April 22, 2012
FEW ATONE SO THOROUGHLY FOR THEIR MISTAKES:
Charles Colson, Nixon's 'dirty tricks' man, dies at 80 (Michael Dobbs, 4/22/12, Washington Post)
A self-described "hatchet man" for Nixon, Mr. Colson compiled the notorious "enemies list" of politicians, journalists and activists perceived as threats to the White House. And most fatefully, he helped orchestrate illegal activities to discredit former Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg, who was suspected of leaking a top-secret history of the Vietnam War to the New York Times and The Washington Post.
It was the targeting of Ellsberg -- rather than Mr. Colson's peripheral involvement in the growing Watergate break-in scandal -- that eventually led to his conviction for obstruction of justice. In the midst of this crisis, Mr. Colson said he underwent a profound religious transformation in August 1973.
Acting against the advice of his lawyers, Mr. Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, a step that he depicted as "a price I had to pay to complete the shedding of my old life and to be free to live the new."
Released on parole in January 1975, after seven months in a minimum-security prison, Mr. Colson became a leading voice in the evangelical movement and an advocate for prison reform.
The need for such work, he said, was drawn from what he called his frightening experience in confinement. Prison, he said, was filled with embittered prisoners who contemplated escape and revenge at every turn.
"He transferred his huge drive, intellect and maniacal energy from the service of Richard Nixon to the service of Jesus Christ," said his biographer, Jonathan Aitken, a former British government minister who endured a similar journey of political disgrace and personal redemption after a 1999 conviction for perjury.
Mr. Colson's autobiography, "Born Again," first published in 1976, sold millions of copies over the years. In 1993, he was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize, worth more than $1 million, which is given each year to the person who has done the most to advance the cause of religion.
Outwardly, Mr. Colson remained recognizably the same person before and after his conversion. Even toward the end of his life, he retained the same amused expression in his heavily wrinkled face. [....]
Mr. Colson attributed his guilty plea to his conversion to evangelical Christianity on the night of Aug. 12, 1973, by a close friend, Thomas L. Phillips, then-chairman of the defense contractor Raytheon, and the powerful influence of a book by C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity."Mr. Colson said another turning point in his faith was a probing interview in May 1974 conducted by Mike Wallace of the CBS News program "60 Minutes." Wallace asked about the "morality" of working for a White House engaged in intimidation and smear campaigns and asked whether Mr. Colson was truly living up his Christian beliefs.Mr. Colson later described feeling gradually "stripped and broken" of his old combative habits and decided not to fight the criminal charges any longer, despite urging by his family to beat the lawsuit and return to a "normal" life."Hubris became the mark of the Nixon man because hubris was the quality Nixon admired most," Mr. Colson wrote in "Born Again." He added that he "was willing at times to blink at certain ethical standards" because " 'Chuck will get it done' was the phrase I so loved to hear in the White House."News of his rebirth was greeted with skepticism and even hilarity by many columnists, including humorist Art Buchwald, who imagined a prayer session between Mr. Colson and the grandmother he once vowed to run over in the process of helping Nixon."Shall we kneel together?" Mr. Colson asked."Not me," his grandmother replied. "I haven't been able to kneel since you screamed at me, 'Four more years,' and then put your Oldsmobile into drive."According to Aitken, doubts about the sincerity of Mr. Colson's conversion were put to rest by his subsequent actions on behalf of prisoners around the world. The Prison Fellowship Ministries founded by Mr. Colson in the United States in 1976 grew into a worldwide movement with branches in more than 110 different countries. It is now based in the Loudoun County community of Lansdowne."Look at the incredible good he has done," Aitken said. "He completely changed the face of faith-based caring for prisoners and offenders, not just in America but across the world."In addition to befriending prisoners and converting them to Christianity, Mr. Colson established a rehabilitation program that aimed to cut the recidivism rate. He publicly opposed the death penalty and called for alternatives to incarceration, particularly for nonviolent offenders, who make up a significant portion of the prison population.Leading Republican politicians including President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain of Arizona cited Mr. Colson's work with prisoners as evidence that faith-based initiatives can help to solve America's most intractable problems.Bush invited Mr. Colson to the White House in June 2003 to present the results of a scientific study by a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Byron Johnson, that concluded that participants in Prison Fellowship programs were much less likely to return to prison than other former inmates.
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 22, 2012 11:07 AM
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