On Saturday, Charles Colson -- Nixon-"dirty-tricks"- man-turned-evangelist -- died of complications following brain surgery. He was 80. Click here to read his Washington Post obituary.
Approximately 22 years ago, when Colson was as old as Flannista is now, Flann had the first of several encounters with the deceased founder of Prison Fellowship, an organization that seeks "the transformation of prisoners and their reconciliation to God, family, and community through the power and truth of Jesus Christ".
My first encounter was peripheral -- writing Prison Fellowship (PF) fund-raising direct mail packages through an advertising agency I worked for. After reading PF's history and prisoner testimonies, I
became a PF volunteer, showing up weekly in various area prisons in my clowning outfit to participate in Bible studies with prisoners. It was very gratifying.
After the publication of a small booklet I wrote about my struggle with suicide, I was asked to lead PF devotions one morning. Following the service, Colson's then-speechwriter and research assistant (he has had several) approached me and suggested that perhaps I would not have been suicidal after my Christian conversion in 1973 if I had spent "more time reading the New Testament." I had only quoted from the Old Testament (Isaiah 49:15-16) in my remarks. Initially stung by his comment, I let it go after receiving several letters from PF employees about how much my remarks had helped them.
Several months later, I was chosen to be a member of a six-person consulting team hired by PF to travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil to investigate a prison system called APAC that featured no bars or locks and a recidivism rate of just 2% (the United States prison recidivism rate is 52%). What was working in this system? Could it be replicated in the United States? I was the storyteller. Unlike my fellow team members, I was curious to visit other prisons in the immediate area so I could better contrast APAC. In one of those prisons, I contracted the ligonella bacteria and became very ill, so ill that in the middle of the night, I left my hotel room and walked to the APAC prison where a group of gay prisoners with AIDS cared for me in the solitary confinement area until my fever broke the next morning. They then walked me back to my hotel. One of the prisoners gave me a bottle of perfume and a note that said, "Even though you will be distant from us now, you will always be in our hearts." Four months later, the story I wrote about my night with them took an Evangelical Press Association award.
About that time, I came across several editorials by Charles Colson condemning homosexuality and explaining why gays and lesbians were no longer permitted to work for PF; further, they could no longer be PF volunteers. In an October 17, 1990 letter to Colson, I shared my concerns about this directive, ending with:
As you probably know, Marvin Leibman, arch-conservative and protege of William Buckley "came out of the closet" in July (at age 64) and revealed that he was a homosexual. When asked why he did this, he gave three reasons: one, he had had a religious conversion and felt "loved for the first time in his life, thanks to Christ" and thus free to be himself. Two, he had begun to see a therapist. And three, he explained that now that the cold war was over, Americans would have to find a new group (other than communists) to blame for their societal, economic and familial ills. Leibman predicted that the next group to be targeted for blame would be gays and lesbians. Apparently, he was right.
One month later, I received a four-page, single-spaced typewritten response from Colson. In it, he very succinctly and cogently laid out his reasons for speaking out against homosexuality, beginning:
My reason for speaking out against homosexuality is out of concern for the homosexual. Homosexuality is not an acceptable "alternative lifestyle," but a disappointing and soul-destroying deviation. The Bible prohibits its practice and designated homosexuality and lesbianism as "unnatural" and a "perversion" (see Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:26-27. Whatever short-term acceptance and emotional fulfillment Marvin Leibman has found in a homosexual relationship, the Bible indicates that homosexuals will experience God's judgment, a judgment that begins in this life and registers in their very persons (see Romans 1:27b).
Ten years later, PF invited me to attend a 10th anniversary celebration of the APAC research project and read my award-winning story. I asked if PF's prohibition regarding gays and lesbians also included outside consultants. When I was told it did, I shared that I was a lesbian Christian and had been when I first began PF volunteer work in 1986. I was subsequently disinvited from the event, and my story was read by someone else.
My last encounter with Colson was about five years ago when I filmed him for a video I did for TRM's 60th birthday. Mike, my shooter, and I drove to Naples from Orlando with all of our equipment to film Colson at a local hotel. We arrived to a message from TRM's assistant that the Family Research Council (FRC) had contacted Colson that morning wondering if it could film him for a webcast. Colson suggested to FRC that it "piggyback" on Mike and me because he knew that TRM "wouldn't mind," which was true. After we filmed Colson for TRM's video, he handed me the questions I was to ask him for the FRC webcast. The first question was: "Why is homosexuality a deviant lifestyle and therefore an abomination to the Lord?" The second: "Why are gays and lesbians condemned to eternal damnation?" I can't remember the other six questions. I only remember asking the questions (after editing them -- "The Research Council writers aren't very good," he said), and Colson looking directly at me when he explained why someone like me was condemned to eternal damnation. Protective of what was precious to me, I never revealed that I was the lesbian Christian writer who had been the APAC storyteller.
On Sunday, Michael Gerson, President George W. Bush's speechwriter and former research assistant for Colson, published an eloquent tribute to his mentor in the Washington Post. In it, Gerson writes:
The ministry he founded, Prison Fellowship is the largest compassionate outreach to prisoners and their families in the world, with activities in more than 100 countries. It also plays a morally clarifying role. It is easier to serve the sympathetic. Prisoners call the bluff of our belief in human dignity. If everyone matters and counts, then criminals do as well. Chuck led a movement of volunteers attempting to love some of their least lovable neighbors. This inversion of social priorities — putting the last first — is the best evidence of a faith that is more than crutch, opiate or self-help program. It is the hallmark of authentic religion — and it is the vast, humane contribution of Chuck Colson.
I cannot describe the encounter Colson had with his Lord when he breathed his last. I can, however, describe my encounters with Colson. If you are listening now, Mr. Colson, I'd like to call the bluff of your belief in human dignity. If everyone matters and counts, then I do as well. One day, we will again encounter each other, and you'll see what I mean.
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