[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 69 (Tuesday, May 15, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3162-S3164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING CHUCK COLSON
Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I rise this evening to honor a longtime
friend, confidant, and mentor, Chuck Colson, whose life we will
celebrate tomorrow at a memorial service at the National Cathedral.
It has been said that a man's character can be tested by the way he
responds to adversity. If that is the case, Chuck Colson's character
was one of remarkable strength, tenacity, faith, and humility.
Chuck was a brilliant man with a resume of impressive accomplishments
at a very young age: A scholarship to an Ivy League school and a law
degree from George Washington University; a veteran and, at one time,
the youngest captain in the Marine Corps; a former chief of staff to a
U.S. Senator from Massachusetts; and then top assistant and legal
counsel to the President of the United States.
Now, this does not sound like the type of man who would find himself
sitting alone in a Federal prison cell, but that is exactly what
happened to Chuck Colson, and what happened there changed his life
forever.
Known as President Nixon's ``hatchet man,'' Colson pleaded guilty to
obstruction of justice in the Daniel Ellsberg case during the Watergate
scandal and went from White House Special Counsel to incarcerated
felon.
In 1974, Chuck Colson entered Maxwell Federal Prison Camp in Alabama.
This fall from perhaps the closest confidant of the President of the
United States to a Federal prison cell is about as far and as deep as
anyone can fall. That is what we call hitting rock bottom. But rock
bottom for Chuck Colson became a time of repentance, a time of grace,
and a time of transformation.
Far from the Rose Garden, it was behind those prison bars where Chuck
Colson made one of the most important decisions of his life--one that
would impact the lives of thousands. He decided to dedicate the rest of
his life serving the God he loved.
Scripture in Proverbs reads:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your
own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he
will make your paths straight.
With a redemption that can only come through the grace of God, and
with a renewed sense of vision, Chuck did just that. He put his trust
in the Lord and submitted to Him. He decided to let God write the story
of his life rather than trying to control his own destiny.
That transformation is the story we will celebrate tomorrow at the
National Cathedral--a story of redemption and a testament to the power
of God's forgiveness and love.
Chuck Colson's experience in prison and his renewed sense of vision
opened his eyes to a sector of our society that is often forgotten.
Once a prisoner himself--and having experienced the depth of his own
need for repentance and transformation; even those at the very bottom
of society--Chuck believed that God could change them and any willing
heart.
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As described in the first two of his many published books--the first
one, ``Born Again,'' and the second one, ``Life Sentence''--Chuck
dedicated his now transformed life to serving prison inmates and the
families of prisoners.
In 1976, he practiced what he preached and founded Prison Fellowship,
a Christian ministry to give prisoners the opportunity to experience
the radically transforming power of Christ that he had experienced
himself.
Chuck Colson's ministry took him to visit 600 prisons in the United
States and in 40 other countries. He worked relentlessly to improve
prison conditions, increase access to religious programs, and provide
resources and support to the families of prisoners.
Prison ministry was not his only passion. In his later years, Chuck
focused his efforts on developing other Christian leaders who could
influence their communities through their faith. This became the
cornerstone of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, a
research and training center established to promote Christian worldview
teaching.
Chuck has touched the lives of many people through his ministry,
books, lectures, and charity work. I am one of those who is personally
grateful for the positive influence he has had on my life.
It was in April 1976 that I attended an annual Fort Wayne, IN,
mayor's prayer breakfast. I was intrigued with the speaker who was
announced as Chuck Colson--recently released from prison, formerly a
Watergate figure and legal counsel to the President.
As I sat through his presentation, I was touched in a way and reached
in a way that transformed my life, and I am ever grateful to Chuck
Colson for using himself as, I think, a conduit for a message I also
needed to receive.
It resulted in a radical change of course for me: from a predictable,
settled, purposeful, I thought, life as an attorney in a midsized firm
in Fort Wayne, IN, to becoming engaged in politics, something I never
thought I would engage in. It was Chuck Colson who made me ask that
same question and make that same decision he made; that is, to no
longer try to control the direction of my life, but subject myself to
the control of someone who had a plan for me. And that plan was not a
specific one of serving in the Senate or Congress. It was simply to be
open to the possibility of a path that perhaps I had not ever thought
would be taken.
As a consequence of that, and as a consequence of a string of events
that is impossible for me to claim any credit for, I find myself
standing here in the Senate delivering this tribute to Chuck Colson.
Marsha and I will miss him greatly. We will continue to be motivated
and inspired by the example of how life should be lived.
When I first came to the Senate, I was here just 2 days when I
received a call from Chuck Colson. He said: I have a gift for you. It
is a precious gift, and one I do not want to give, but I think this
gift can be more useful to someone who can speak as a U.S. Senator than
to someone like me who can speak as head of Prison Fellowship.
That gift was a young man by the name of Michael Gerson, who had,
after leaving college, worked for Prison Fellowship and, both through
policy decisions and through the written word, helped Chuck with his
ministry.
