Biography of chuck colson

I was born after Watergate. That is how I justify to myself the fact I had not realized that the Charles Colson I read about in those political history books that I like so much was the same Chuck Colson who founded Prison Fellowship.  My father-in-law, a professor of religious studies and my favorite consultant on the religious doctrines of redemption, made the connection for me while we were sitting at his kitchen table in Scranton. I needed a minute to absorb the length of Colson’s journey — from being one of the “Watergate Seven” to founding an influential evangelical organization that ministers to prisoners and former prisoners.  While I could not fault someone for being skeptical that a transformation of Chuck’s kind was possible, as a Christian I believe a lot of things that provoke skepticism in others. Chuck’s story made sense to me as a modern-day conversion of Saul. 

I was probably one of the very few people who knew Chuck best as a colleague advocating for mercy and redemption, and not for his role as special counsel to President Nixon, or as a key political figure jailed for the Watergate scandal. But when I found out more about his life before Prison Fellowship, it made me respect him and his ministry even more.

My connection to Chuck is through Prison Fellowship’s partnership with the Brennan Center. Prison Fellowship is a member of the Brennan Center’s Community of Faith Initiative, which seeks to restore voting rights to the four million Americans living and working in our communities who cannot vote because of a criminal conviction in their past. 

During the course of the Brennan Center’s partnership with Prison Fellowship, my admiration for Chuck Colson and his organization had good cause to grow.  I cheered when, earlier this year, Chuck penned an op-ed in the Washington Post shortly after the candidates at a Republican primary debate sparred over the issue of

Fifty years ago this week, Charles W. Colson became a follower of Jesus Christ. Chuck would subsequently become one of the most respected evangelical leaders of the 20th and early 21st centuries, founding both Prison Fellowship Ministries and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and authoring bestselling books such as Born Again, How Now Shall We Live?, andLoving God.

Chuck Colson’s influence came about because of how deeply and thoroughly Jesus Christ changed his life. Certainly, he was an incredibly gifted person (after all, not everyone lands in a White House office as special counsel to the President of the United States in their thirties!). Yet, Chuck’s giftedness before he found faith was corrupted by pride, which led to an incredible public fall.

On the thirtieth anniversary of his conversion, Chuck Colson described it in detail. Here, in his own voice, is Chuck Colson:

Thirty years ago today, I visited Tom Phillips, president of the Raytheon Company, at his home outside of Boston. I had represented Raytheon before going to the White House, and I was about to start again.

But I visited him for another reason as well. I knew Tom had become a Christian, and he seemed so different. I wanted to ask him what had happened.

That night, he read to me from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, particularly a chapter about the great sin that is pride. A proud man is always walking through life looking down on other people and other things, said Lewis. As a result, he cannot see something above himself immeasurably superior—God.

Tom, that night, told me about encountering Christ in his own life. He didn’t realize it, but I was in the depths of deep despair over Watergate, watching the President I had helped for four years flounder in office. I had also heard that I might become a target of the investigation as well. In short, my world was collapsing.

That night, as Tom was telling m