"(CNN) – Chuck Colson, a Watergate-era “hatchet man” for President Richard Nixon who became an influential evangelical leader after serving time in prison, died Saturday afternoon, according to his website. He was 80.
His death came just over three weeks after Colson “was overcome by dizziness” while speaking at a conference and rushed to a northern Virginia hospital. Surgeons operated on him for two hours for a brain hemorrhage
“At times, Chuck showed encouraging indicators of a possible recovery, but his health took a decided turn, and he went to be with the Lord,” said the statement on his Website.
News of his death soon stirred reactions, with David Frum – a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and a CNN contributor – saying on Twitter that Colson made his “greatest impact when furthest from power.”
“The world has lost a brilliant, passionate, persuasive, humble servant in Chuck Colson,” said Lee Strobel, an evangelical commentator and author, also on Twitter. “He showed us all how to live in truth and grace.” … ."
I think he was an outstanding man. Yet it took a prison sentence due to Watergate for him to realise that his Christianity in politics had merely been lip service.
He admitted he owed a lot to CS Lewis, and commented that Lewis was so logical and so persuasive that he could only be thankful he had never faced him in a court of law.
I think he also had a sincerely Christian wife, and no doubt that helped.
After he got out of prison, having seen first hand the barriers prisoners faced, he set up Prison Fellowship in 1976. Their history is linked below.
I hope so. From all appearances. he has repented. He and his group (Manhattan Declaration) are staunch supporters of right to life, sanctity of marriage, etc.
He had a very strong conversion while he was in prison.
He was one of the two keynote speakers at the very first Michigan Catholic Men’s Conference. He spoke on his prison ministry and how his own time in prison helped him grow as a man.
I also especially admire his work on the Manhattan Declaration.
How about not getting into that. The occasion of someone’s death is not the time to criticize his life.
I didn’t see eye to eye with Colson, but he did provide a good model for persons whose lives are off the rail. And his prison ministry no doubt did good as well. As Christians, and as human beings, we should care more about the imprisoned.
May God have mercy on Chuck Colson. And may God have mercy on all of us, who do not know the hour of our passing.
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