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For Immediate Release				           May 12, 1998

Rev. William Sloane Coffin Calls for Nuclear Abolition in Lawrence Lecture


APPLETON, WIS. -- As one of the nation's most vocal critics of nuclear weapons,
Rev. William Sloane Coffin says he was "angry, but not surprised" at the recent
news that India is conducting nuclear weapons tests.  

Coffin, renowned peace activist, former president of SANE/FREEZE and current
visiting professor of religious studies at Lawrence University, calls for the
elimination of all nuclear weapons Tuesday, May 19 in a Lawrence Main Hall
Forum.  His address, "Nukes Forever?  The Case for the Abolition," will be held
in Youngchild Hall, Room 161 at 4:15 p.m.  The event is free and open to the
public.

Operating under a policy he terms "nuclear apartheid," the world's nuclear
powers, Coffin argues, have "claimed for themselves the right to own and deploy
nuclear weapons while policing the rest of the world against their production." 

On December, 5, 1996, more than 60 generals and admirals in 17 countries,
including George Leroy Butler, the former head of the U.S. Strategic Air
Command, called for the abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide.  Since then
many others, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, have joined them.  

From 1987-90, Coffin served as president of SANE/FREEZE, the largest peace and
justice organization in the U.S.  Chaplain at Yale University from 1958-75,
Coffin rose to prominence during the 1960s and '70s as a leader in the civil
rights and anti-Vietnam War movements.  He was one of seven "Freedom Riders"
arrested and convicted in 1961 for protesting local segregation laws in
Montgomery, Ala.  

Coffin spent the 1995-97 academic years as Lawrence's Stephen Edward Scarff
distinguished visiting professor of religious studies, returning this spring to
teach the class, "Christian Faith and Social Ethics."   

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