My Prison Pals
Probably because I started my working life as a parole and probation officer and have continued for forty years visiting prisons, running pre-release programs in prisons, and support programs for prisoners families, that it is natural to have a lot of former prisoners among my friends. But two stand out, one in the UK and one in USA. I had dinner with the first a month ago and will have dinner with the second next month.
In the UK Jonathan Aitkin’s story has been highly publicised. In fact he received more media attention than any British politician since John Profumo. He was on John Major’s inner Cabinet in London, a close colleague of Margaret Thatcher and regarded as a future Prime Minister of Great Britain. But he lied under oath over who paid for a stay in Paris Hotel to avoid being accused of accepting favours from a foreign Government to which he was responsible for selling British aircraft. He had committed perjury and was sent to jail. He became bankrupt, his wife left him. Then he found Jesus Christ who forgave him, and a dormant Christianity blazed within following his attendance at an Alpha program.
He has written his story in two books: In Pride and Perjury he tells the story with frank honesty, interweaving the facts behind the newspaper stories with his spiritual journey. This is compulsive reading. The story of how God can make a ‘new man’ from a repentant sinner. With the help of steadfast friends, prayer partners and a close family despite a divorce, he was tried and tested by God ready to face the mystery of a new life.
The sequel to this best-seller, Porridge and Passion describes his journey from sentencing at the Old Bailey, through his incarceration at Belmarsh prison and the many dramas along the way, to his eventual release and the beginnings of a new life with nothing but a black plastic sack of clothes. He writes frankly of subsequent events. He emerged from the jaws of despair a chastened man. How this Old Etonian former Cabinet Minister on Mrs Thatcher’s inner circle and John Major’s inner Cabinet managed to establish new relationships and lasting friendships with fellow prisoners is fascinating – so too is this account of how religious belief transformed his life and began to influence the life of others.
Upon release he was accepted at Wycliffe Hall Oxford to read theology and this reconditioned his mind as well as his soul. I realised as we spoke, he has lost none of his charm, fluency and determination. But now these are used for greater purposes. He has found a new life and meaning to it. The authenticity of this new life which drives him on, and I was pleased to judge for my self. Jonathan Aitkin is on the way to becoming a very influential Christian leader in the UK, supporting Alpha programs and Prison Fellowship.
In many ways Aitken mirrors Charles Colson, the former Richard Nixon White House Legal head, who has gone on to become the most influential Christian leader in USA after Billy Graham. It is not surprising that while Aitkin was in a holding cell awaiting sentencing in the Old Bailey, Charles Colson flew to London just to pray with him, and re-assure him. Aitkin has just published a new biography of Charles Colson.
Almost 25 years ago, Charles W. Colson was not thinking about reaching out to prison inmates or reforming the U.S. penal system. In fact, this top legal aide to President Richard Nixon was “incapable of humanitarian thought,” according to the media of the mid-1970s.
Colson was known as the White House “hatchet man,” a man feared by even the most powerful politicians during his four years of service to President Nixon. Colson became a Christian during the Watergate conspiracy, and then he admitted he was guilty of political “dirty tricks” and willing to do almost anything for the cause of his president and his party.
In 1974, Colson entered a plea of guilty to Watergate-related charges; although not implicated in the Watergate burglary, he voluntarily pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the Daniel Ellsberg Case.
He entered Alabama’s Maxwell Prison in 1974 as a new Christian and as the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges. He served seven months of a one-to-three year sentence. When news of Colson’s conversion to Christianity leaked to the press in 1973, the Boston Globe reported, “If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody.”
In 1976, Colson founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, which, in collaboration with churches of all confessions and denominations, has become the world’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, crime victims, and their families. Colson has spent the last 25 years as head of Prison Fellowship Ministries.
I first met him when he came to Australia twenty five years ago at the invitation of a group of evangelical leaders to establish Prison Fellowship here. They have just celebrated this anniversary. Since that I have met with him frequently and premiered his film “Born Again” in the Lyceum theatre, and subsequently made many television and radio programs with him.
Colson saw early on that reconciliation among offenders, victims, their families, and communities should be a ministry of the Church. He set Prison Fellowship in place to exhort, equip, and assist the church in this ministry. That decision marshalled the involvement of the Church in prison outreach.
Colson has visited prisons throughout the U.S. and the world and has built a movement working with more than 40,000 prison ministry volunteers, with ministries in 100 countries. In the course of touring prisons worldwide, he became deeply concerned with prison conditions and the need for better access to religious programs.
Colson’s personal prison experience and his frequent visits to prisons also prompted new concerns about the efficacy of the American criminal justice system and made him one of the nation’s influential voices for criminal justice reform. Colson’s recommendations have brought together legislators from both political parties and divergent philosophical viewpoints.
In 1983, Colson established Justice Fellowship, now the nation’s largest faith-based criminal justice reform group. To help stem the cycle of crime and poverty, Prison Fellowship, under Colson’s leadership, introduced Angel Tree, a program that provides Christmas presents to more than 500,000 children of inmates annually on behalf of their incarcerated parents. These simple acts of kindness have revitalized hope and reconciliation among millions of children and their families, many of whom subsist below the poverty level. Angel Tree has also launched a summer camping program, partnering with churches in eight selected areas around the country to send the children of prisoners to a Christian summer camp.
Because Colson understood that the work of changing prisoners’ lives should be a global endeavour, Prison Fellowship International was formed in 1979 under his direction. It has since expanded to include national chapters in over 100 countries.
Increasingly, Colson sensed God’s calling to comment on the culture through the written and spoken word. He has written 23 books, which have collectively sold more than five million copies. His autobiographical book Born Again was one of the nation’s best-selling books of all genres in 1976 and was made into a feature-length film.
In 1991 Colson launched a daily radio feature called “BreakPoint,” a unique and well-received attempt to provide a distinct Christian worldview on everyday issues and conflicts. The program is aired daily on over 1,000 radio outlets nationwide.
Colson’s commitment to the unity of the Church led to his co-authorship of a cutting-edge document “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” that significantly helped to build an important bridge between Protestants and Catholics.
His 1987 book Kingdoms in Conflict was a best-selling directive to the Christian community on the proper relationships of church and state, and it positioned Colson as a centrist evangelical voice for balanced Christian political activism.
In recognition of his work, Colson received the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1993, donating the $1 million prize to Prison Fellowship.
In 1999, Colson and Nancy Pearcey co-authored the groundbreaking book How Now Shall We Live? challenging Christians to understand biblical faith as an entire worldview, a perspective on all of life. In this book, Colson and Pearcey argue that the great battle of the twenty-first century is a struggle between the spiritual and the secular worldviews.
In a recent book, The Good Life, Colson reflects not only on his life in politics, prison, and ministry, but also on the lives of historical figures and ordinary people, examining what makes life worth living. He concludes that finding what is true and sacrificing ourselves to that truth lies at the heart of living a good life.
While Colson is one of the Christian community’s most sought-after speakers, he has resolutely refused to establish a speaking fee. Perhaps anticipating criticism of any appearance of self-enrichment by a former Watergate figure, Colson donates all speaking honoraria and book royalties to Prison Fellowship, and accepts the salary of a mid-range ministry executive.
Despite his work critiquing the culture, Colson’s heart is ever with the prisoner. He has clearly never forgotten the promise he made to his fellow inmates during his brief stay in prison: that he would “never forget those behind bars.”
The stories of my prison pals, both these famous ones, and the very ordinary ones, is that God’s grace can reach us anywhere and make us brand new people.
GORDON MOYES
