While I take no delight in anyone's death, and have no doubt that his family and friends will dearly miss him, his religious work has caused untold harm to the place of faith in this nation.
His books and opinions left little room for anyone who differed from his take on things. Long before his conversion, he recognized the place and the power of fundamentalism in American politics. Colson went on to become an unyielding apologist for the hard-liners; his association with Doug Coe, the Family, the Fellowship, C Street and other conservative organizations that have always despised FDR, pushed for low taxes on the wealthy, hated unions and all things that seemingly smacked of "welfare" or "socialism" gave us the Bush Tax Cuts, two wars, huge debt and a social stand-off in Colson's "culture wars," a term he was a part of formulating, and the strategy of which he was instrumental in crafting.
While many in the evangelical world loved the man, I regretted his influence and work in general, though his prison work, no doubt, was of some value, but premised as it was on a "conversion" approach to life, much like those who want to "fix" gays, many of his converts were led into a very narrow form of Christianity and church life.
God bless his family and friends.
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