Born Again, Again - A biography of Charles Colson is yet another cover-up.
From Max Blumenthal's review of "Charles Colson: A Life Redeemed." It's a perfect example of the effective biography/hagiography machine that's part of the massive Republican/Religious Right media industry. Spin, spin, spin, spin, and spin . . . .
[A]long comes an authorized biography, Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed. The former Watergate felon tapped Aitken to write this account of his metamorphosis from White House hack to man of God, and it is an inspired choice. Aitken himself is a disgraced former Tory cabinet minister who went to prison in 1999 for perjury in a bungled libel suit against The Guardian, which had run a series of articles detailing his illicit dealings with Saudi arms traders. He met Colson in the course of writing a glowing biography of Nixon, and Colson ministered to Aitken during his seven-month prison term. Under Colson's influence, Aitken became, as they say in Britain, a “Christer” and a board member of Colson's Prison Fellowship International.
Just before he launches into a description of Colson as “America's best-known Christian leader after Billy Graham,” Aitken assures readers that his book “is not religious, political, or personal hagiography.” But it's hard to know what else to call a book that hyperbolizes up an impressive enough conversion tale, selectively presents key characters, omits inopportune facts, and glosses over the subject's more politically incorrect views.
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No conversion story can be told without first recounting the wretched deeds and failings of the fallen sinner. With Colson, it's a rich lode. There was the time in 1972, for example, when Colson arranged for a Gary Hart impersonator to place a rude phone call to former AFL-CIO chief George Meany (Hart was then George McGovern's campaign manager), resulting in the union's refusal to endorse the Democratic nominee. Then there's the story of how Colson diverted $8,000 of Nixon campaign funds to purchase copies of a book that purported to document the “anti-Nixon bias” of the television networks during the 1968 campaign. (Through these bulk sales, the book made The New York Times' bestseller list.) And who can forget the tale of how Colson masterminded the break-in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, a crime which would eventually land him in prison?...Aitken does not tell the whole story. The Colson he portrays emerges from prison nearly apolitical, struggling only “to understand what exactly God was calling him to do.” In his search for answers, Colson sought guidance from emerging leaders in the insular evangelical subculture, men like Doug Coe, Francis Schaeffer, and “Jim” Dobson. Their names are dropped into Colson's story without any background information, suggesting not the slightest hint that Colson had integrated himself into an incipient political movement now known as the Christian right.
These men are not your normal man's Bible study partners. Aitken notes that it was Coe who first introduced Colson to evangelical culture through a group with the friendly name of Fellowship House. But he neglects to mention that Fellowship House is a front for “The Family,” a highly secretive, all-male cadre of largely right-wing congressmen, industry chieftains, and members of the military. Jeffrey Sharlet, a journalist who infiltrated The Family for Harper's magazine, has described the goal of The Family to be “an 'invisible' world organization led by Christ.” Similarly, while Aitken writes about the influence of theologian Francis Schaeffer on Colson, he fails to explain that Schaeffer was the chief proponent of a theology known as “Dominionism,” which commands Christians to put the United States under the control of biblical law, not the Constitution.
Perhaps the most egregious of Aitken's omissions involves James Dobson, who appears simply as a nice man who helped Colson get his broadcast career off the ground. Absent is any mention of the evangelical power broker who spoke alongside Colson during the summer of 2004 at a series of stadium rallies against gay marriage and John Kerry. Missing as well is the leader who helped organize last April's Justice Sunday, a national broadcast in support of President Bush's stalled judicial nominees. At the height of the event, Dobson lashed out at the Roe v. Wade decision, comparing it to the Nazi genocide of Jews: “That has now resulted in 44 million deaths, the biggest holocaust in world history, that came out of the Supreme Court.”
It might not be worth mentioning the political and religious agendas of these men if the born-again Colson dedicated his life purely to hands-on ministry and stayed above politics. However, while you would not know it from reading Aitken's treatment, Colson is still mired in the thick of conservative politics. It wouldn't have been difficult for Aitken to find examples of Colson sharing his strongly held—and often quite extreme—political views. In a recent Beliefnet commentary, Colson suggested that homosexuals are “lower than the animal species.”... And perhaps most disturbingly, during a 1994 radio commentary on the killing of David Gunn, an abortion doctor, by Michael Griffin of Operation Rescue, Colson remarked: “It is a sad day indeed when our national leaders can't tell the difference between a martyr and a murderer.”
Some of Colson's controversial political positions are even directly related to his work with Prison Fellowship. In a 1997 essay for Christianity Today, Colson argued in favor of “zero tolerance for any violation of public order,” advocating draconian punishment for crimes like loitering. Yet only in passing does Aitken mention that Colson has pressured state legislatures to pass “zero-tolerance” laws, and he doesn't explain what those are or why Colson favors them. Similarly, Aitken's portrayal of Colson visiting Mississippi's death row in 2001 “to bring a message of faith, hope, and love to inmates” avoids discussion of Colson's ardent support for the death penalty.
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Colson's makeover is not without precedent. The next generation of evangelical conservatives has studiously promoted their interest in issues traditionally associated with liberals and whitewashed their less palatable stances as they begin to take the movement's reins. Ted Haggard, the fresh-faced director of the National Association of Evangelicals, barnstorms around the country stressing the need for “creation care” of the environment. Rick Warren, the new golden boy who has been written up in New York Times columns and New Yorker profiles, is eager to talk about everything except homosexuality and abortion. Even Pat Robertson has gotten into the act, appearing alongside social liberals like Bono and Ellen DeGeneres in a campaign to stop global poverty. The new evangelical considers it gauche to answer questions about “judicial tyranny,” the “homosexual agenda,” or the New World Order. They're focused on poverty and the environment, don't you know?Inspired by the Christian right's campaign to mainstream itself, Aitken's book is an impressive piece of public relations.... [But,] Colson no longer attacks individuals in the service of Nixon; he attacks them in the name of God.
