Born Again by Charles Colson Book Review
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March 28, 1976
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This is a difficult volume to review in that i cannot remain detached from it. Peradventure the best tribute that can be paid to information technology is that it is impossible to approximate it solely as a volume: one necessarily becomes involved with a homo being named Chuck Colson. Earlier I was halfway through, I was alternately cheering him on in his peculiar pilgrim's progress and groaning over his multiple stupidities.
Past Charles Due west. Colson. 351 pp. Old Tappan, N. J.: Called Books. $8.95.
Colson in his previous Incarnation was Richard Nixon'due south "hatchet homo" and proud of information technology. He has since become a "born‐again" Christian. Colson, the doer of muddy tricks and dealer of low blows, made his grandma office of the American political lexicon (the one he would have cheerfully run over if it would help to re‐elect Richard Nixon). When his conversion was fabricated public in mid‐Watergate, information technology produced a spell of coast‐to‐declension sniggering. An Oliphant drawing of that era shows Colson in priestly robes parading in front of the White‐House with a sign reading, "REPENT! For lo, am out to lay it on the House Judiciary Commission."
"Born Again" provides the reply to a popular question of the day: "Is Colson serious?" He is non but serious, merely also he manages to make his conversion entirely credible. At that place is no doubting his sincerity. Few can accept been more aware than Colson how damnably convenient his conversion looked. Nonetheless he made information technology with a considerable amount of intellectual integrity. It is apparent from the description Colson gives of his condition before the conversion that he was in a state approximating a nervous breakdown. Simply perhaps that's but a synonym for spiritual crunch. His first glimpse into what was to get his new earth was given him by the president of the Raytheon Corporation. I do not recollect information technology unfair to suggest that a blackness preacher from North Zilch might not have got through to him at that indicate. Colson was an intensely competitive man who placed high value on ‐worldly accomplishment. But I doubt in that location is any question a skeptic could enhance about his ‐reasons for converting that Colson did non raise with himself.
There he was by the seashore reading C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" and writing "Is There a God?" on his yellow legal pad, and so carefully dividing the page into pros and cons. He did his best to apply his lawyer'due south grooming for argument to the question. Perhaps Bertrand Russell could have demolished the conclusions Colson so laboriously constructed, only accepting Christ is not, finally, a determination 1 makes with the brain.
The book has its lighter moments. There is a charming chapter called "The President's Dark Out," in which Our Man Colson scrambles to help the President, who looks frontward to an evening of musical surcease at the Kennedy Center, with conductor Eugene Ormandy. But no one seems to know if Ormandy is actually actualization. A resourceful White House operator somewhen tracks down Ormandy himself in his Philadelphia lair:
" Ormandy, this is the White House calling'
"'Actually'
"'Aye, the President is trying to find out if Kou are at the Kennedy Middle tonight.'
"Long pause. 'No. I am here at home reading a book.'
"'Oh. Well, thank you lot. Sorry to have disturbed you.' "
Somewhen Colson learns that four war machine bands are playing; the President, restless, settles for them.
In a horrifying epilogue, H. R. Haldeman chastises Colson the next 24-hour interval for having helped the President to escape. "Just tell him‐ he tin't go, that's all," said Haldeman. "He rattles his cage all the time. You can't let him out."
Colson's style is hopelessly clichéridden. He has an amazingly macho value system which fifty-fifty his Christianity hasn't washed much to alleviate. Function of it is evidently a hangoverfrom the Nixon Assistants'south adoration for "toughness." Colson's brothers in Christ are invariably "alpine," "rugged," "lean," "tougn," "rawboned," "jut‐jawed," "wide shouldered," "well‐muscled," etc. About of them seem to have been, like Colson, in the Marines. Surely there are a few flabby, 4F Chri'stians.
One indication of merely how competitive and lonely Colson'south life in the White House must have been is the almost dazed wonder and gratitude he has for the fellowship of his new religion. The deviation between Nixon'southward White Firm, with its backstabbing and undercuttings, and the small circle of Christian brothers who helped Colson through his trials strikes as miraculous. Former Senator Harold Hughes of Iowa,. one-time Representative Graham Purcell of Texas, Representative Albert Quie of Minnesota, and Douglas Coe, a Washington evangelist, gave Colson a sense of community he had never known earlier. The sad thing is that such fellowship is not all that rare. Without pregnant to be blasphemous, I must point out that forms of the same kind of mutual support and counsel can be found in groups ranging from Weight Watchers to liberals in the less‐civilized reaches of
From the standpoint of the historical "record, nonetheless, Colson'southward nei# Christianity is a loss. He is not mean about anyone, has forgiven all onetime enemies and calls no one names. He did not similar John Mitchell and he evidently wasn't crazy nearly Henry Kissinger or Bob Haldeman either. But rather than helpful, straightfor‐. ward statements, such as "Henry Kissinger was a liar" or "Bob Haldeman was a martinet," ane is given only an occasional vignette. Christian Colson will not dwell on the dark sides of his former associates. He actually does believe the Devil made them do it. I still retrieve Colson is as wrongheaded as he can be well-nigh the press, but so. I'm a announcer.
The book slows down toward the stop. Nonbelievers may find Colson's experiences with the Holy Spirit, the organized religion‐healing scene and the week Satan invaded Maxwell Prison house a bit much. But information technology'south his life and his faith: he should exist permitted to witness every bit he chooses, though it would help if he could cure himself of clichés. Since his own release from prison, Colson has started a prison ministry and shows every sign of planning to continue in it. One finishes with the feeling that it would exist really good to sit down down and talk with this man.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/28/archives/born-again.html
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