This week in Christian history: Chuck Colson dies, Hannibal Goodwin born, Sixtus V becomes Pope

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, April 21, 2024

Chuck Colson dies – April 21, 2012

Chuck Colson, founder of The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, addresses the media about the 'Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience' in Washington, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. — Chuck Colson, founder of The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, addresses the media about the "Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience" in Washington, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. | The Christian Post

This week marks the anniversary of when Chuck Colson, a former Nixon administration figure who became a born-again Christian during the Watergate scandal, died at the age of 80.

Colson had developed a reputation as being President Richard Nixon’s "hatchet man" or "evil genius," but then found himself facing arrest for his ties to the Watergate situation.

After a friend gave Colson a copy of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, he became a born-again Christian and later founded an inmate ministry known as Prison Fellowship and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

“Evangelical Christianity lost one of its most eloquent and influential voices today with the death of Charles W. 'Chuck' Colson,” stated the ministry at the time.

“Although God worked through Colson to encourage Christians around the world and serve many whom society would often neglect, his greatest love and focus were his family.”