Chuck Colson resides up there with the top half-dozen or so men whom I respect most highly. I love the way his evangelistic passion was joined to a mind fully engaged with the streams of thought current in the world today. What a legacy he has left!
I value Emily Belz's tribute and her highlighting of Colson's accomplishments and thinking.
The Jewish columnist, Mona Charen, wrote:
"This is a deeply cynical country these days, and yes, there is much to be cynical about. But there are people who achieve moral greatness. And one just died today. RIP."
Justin Taylor writes:
Charles Wendell (“Chuck”) Colson went home to be with the Lord this afternoon (April 21, 2012). He was 80 years old.
The announcement is here. You can also read Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s obituary at CT.
Mr. Colson’s memoir Born Again was published in 1975. Earlier that year he had been released from a seven-month stint in federal prison after pleading guilty of obstructing justice in the Watergate investigation. He had converted to Christianity in 1973 after serving four years as Special Counsel for President Richard Nixon. C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity was pivotal in his spiritual repentance and awakening. The memoir was made into a 1978 film starring Dean Jones. In 2005 Jonathan Aitken—himself a former politician turned prison turned convert to Christianity turned author—penned an authorized biography, Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed (WaterBrook Press). On October 15, 2008, Mr. Colson gave his testimony at Columbia University during a Veritas Forum. It was entitled “How God Turned Around Nixon’s Hatchet Man,” and you can watch it below:
From Prison Fellowship "Remembering Chuck Colson":