Chuck Colson, dead at 80

Apparently he had a sign in his office: "When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow"

 

Colson, with his trademark horn-rimmed glasses, was known as the "evil genius" of the Nixon administration who once said he'd walk over his grandmother to get the president elected to a second term. RIP

 

From his obituary.....

According to his biography, Colson "admits he was guilty of political 'dirty tricks'' and willing to do almost anything for the cause of his president and his party."

But he always denied a quote often attributed to him that he was willing to "walk over his own grandmother to get Nixon re-elected."

 

That may be the shortest post in your esteemed SJ career.

 

It actually was a lot longer, but for some reason there was a mysterious 18,500-word gap when it was posted.

 

I'm too young to remember the Watergate Chuck Colson, but everyone involved in that scandal was wrong for doing so.

I do remember the Chuck Colson who fessed up to his role in that, created Prison Fellowship -- a major Christian ministry to prisoners that has helped get peoples' lives turned around for the positive -- and who wrote several seminal Christian books, including "Loving God." It was hard for me to believe he could be involved in such a major scandal, because he put his political career behind him, had a religious transformation and became a major, major figure in the evangelical community in the decades after that. I generally don't listen to Christian radio -- my wife does all the time -- but his daily commentaries about current events were always on my drive to work, and I always enjoyed listening to them.

RIP to someone who, in the last three decades of his life, spent it being very influential for good.

 

Can't wait for Coked-up Brick Tambland to get a load of that post.

 

Brilliant.

 

Tell that to the prisoners who weren't Christian.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2003/11/jails-jesus