Chuck Colson From Dirty Tricks to Serving Christ

By the time he was 39 years of age, Charles Wendell Colson had accomplished something few of his peers could even imagine: he was a special counsel to the President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon.

Within five years, however, Colson—who once boasted he’d “run over his grandmother” to secure a Nixon election victory—would be a different man in a much different place. Instead of The White House, Colson was in a federal prison, convicted of “disseminating derogatory information to the press” about Daniel Ellsberg, an analyst who leaked secret government papers about the Vietnam War to the media.

It was what happened on the night of August 12, 1973, that would change Colson’s life forever. Sitting with Tom Phillips, then the head of Raytheon Corp., Colson had to face the question of Jesus’ claims on his life. Colson, a former U.S. Marine captain and right-hand aide to the President, broke down and accepted Christ as Savior.

That change allowed Colson to plead guilty to the charge in the Ellsberg case. He was sentenced to a year in jail, and served seven months. But those 210 days changed him. On release, Colson founded Prison Fellowship, determined to bring inspiration and reform to inmates, and comfort to their families. His goal was not only to introduce prisoners to Christ, but to relieve the bitterness inmates had, an attitude that often led released convicts back into the system.

When Colson died in 2012, many praised his conversion. “America is the land of second chances—and few men have made more of theirs than Chuck Colson did. For in addition to loving and serving his country, the former Marine captain and ‘president’s hatchet man’ came to love and serve a God of second chances,” Heritage Foundation president Edwin J. Feulner said.

Jonathan Aitken, a Colson biographer, put it this way: “Look at the incredible good he has done. He completely changed the face of faith-based caring for prisoners and offenders, not just in America but across the world.”

Chuck Colson’s reliance on Christ transformed his life. In turn, Colson remade the lives of countless prisoners, while also touching the culture through radio broadcasts, books, and articles. His legacy lives on today, with Prison Fellowship reaching inmates in 110 nations around the world.

Reflect: A conversion can have a powerful effect on a person’s life. What have you been doing with the gift of salvation God has given you?

Key Bible Texts

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. (Matthew 25:36 KJV)