Known as the hatchet man when he worked for President Nixon, Charles Colson has been changed by Christ, and the Republican Party has changed with him.

As much as any one person, Colson has helped move the party from its country club, business-oriented conservatism of the 1960s and 1970s to what George Bush likes to call compassionate conservatism.

Colson has helped effect that change without the hardball political strategies he used in the Nixon White House from 1969 to 1973. Colson, who served time for his role in the Watergate scandal, has spent most of the past 25 years visiting inmates in prison.

His political influence is revealed in a new biography,* A Life Redeemed,* by Jonathan Aitken, a former rising star in the Tory Party in England who also wrote an award-winning 1993 Nixon biography.

Aitken, though a friend of Colson, tells the story warts and all, sharing plenty of evidence for a clear change of life in Colson but also reviewing his weaknesses.

Colson went through a conversion to Christ during the Watergate scandal in 1974 and then pled guilty to Watergate-related crimes. His time in prison gave him a new purpose in life: to share his new faith with other prisoners. The result has been a remarkable impact through his Prison Fellowship ministry, which encourages volunteers to visit prisoners, provide Bible studies, and help inmates find jobs and make the shift to freedom and responsibility in society.

As much by his example as anything he has said, he has made it possible for Republicans to talk about compassionate conservatism and join the debate with Democrats over helping those in need.

Now the Democrats are dismayed at losing the values voters in red states in the 2004 election. They are trying to figure out how to start talking about faith too. Even Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, recently found a Bible and called for an increase in the minimum wage by quoting the prophet Amos: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.” He described the plea for a wage increase as a “moral obligation.”

A more direct example of Colson’s influence: When George W. Bush, as governor of Texas, was worried about the costs of prisons, Colson’s organization offered to start a faith-based program to prepare inmates for life outside of prison. The InnerChange programs in several states have helped inmates come to salvation and grow, but they also have attracted the attention of, and a lawsuit from, the American Civil Liberties Union. Prisoners are not forced to go into the programs, but the ACLU contends that the effort violates the First Amendment. Colson’s imprint has also been felt in several other states, as governors and other state officials have tried all kinds of new faith-based approaches to prisons and reentry programs that prepare inmates to return to society. Former Indiana Secretary of State Ed Simcox, a member of the Prison Fellowship board for 18 years, sees Colson having a long-term political impact. “There’s the Chuck Colson of the Nixon era, helping Nixon reach beyond traditional groups to form new alliances written off by the Republicans and taken for granted by Democrats—labor unions, for example,” Simcox said.

“Then you have the post-conversion Colson who showed the whole idea of compassion toward prisoners,” Simcox continued. “Traditional conservatives wanted to lock them up and throw away the key.”

Aitken’s biography is interesting because Aitken himself went through an experience similar to Colson’s. He was a rising star in the Tory Party until perjury charges in a minor scandal brought him down, resulting in his conversion to Christ and a sympathetic grasp of the change in Colson’s life.

Aitken’s biography shows that Colson, while retaining a keen interest in politics, is seeking a cultural transformation that transcends his old political strategies. He looks across the ocean to England for his role model in William Wilberforce, the 18th-Century member of Parliament who led the movement to abolish slavery. Wilberforce was a Tory but eventually transcended party politics with his faith-based reform efforts.

Colson, though very much a conservative and Republican, would be quite pleased if Democrats like Ted Kennedy would compete with the Republicans in using creative ways to bring faith to bear on issues such as criminal justice. Sen. Kennedy may not understand the Scriptures very well at this point, but, for whatever reasons, he is appealing to the right kind of authority in a new way.