[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 60 (Wednesday, April 25, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E643-E644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           A LIFE WELL LIVED

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 25, 2012

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Chuck Colson 
who this past Saturday, ``slipped the surly bonds of earth'' to ``touch 
the face of God.'' I also submit for the Record his official obituary.
  Chuck's family has lost a husband, father and grandfather. Many of us 
have lost a dear friend and brother. And, the Nation has lost a 
compelling, often-times prophetic voice with a winsome ability to speak 
truth with grace about some of the most challenging issues of the day.
  Chuck's political instincts gave him a keen ability to effectively 
communicate with policymakers and politicians alike about matters of 
utmost import that are rarely given their due in the halls of Congress 
or the White House.
  Chuck's personal journey, marked by redemption and grace, gave him a 
heart beyond pale for the prisoner, the down-trodden, and the forgotten 
among us.
  Chuck's faith defined him--and inspired countless others.
  He possessed a passion for shaping the next generation of leaders, 
for equipping them with the tools to articulate and defend a Christian 
worldview in the public square. This is among his greatest legacies.
  In short, we have lost a giant.
  As we mourn his loss, we take comfort in knowing that the heavens 
rejoice and Chuck is most assuredly hearing the words, ``well done, 
good and faithful servant.''

    Chuck Colson, Founder of Prison Fellowship & Colson Center for 
                  Christian World View, Dies at age 80

       Lansdowne, VA., April 21, 2012.--Evangelical Christianity 
     lost one of its most eloquent and influential voices today 
     with the death of Charles W. ``Chuck'' Colson. The Prison 
     Fellowship and Colson Center for Christian Worldview founder 
     died at 3:12 p.m. ET today at the age of 80. After a brief 
     illness, Colson passed away at a Northern Virginia hospital 
     with his wife, Patty, and family at his bedside.
       On March 30, Colson became ill while speaking at a Colson 
     Center for Christian Worldview conference in Lansdowne. The 
     following morning he had surgery to remove a pool of clotted 
     blood on the surface of his brain, and doctors determined he 
     had suffered an intracerebral hemorrhage. Though Colson 
     remained in intensive care, doctors and family were 
     optimistic for a recovery as he showed some signs of 
     improvement. However, Tuesday (April 17) Colson became 
     gravely ill when further complications developed.
       A Watergate figure who emerged from the country's worst 
     political scandal, a vocal Christian leader and a champion 
     for prison ministry, Colson spent the last years of his life 
     in the dual role of leading Prison Fellowship, the world's 
     largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their 
     families, and the Colson Center, a research and training 
     center focused on Christian worldview teaching.
       Colson has been a central figure in the evangelical 
     Christian community since he shocked the Washington 
     establishment in 1973 by revealing his new Christian 
     commitment in the midst of the Watergate inquiry. In later 
     years Colson would say that because he was known primarily as 
     Nixon's ``Hatchet Man,'' the declaration that ` ``I've been 
     born again and given my life to Jesus Christ' kept the 
     political cartoonists of America clothed and fed for a solid 
     month.'' It also gave new visibility to the emerging movement 
     of ``born-again'' Christians.

[[Page E644]]

               Put Prison Ministry on the Church's Agenda

       In 1974 Colson entered a plea of guilty to Watergate-
     related charges; although not implicated in the Watergate 
     burglary, he voluntarily pleaded guilty to obstruction of 
     justice in the Daniel Ellsberg Case, which was prosecuted in 
     the acutely sensitive Watergate atmosphere. He entered 
     Maxwell Federal Prison Camp in Alabama in 1974 as a new 
     Christian and as the first member of the Nixon administration 
     to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges. He served 
     seven months of a one- to three-year sentence.
       Colson emerged from prison with a new mission: mobilizing 
     the Christian Church to minister to prisoners. He founded 
     Prison Fellowship in 1976; this would become perhaps his 
     greatest contribution to the Church and the world. Although 
     many local churches had ministered in nearby prisons for many 
     years, most observers would affirm that Colson and Prison 
     Fellowship truly put prison ministry on the agenda of the 
     church in a substantial way.
       Colson's personal prison experience and his frequent 
     ministry visits to prisons also developed in him new concerns 
     about the efficacy of the American criminal justice system. 
     His founding of Justice Fellowship in 1983 helped make Colson 
     one of the nation's most influential voices for criminal 
     justice reform. His call for alternative punishments for non-
     violent offenders was often effective because Colson's 
     conservative credentials enabled him to line up conservative 
     legislators in support of what had traditionally been seen as 
     a liberal set of reforms.
       That passion and sense of obligation to God's calling and 
     to his fellow inmates took Colson into prisons several times 
     a year. He visited some 600 prisons in the U.S. and 40 other 
     countries, and built a movement that at one time extended to 
     more than 50,000 prison ministry volunteers. Often, 
     particularly in the early days of Prison Fellowship, he was 
     vocal in his disgust over the terrible conditions in the 
     prisons and the need for more humane conditions and better 
     access to religious programs.
       Colson's advocacy for prisoners' religious rights took an 
     additional form in the late 1990s when he and Justice 
     Fellowship were at the forefront, lobbying legislators to 
     support the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the 
     Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons 
     Act (RLUIPA), both nationally and state by state. Colson's 
     and Justice Fellowship's work to bring an end to the 
     national scourge and shame of prison rape culminated with 
     the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003.
       His 1987 book, Kingdoms in Conflict, was a best-selling 
     directive to the Christian community on the proper 
     relationships of church and state, and it positioned Colson 
     as centrist evangelical voice for balanced Christian 
     political activism. Although not as visible as others in the 
     frontline battles, Colson provided counsel to many of the 
     most-evident activists and had a strong influence on 
     Christian politicians who went to Washington in the 80s, 90s 
     and into the new millennium.


