Is Our Character Set in Cement? Chuck Colson’s Story Says No

In this installment of ‘When Character Counted,’ we meet Nixon’s ‘hatchet man’ who became a bringer of light to prisoners and countless others. 

In 2008, Charles “Chuck” W. Colson stands with President George W. Bush after being presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal. Public Domain

On June 21, 1974, a federal judge sentenced Charles “Chuck” Colson (1931–2012) to one to three years in prison for the Watergate-related crime of obstruction of justice regarding the case of Daniel Ellsberg. The attorney who was considered Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man,” Colson pled guilty—astonishing many Americans. Those in the media who despised Nixon were especially happy with his conviction.

But that surprise turned to shock when the trial ended and Colson addressed the members of the press from the courthouse steps. “What happened in court today was the court’s will and the Lord’s will—I have committed my life to Jesus Christ and I can work for him in prison as well as out.”

That remark brought a barrage of skepticism and scorn. Convinced that Colson was looking for a get-out-of-jail-early card and well aware of his reputation, opinionmakers and broadcasters mocked him mercilessly. As Colson later said, the words he spoke after his trial “kept the political cartoonists of America clothed and fed for a solid month.”

What many of these critics didn’t know was that Colson’s transformation from ruthless scalp-hunter for the president to born-again Christian began months before his trial. And what no one could know was that Colson would become not only a renowned Christian leader and writer, but that he would establish a ministry, Prison Fellowship, that has lifted up countless incarcerated men and women over the last 50 years.

American president Richard Nixon (1913–1994) announces his resignation on national television, following the Watergate scandal, on Aug. 8, 1974. Pierre Manevy/Express/Getty Images

The Rise and Fall of the Hatchet Man

All evidence, including his own accounts, depict Colson as a go-getter from childhood, a ladder-climber driven by ambition. He poured himself into his studies, graduated in 1953 with honors from Brown University, served two years in the Marine Corps, where he rose to the rank of captain, and took his law degree at George Washington University. Eventually, he founded a successful law firm based in Boston and Washington.

In 1969, already involved in politics for several years, Colson joined the new Nixon administration. There, he served in different capacities, but soon became what White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman termed “the president’s hit man.” Colson said he was willing to be “ruthless to get things done,” and his fealty to the president was absolute.

Yet with the Watergate scandal unfolding after the president’s reelection in 1972, Nixon and others on his staff decided that Colson had become too much of a liability to continue working at the White House. He was unhappy about being forced out of the administration, but returned to private practice. As more revelations of scandal emerged, however, he was sucked back into the whirlpool that was taking down the Nixon presidency. It would eventually land him in Alabama’s Maxwell Prison.

A 1969 photo of Chuck Colson at the Nixon Presidential Library. Public Domain

The Road to Damascus, American-Style

It was during this limbo between his work in Washington and his conviction and imprisonment that Colson experience the sea change of belief and character that would mark him for the rest of his life.

While rebuilding his law practice, he met with an old acquaintance, Tom Phillips, president of the Raytheon Company. Colson noticed something different in his friend, and Phillips told him that he had given his life to Christ. Little changed in Colson that day, but with the winds of Watergate now a storm in his life, he paid Phillips another visit, and his worldview was forever changed.

During that meeting, Phillips again talked of his newfound faith, shared some passages about the sin of pride from C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity,” read several passages from Scripture to Colson, and then gave him his copy of Lewis’s book. When Colson left, he began weeping so hard that he had to pull his car to the side of the road. It was there along a dark country road that he prayed, and his new life began.

“Born Again,” Colson’s first book and best-seller, described his conversion experience. He explained his mental and spiritual struggles as he wended his way into this newfound vision of faith. After leaving prison, he eventually established the prison ministry for which he became famous. To others, he humbly said: “I thank God for Watergate.” He would say the same thing of his prison experience.

"Born Again" by Charles "Chuck" Colson.

Character and Change

Chuck Colson’s declaration of faith on the courthouse steps was an act of character. He never retreated from it. Yet his life, broken in half between his wrongdoing and redemption, also serves as an example. Our character, the way we think and feel, and what drives us to act, isn’t set in stone; it can change.

In an article written 50 years after that life-altering meeting with Phillips, Colson’s daughter Emily describes the results in this way:

Millions of lives have been changed. Including my own. When my dad gave his life to Christ, I got my dad back. For the first time.

This ability to strike out in a new direction, with a completely new set of values, is Colson’s lesson for the rest of us. We can remember it in the times when character counts.

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