[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6733-6734]
[From the U.S. 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.
  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,

[[Page 6734]]

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.
  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.

                          ____________________