
correspondence course to learn to be a stationary engineer in a coal mine [1]
and Elmer Pond, a coal miner who advocated for safer conditions in mines and
was killed in a mine cave-in.
He did private
schooling—Phillips Academy. I went to public school in a southern Indiana
county that is known as “the Mississippi of the North.”
He studied music at Yale,
where he was a member of Skull & Bones, with a boy who later was President
of the US, George H.W. Bush. I studied history at a “Godless state university,”
where I was on the Residence Scholarship Plan, for first generation students
who could not afford college otherwise, with a boy who was later President of a
Lions Club.
He studied in Paris with
Nadia Boulanger to be a concert pianist. I was second bassoon to Carolyn Waller
in the high school band.
He was fluent in French
and Russian. He learned Russian while in the army in WWII and was an
interpreter for General Patton. I was in ROTC in college and got a C in French.
He was a CIA agent, trying
to persuade Russians to subvert the Soviet Union. I was a Reds fan and tried to
persuade people to abandon the St. Louis Cardinals.
He went to Yale Divinity
School and at 33 was appointed Chaplain at Yale University, their youngest
ever, only 2 years after ordination, at a university known for producing
business and world and national leaders. I got thrown out of seminary in Dallas
and finished at a commuter school for “preacher boys.” Two years after
ordination, I was also in campus ministry, in a town in the Midwest named
Normal, at a college known for producing elementary teachers.
He was so well known he
became a character in the Doonesbury cartoon strip. I read Doonesbury.
He married 3 times, the
first time to Eva Rubinstein, a ballerina and daughter of pianist Arthur
Rubinstein. His first two marriages ended in divorce. I married once, to a
steelworker’s [2] daughter from Gary, Indiana, a Home Ec teacher, and that
marriage is in its 60th year.
He became the minister at
NYC’s iconic Riverside Church, made famous by Harry Emerson Fosdick. I became
the minister at UMC’s only church in Arcola, a town with a smaller population
than any one block of Riverside Drive.
He hung out with Martin
Luther King, and Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela. I hung out with Bill Jones, and
Bob Butts, and Rebecca Ninke.
He was the creator of
pithy statements. “I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then
you grow wings.” I retold long stories. “There was a man who had two sons…”
He left wealth and
privilege and status to advocate for peace, and justice for the oppressed. I
left poverty and anonymity to advocate for peace and justice for the oppressed.
As I said, we led very similar lives.
JRMcF
johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com
1] Since Grandpa Mac
finished his career in a paper mill, he was also a stationery engineer.
2] Earl “Tank” Karr almost
had an 8th grade education. He did not do 8th grade
commencement in Monon, IN, though. He told Helen it was because he had been
smoking in the outhouse. She found out later that it was because he shot the
weathervane off the school building. That brought him to the attention of the
Remington Company. They wanted him to demonstrate the accuracy of their rifles.
He was a home boy, though, and did not want to go on the road, so…
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