                    Recipient of the Templeton Prize

       In recognition of his work among prisoners, Colson received 
     the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 
     1993, donating the $1 million prize to Prison Fellowship. In 
     perhaps his most-eloquent and well-known speech, The Enduring 
     Revolution, given at acceptance ceremonies at the University 
     of Chicago, Colson encouraged the Church in the face of 
     troubling times:
       ``For history's cadence is called with a confident voice. 
     The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob reigns. His plan and 
     purpose rob the future of its fears. By the cross He offers 
     hope, by the resurrection He assures His triumph. This cannot 
     be resisted or delayed. Mankind's only choice is to recognize 
     Him now or in the moment of ultimate judgment. Our only 
     decision is to welcome His rule or to fear it.''
       Colson's other awards included the Presidential Citizens 
     Medal (2008, the second-highest U.S. civilian honor), 
     Humanitarian Award from Domino's Pizza Corporation (1991), 
     The Others Award from the Salvation Army (1990), several 
     honorary doctorates from various colleges and universities 
     (1982 1995), and Outstanding Young Man of Boston from the 
     Chamber of Commerce (1960).
       Recognized as a champion for historic orthodoxy, Colson 
     ignited a controversy in the Protestant world in the mid-
     1990s with his initiative to declare common ground with 
     conservative Roman Catholics in two documents called 
     Evangelicals and Catholics Together.


         Provided Intellectual Support to Modern Evangelicalism

       The evangelical-Catholic issue was just one in which Colson 
     brought intellectual vitality to popular Evangelicalism in 
     the last three decades. Many considered him a prophetic voice 
     for the evangelical community, and, perhaps, an intellectual 
     successor to theologian/sociologist Francis Schaeffer. 
     Perhaps in open recognition of that legacy, his magnum opus 
     was titled How Now Shall We Live? after Schaeffer's How Then 
     Shall We Live?
       In all, Colson wrote more than 30 books, which have sold 
     more than five million copies. His autobiographical book, 
     Born Again, was one of the nation's best-selling books of all 
     kinds in 1976 and was made into a feature-length film. His 
     last book, The Faith, is a powerful appeal to the Church to 
     re-embrace the foundational truths of Christianity.
       Colson was one of the Christian community's most sought-
     after speakers, but he resolutely refused to establish a 
     speaker's fee. Colson donated all speaking honoraria and book 
     royalties to the ministry and accepted the salary of a mid-
     range ministry executive.
       In 1991 Colson launched BreakPoint, a unique radio 
     commentary that provides a Christian perspective on today's 
     news and trends. BreakPoint was aired weekdays on some 1,400 
     outlets nationwide with an audience of 8 million listeners. 
     But his heart was ever with the prisoner. He clearly never 
     forgot the promise he'd made to his fellow inmates during his 
     brief stay in prison that he would never forget those behind 
     bars.
       In his later years, Colson focused full time on developing 
     other Christian leaders who could influence the culture and 
     their communities through their faith. The capstone of this 
     effort was The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, a 
     research and training center launched in 2009 for the 
     promotion of Christian worldview teaching. In addition to a 
     vast library of worldview materials, the Colson Center 
     provides online courses and serves as a catalyst for a 
     growing movement of Christian organizations dedicated to 
     impacting the culture.
       In 2009, Colson was a principal writer of the Manhattan 
     Declaration, which calls on Christians to defend the sanctity 
     of human life, traditional marriage and religious freedom. 
     More than half a million people have signed the Manhattan 
     Declaration. Collaborating with other Christian leaders, 
     Colson aimed to launch other ecumenical grassroots movements 
     around moral and ethical issues of great concern.
       Colson was born in Boston in 1931 and received a 
     scholarship to Brown University and went on to earn his law 
     degree at George Washington University in Washington. He 
     served in the Marine Corps from 1953 1955, becoming what was 
     at the time its youngest captain. He began his political 
     career in 1956, when he was the youngest administrative 
     assistant in the Senate, working for Massachusetts Senator 
     Leverett Saltonstall.
       Although God worked through Colson to encourage Christians 
     around the world and serve many whom society would often 
     neglect, his greatest love and focus were his family. Colson 
     is survived by his wife of 48 years, Patty; three children, 
     Wendell, Christian and Emily; and five grandchildren.

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