Charles Colson

Charles Wendall "Chuck" Colson founded Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976, "an outreach to convicts, victims of crime, and justice officers. Colson is the author of several books, including How Now Shall We Live? and a daily radio feature, BreakPoint, which airs on 1,000 radio networks. In 1993 Colson won the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion." [1].

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"Known within the Nixon administration as the 'evil genius,' special counsel Charles W. Colson served seven months in prison in 1974 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in the Watergate-related Daniel Ellsberg case. Colson's more notorious ideas, according to some reports, included spreading false information about Ellsberg and firebombing the Brookings Institution. He was also indicted for his role in the Watergate cover-up.

"Colson became a born-again Christian and in 1976 founded the Prison Fellowship Ministries. The volunteer-based organization is designed to bring Bible study and a Christian message to prison inmates and their families. Justice Fellowship, a subsidiary of the group, was founded in 1983 to develop Bible-based criminal justice and prison reform. In 1993, Colson won the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, worth more than $1 million, for his work with the ministry. In addition, Colson, now 65, hosts a daily Christian radio news show. He lives in McLean, Va., and Naples, Fla."

Source: "Watergate25: Key Players," Washington Post, 1997. [2]

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Colson's Ghostwriter

• The March 2002 online edition of the History News Network reported in "Chuck Colson, Moral Leader" that:

"In a recent column published by Christianity Today Chuck Colson, the Watergate-operator-turned-Christian-reformer, went after people caught lying. Predictably, Colson reprimanded Joseph Ellis, who has now become the poster child of deceit. But Colson also expressed disgust with Stephen Ambrose, whom he lumped in with the liars. Ambrose, Colson observed, 'plagiarized portions of other historians' works and -- notwithstanding his public apology -- seemed hardly disturbed by the resulting controversy.' Why, Colson wondered, is there such an epidemic of deceit?

"Perhaps he should interview himself. According to the Los Angeles Times Colson did not write the column, though it carried his byline and photo. His assistant, Anne Morse, wrote it.

"The article remains posted on Christianity Today's website. At the bottom of the article there's a section listing related links. The very first one? We swear we are not making this up: 'Ghostwriting: A Borderline Deceit?'. This editorial, first published in 1982 and then republished just this month, concludes: 'It is time for readers to be freed from the borderline deceit (and conceit) involved in ghost- and ghostly writing. The reader has the right to know that if an author's name is given, it is the true author's true name.'"

• On March 25, 2002, the garret* ("church leaders archives") posted in "Under Fire" that

"Charles Colson has come under fire for a recent column in the magazine Christianity Today. Colson wrote about what he calls the 'Post-Truth Society'. The former figure in the Watergate scandal decries rampant lying in our society. Historian Stephen Ambrose is described as 'dealing in deceit' because he took credit for the work of other historians. Both current and former employees say the problem is that Colson did not write the column. The actual author, they say, was Anne Morse, a full-time writer Colson employs." [3]

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Contact details

BreakPoint
44180 Riverside Parkway
Lansdowne, VA 20176
Telephone: 877-322-5527
E-mail: info@breakpoint.org

SourceWatch Resources

• Anne Morse
• Bush/Republican Initiatives
• communitarianism
• compassionate conservatism
• George W. Bush: The Culture War President
• Presidential Prayer Team
• prison-industrial complex
• religion and empire
• religion-in-prison movement

Contact Details

BreakPoint website: http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=BreakPoint1

External links

Biographical notes

• "Charles W. Colson" in the Wikipedia.
• Charles Colson, NationMaster.com.
• "About Chuck Colson" at Prison Fellowship Ministries.
• Notable Conservative: "Chuck Colson" in the Townhall.com "Conservative Hall of Fame."

Publications

• Charles "Chuck" Colson and Anne Morse, "Burden of Truth: Defending the Truth in an Age of Unbelief" ISBN 0842301909, Tyndale Publishing House, 1998.

Colson on the just war doctrine, preemptive war, and the war in Iraq

• "The Slaughter of the Innocents: Kosovo and Just War Theory," BreakPoint, March 31, 1999.
• "Just or Unjust War?" in Serbia (cache file), Center for Public Justice, April 12, 1999: "Chuck Colson has gone on record declaring that the United States has violated the just-war doctrine by bombing Serbia. Those criteria, he says, do not permit aggression against a sovereign state. The Kosovo violence is a matter entirely internal to Yugoslavia."
• Joseph Loconte, "Rumsfeld's Just War," Heritage Foundation, December 24, 2001: "Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson, citing Christian theologians who first defined the moral limits of warfare, said the U.S. campaign 'would fit the Augustinian-Aquinas playbook perfectly.'"
• Opinion: "Just war: A matter of national security?," Christian Times, October 2002.
• "Just War in Iraq. Sometimes going to war is the charitable thing to do," Christianity Today, December 9, 2002. Colson writes in defense of preemptive military strikes.
• Just War Fact Sheet (Link no longer works: [4]).
• J. Budziszewski, Letter to Colson: "Just War Revisited. Another Look at Just War Doctrine," BreakPoint, December 17, 2002.
• "The Moment of Truth," Townhall.com, March 20, 2003.
• "Terrorism, War, and Evil," Townhall.com, September 11, 2003.
• Interview by ABN News Anchor Lee Webb: "Chuck Colson Speaks Out on America's 'Just War'," Challenge Weekly, March 24, 2003 (printed).
• "A Necessary Show of Strength: Intelligence, Just War, and Iraq," BreakPoint, July 23, 2003.
• "Just War, Terror, and Preemption," Townhall.com, October 27, 2004.

By Colson (and with Anne Morse)

• Most Recent Columns, Townhall.com.
• Columns by Chuck Colson (and with Anne Morse) in Christianity Today.
• "The War at Home: Terrorism in the United States," BreakPoint, September 12, 2001.
• Chuck Colson, "The New 'Security Moms'," Townhall.com, August 25, 2003. Although Morse's name does not appear on this article, it would seem to have been written by her.
• Chuck Colson with Anne Morse, "Sowing Confusion. One small ruling for Texas; one giant leap into the cultural abyss," Christianity Today, October 2003. re gay marriage.
• Chuck Colson with Anne Morse, "The Moral Home Front. America's increasing decadence is giving aid and comfort to Muslim terrorists," Christianity Today, October 2004.

Articles & Commentary

• "Anything Goes to Win," Parida.com, undated.
• "Chuck Colson pardoned by Jeb Bush ," Institute for First Amendment Studies, Winter 2001.
• "Chuck Colson. General Teachings/Activities," Biblical Discernment Ministries, revised November 2000.
• Bill Berkowitz, "The Resurrection of Charles Colson", Media Transparency, June 12, 2005.
• Bill Berkowitz, "Charles Colson fights ruling against his religious based prison program: In strong language, District Court judge ordered prison rehab ministry shut down", Media Transpraency, July 6, 2006.
• Bill Berkowitz, "Colson's complaint: Opponents of faith-based prison programs are enabling terrorists, says Watergate felon Charles Colson", Media Transpraency, October 12, 2006.