AL QUIE: GOVERNOR, STATE SENATOR, CONGRESSMAN, CHRISTIAN

I read this tribute to Al Quie, winner of the Wilberforce award, and thought the following incident breathtaking:

. . . Seven months into my [Chuck Colson] prison term, I was facing a pair of family crises. Al called and said he was going to go see the president to ask Gerald Ford if he, Al, could serve the rest of my prison sentence. I was overwhelmed. His willingness to lay down his life for me was a turning point: I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ was real.

After retiring from political office in 1983, Al did not go into business or lobbying, as many politicians do. He began serving on the Prison Fellowship Board of Directors, where he fulfilled his passion for reaching out to society’s outcasts: prisoners. He then joined the Prison Fellowship staff, not as a national leader, but as a state director out in the frontlines of the ministry. Later he became president, and he has been my closest friend and colleague over the years.

Today, at age 84, Al still spends hours ministering in prisons—especially at the aptly named Albert H. Quie Unit in Lino Lakes, Minnesota.  There, in 2002, he helped Prison Fellowship launch the InnerChange Freedom Initiative® for prisoners willing to invest hard work in turning their lives around through biblically based character development. Quie is a mentor, teacher, and even surrogate father and grandfather to many of the men—modeling his faith in Christ.

“The guys know that he lives out what he talks about,” says John Byrne, director of the
Minnesota unit. “It really gives them a boost to know that someone of his background and experience wants to spend time with them and cares about their growth.”

For Al Quie, it is simply the right thing to do—to treat everyone with dignity. As his parents did. As William Wilberforce did. And as Jesus does.