Criminal, Chuck Colson Knows Something About Harassment

Hypocrisy watch: In an article in today's Christian Post, convicted criminal Chuck Colson claims:

The only point of identifying Proposition 8 supporters is to encourage people to harass them. And the tactic is working.

I'll get back to that but first a little background.

Charles Colson was Richard Nixon's thoroughly ruthless hatchet man. He has been described as the evil genius of an evil administration. Colson was responsible for compiling Nixon's enemies list. Colson attempted to hire Teamsters thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators. He also authored a plan to firebomb the Brookings Institution in order to steal politically damaging documents in the ensuing chaos. Deeply involved in the Watergate crimes, Colson eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice on the basis of having attempted to defame Daniel Ellsberg's character in the build-up to the trial in order to influence the jury against him.

While serving seven months in prison, Colson supposedly became increasingly aware of what he saw as injustices done to prisoners and shortcomings in their rehabilitation That is remarkable insight considering that Colson's short prison stretch was served at the air conditioned "Club Fed" at Maxwell Airforce Base in Alabama. During that time, Colson had access to tennis courts, soccer and softball fields and bocce ball. Prisoners live in a college dormitory setting. No locks on the doors and no bars anywhere. About the only injustice that he might have witnessed was overcooked steak on Friday.

Colson founded Prison Fellowship Ministries. Today, PFM is a $50 million dollar a year enterprise (that somehow loses money in spite of the fact that it depends largely on the efforts of volunteers). Most of PFM's money goes to administrative payroll and consultants. Last year it paid out $5 million to Merkle for fund-raising. The monetary benefit from the Bush faith-based programs is obscured from the financial statements but possibly accounts for as much as 90% of the revenues.

The CEO of PFM is Mark Earley. Not surprisingly, Earley is a Republican political hack. As Attorney General of Virginia, Earley blocked any potential prosecution against evangelist Pat Robertson after an investigation concluded that Robertson diverted his ministry's donations to a Liberian diamond-mining operation. As Virginia's investigation was erupting, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley's campaign — Earley's largest contribution. Just an astonishing coincidence I am sure.

According to author Allan Lichtman in “White Protestant Nation,” Colson continues to be a conservative Republican operative:

Colson  … advised conservative politicians including Texas governor George W. Bush, and worked with Christian right leaders Pat Robertson and James Dobson on the development of political strategy. He disseminated conservative messages on sex roles, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, gay rights, and separation of church and state in his radio broadcasts and columns, reaching millions of Americans.

Colson has opposed same-sex marriage, argued that Darwinism is used to attack Christianity, and claimed that the Enron accounting scandals were a consequence of secularism. He has also argued that Darwinism helped cause forced sterilizations by "eugenicists."

Getting back to Colson's claim that "The only point of identifying Proposition 8 supporters is to encourage people to harass them.  And the tactic is working;" it is a deliberate and calculating falsehood. The point to identifying Proposition 8 supporters is primarily to avoid self-funding the bigotry. The idea is not to provide revenues to businesses that will use some of that money to oppress us. In addition, a boycott of those businesses is a legal and effective economic lever.  We are forced to counter the billions of dollars that are spent each year by evangelical organizations to oppose our civil rights.

In contrast, the petty boycotts by the American Family Association (like the one against Hallmark for their "sin" by creating a gay wedding card) are far more pervasive. They organized a profoundly moronic boycott – which succeeded – against McDonalds for donating to the LGBT Chamber of Commerce. That endeavor was marked by hyperbole, hatred and deliberate misstatements.

Whether or not Colson actually found God is irrelevant. Colson was – and continues to be – a ruthless and immoral GOP tool. Indeed, I have gone back over three years of Colson's columns in the Christian Post. How many articles has he written about crime and prisons? Zero!