Activist Calls For Fair Refugee Treatment

A prominent anti-Vietnam clergyman and sanctuary activist last night at the Law School called for a fair application of refugee laws for those fleeing Latin American countries which are American allies.

Lambasting America's use of charity and religion as a substitute for social justice, Reverend William Sloan Coffin, senior minister of Riverside Church in New York, termed America, "long on charity, short on justice," and questioned the church's role in society.

"Churches have an interest in unjust social structure, which allows us to pour our hearts out," Coffin said, in a thirty-five minute talk, during which he broke into imitations of Soviet leader Gorbachev and President Reagan.

Before an audience of 100, Coffin attacked the neglect of "subsistence rights"--to housing, food, and education-in America's emphasis on freedoms-to speech, assembly, and the like.

Speaking about New York City, he said, "it is looking like a feudal city, there are 30,000 millionaires, and twice that many homeless."

Coffin said that Reagan was guilty of pride in his foreign policy, which allowed him to ignore the opinions of "every other government," in its relations with Nicaragua.

Quoting St. Augustine, "never fight evil as if it arose outside of you," Coffin imagined a super-power summit where the leaders would first admit the sins of their respective administrations, "to take away the self-rightousness" in superpower relations.

"If we are not one in love, we are one in sin," he said.