Watergate’s Colson Awarded $1-Million Religion Prize

Charles W. (Chuck) Colson, who was imprisoned as the Watergate scandal’s “hatchet man” and later built a worldwide ministry for prisoners, won a $1-million religion prize Wednesday.

“It’s amazing grace that I could be redeemed from the degradation of prison by the power of Jesus Christ to serve his gospel,” Colson said.

The 1993 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion is the largest prize for achievement in any field. The prize is kept higher than the Nobel prizes in such fields as science and literature in the belief that religion is more important.

Colson, 61, served seven months in prison for obstructing justice in the Watergate cover-up as the tough special counsel of then-President Richard Nixon. He later founded Prison Fellowship of Reston, Va., in 1976.

Colson said at a news conference at the Church Center for the United Nations that his own downfall had been his restoration.

“Out of tragedy and adversity come great blessings,” he said. “I shudder to think of what I’d been if I had not gone to prison. Lying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it’s not prosperity or pleasure that’s important, but the maturing of the soul.”

The prize, established by investment manager John M. Templeton, has been awarded annually since 1972. Previous winners include Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. An international panel picks the winner.

Colson said the prize money will go toward his work. Colson’s Prison Fellowship ministry has programs in 800 federal and state prisons and in 54 other countries. It has a paid staff of 280 and about 50,000 volunteers, offers Bible studies and runs work-release programs, marriage seminars and classes to help prisoners after they get out.

Colson related his conversion in the book, “Born Again: What Really Happened to the White House Hatchet Man.”

His conversion initially met widespread skepticism. But his work since then in advocating prison reform, testifying before legislatures and helping inmates has gained widespread respect.