Colson’s death reminds me of a couple of warnings in Scripture

Where there is smoke there is fire.  Colson’s death reminds me of a couple of warnings in Scripture.  Jude’s warning and the death of Ananias.

Acts 5:1-6 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? 4 “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5 And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. 6 The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. NASU
Jude 12ff These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever…finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.  < characterizing imposters in the Church.

Jude said it, not me; I just pay attention to it.  So, in paying attention to it what does all this mean?  Be warned; judgment begins with the household of God; what?

  • … This year, in his final intervention in public affairs, Colson denounced the Department of Health and Human Services’ contraception mandate as representing “the first time” in American history that a church-state battle had been decided “by a bureaucrat in a government agency simply writing it and putting it out as law.” That, of course, was nonsense. Federal rule-making with respect to the application of new legislation with respect to religious rights is normal and customary.

  • Those inclined to pay tribute to Colson have deemed him an “evangelist” or a “church leader,” but Silk’s term is more accurate. He was, above all else, a culture warrior — fighting the same battles he once fought in the White House, with the same honesty and decency he displayed there.

“Chuck Colson was a cruel, vain, and arrogant man in all phases of his life, a dissembler and a hater to the end.” — Jeff Sharlet

Anthea Butler:

  • Colson’s life both before and after Watergate was one in which the most powerful people funded and supported the work that he did, whether it be the Nixon administration or Prison Fellowship. Both worlds were mediated by Colson’s worldview. Both were worlds of power and prestige. The message may have changed for Colson, but his support system remained ensconced in a particular kind of power.

Frank Schaeffer:

  • a Watergate felon who converted to “evangelicalism” but never lost his taste for dirty political tricks against opponents.
  • Colson was a vocal far right leader who tried to fill my late father’s religious right leadership (Francis Schaeffer) shoes by borrowing material from his books, even repeating one of Dad’s book titles as if he (Colson) was writing a sequel.
  • Colson had his “books” ghost written by Harold Fickett and other writers, some of whom like Fickett (who I worked with closely many years ago) used to complain to me almost daily about what an egomaniac Colson was to work for and how he did all he could to hide the fact that his work was written by others while rarely sharing credit.
  • … Few men have done more to trade (betray?) the gospel of love for the gospel of empowering corporate America and greed through the misuse of the so-called culture war issues to get lower middle class whites to vote against their own economic interests in the name of “family values.”

David Badash:

  • The Los Angeles Times described Colson’s Manhattan Declaration as incautious, “apocalyptic,” “disingenuous,” “irresponsible and dangerous,” and chastised its “Christian religious leaders who, even as they insist on their right to shape the nation’s laws, are reserving the right to violate them.”
  • The Times also labeled the Declaration’s attack on same-sex marriage as a “canard,” “as is the declaration’s complaint that Christian leaders are being prevented from expressing their ‘religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife’.”
  • Colson repeatedly attacked same-sex marriage and homosexuality. He wrongly stated “homosexual behavior” is more “dangerous than smoking, it lowers the life expectancy dramatically.” Colson also falsely stated that legalizing same-sex marriage was “sanctioning behavior known to be dangerous.” And, again falsely, stated that gays and lesbians “don’t want marriage; they want their sexual choices affirmed as normal and moral.”
  •  And as late as last year, despite years of research to the contrary, Colson was publicly advocating that homosexuality was both a choice and avoidable if parents “properly” raised their children.

David Sessions:

  • In 1994 he led an entourage of prominent evangelicals who collaborated with Catholic writers and theologians to sign the statement “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” published in the Catholic-flavored journal First Things.
  • In 2002 Colson and other evangelical leaders signed an open letter to President George W. Bush praising his “bold, courageous, and visionary leadership” and giving their blessing to the Iraq War
  • And in 2009 Colson was part of another major ecumenical statement: the Manhattan Declaration, an evangelical-Catholic manifesto that called for civil disobedience against abortion and gay marriage.

To the very end of his long career, Colson maintained that enemies list. While others may remember him fondly, those who found themselves on that list most remember his enormous capacity for hatred, dishonesty and dirty tricks. They witnessed it and suffered it firsthand.

What’s remarkable about Colson’s legacy is not just how angry he managed to make the enemies that he bore false witness about and harmed for so long. Their anger is understandable and wholly appropriate. What’s really remarkable about Colson’s career is how very many such enemies he chose to make and how much damage he was able to do.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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