This young man worked for me for a number of years, and I was the
voice of his thinking and the voice of his written messages. He went on
to become a speech writer for a Presidential candidate and then the
chief speech writer for President George W. Bush.
Michael Gerson wrote a piece that was published in the Washington
Post on April 22 titled ``Charles Colson found freedom in prison.'' I
think that piece certainly is worth reading. I ask unanimous consent
that the article be printed in the Record immediately following my
remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. COATS. Mike Gerson said in his column:
Chuck led a movement of volunteers attempting to love some
of their least lovable neighbors. This inversion of social
priorities--putting the last first--is the best evidence of a
faith that is more than a crutch, opiate, or self-help
program. It is the hallmark of authentic religion--and it is
the vast, humane contribution of Chuck Colson. Chuck Colson's
remarkable life story can serve as a guiding light and
provide all of us the courage and the strength to overcome
whatever adversity we may face in our own lives.
May we remember the example of Chuck Colson and the words prayed so
often by my very good friend:
Please show me how You want me to live and give me the
power to live that way.
Exhibit 1
[From the Washington Post, Apr. 22, 2012]
Charles Colson Found Freedom in Prison
(By Michael Gerson)
Charles W. Colson--who spent seven months in prison for
Watergate-era offenses and became one of the most influential
social reformers of the 20th century--was the most thoroughly
converted person I've ever known.
Following Chuck's recent death, the news media--with short
attention spans but long memories--have focused on the
Watergate portion of his career. They preserve the image of a
public figure at the moment when the public glare was
harshest--a picture taken when the flash bulbs popped in
1974.
But I first met Chuck more than a decade after he left the
gates of Alabama's Maxwell prison. I was a job-seeking
college senior, in whom Chuck detected some well-hidden
potential as a research assistant. In him, I found my
greatest example of the transforming power of grace. I had
read many of the Watergate books, in which Chuck appears as a
character with few virtues apart from loyalty. I knew a
different man. The surface was recognizable--the Marine's
intensity, the lawyer's restless intellect. The essence,
however, had changed. He was a patient and generous mentor.
And he was consumed--utterly consumed--by his calling to
serve prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.
Many wondered at Chuck's sudden conversion to Christianity.
He seemed to wonder at it himself. He spent each day that
followed, for nearly 40 years, dazzled by his own implausible
redemption. It is the reason he never hedged or hesitated in
describing his relationship with Jesus Christ. Chuck was
possessed, not by some cause, but by someone.
He stood in a long line of celebrated converts, beginning
with the Apostle Paul on the Damascus road, and including
figures such as John Newton, G.K. Chesterton and Malcolm
Muggeridge. They were often received with skepticism, even
contempt. Conversion is a form of confession--a public
admission of sin, failure and weakness. It brings out the
scoffers. This means little to the converted, who have
experienced something more powerful than derision. In his
poem, ``The Convert,'' Chesterton concludes: ``And all these
things are less than dust to me/ Because my name is Lazarus
and I live.''
Prison often figures large in conversion stories. Pride is
the enemy of grace, and prison is the enemy of pride. ``How
else but through a broken heart,'' wrote Oscar Wilde after
leaving Reading Gaol, ``may Lord Christ enter in?'' It is the
central paradox of Christianity that fulfillment starts in
emptiness, that streams emerge in the desert, that freedom
can be found in a prison cell. Chuck's swift journey from the
White House to a penitentiary ended a life of
accomplishment--only to begin a life of significance. The two
are not always the same. The destruction of Chuck's career
freed up his skills for a calling he would not have chosen,
providing fulfillment beyond his ambitions. I often heard him
quote Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and mean it: ``Bless you,
prison, for having been in my life.''
Chuck was a powerful preacher, an influential cultural
critic and a pioneer of the dialogue between evangelicals and
Catholics. But he was always drawn back to the scene of his
disgrace and his deliverance. The ministry he founded, Prison
Fellowship, is the largest compassionate outreach to
prisoners and their families in the world, with activities in
more than 100 countries. It also plays a morally clarifying
role. It is easier to serve the sympathetic. Prisoners call
the bluff of our belief in human dignity. If everyone matters
and counts, then criminals do as well. Chuck led a movement
of volunteers attempting to love some of their least lovable
neighbors. This inversion of social priorities--putting the
last first--is the best evidence of a faith that is more than
crutch, opiate or self-help program. It is the hallmark of
authentic religion--and it is the vast, humane contribution
of Chuck Colson.
It is a strange feeling to lose a mentor--a sensation of
being old and small and exposed outside his shade. Chuck's
irrational confidence in my 21-year-old self felt a little
like grace itself. The scale of his life--a broad arc from
politics to prison to humanitarian achievement--is also the
scale of his absence. But no one was better prepared for
death. No one more confident in the resurrection--having
experienced it once already. So my grief at Chuck's passing
comes tempered--because he was Lazarus, and he lives.
Mr. COATS. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Casey.) The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
[[Page S3164]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in
morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________