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 Chuck Colson (Sp) was mention at church this morning. Our church is doing a series on framing your world view, with Chuck Colson, and Rick warren. Do any you you remember it? What did Chuck do to go to prison? What did you think of all the scandal at the time. Just share your thoughts. I love hearing from people, who lived through events, and have personal stories or viewpoints. Thank you

   Its all pretty vague to me because I was otherwise occupied.
   But as I recall offices were broken into . records were stolen or taken
   Men were informed upom and at least three people went to prison.
   I'm sorry I don't recall more clearly but other more brilliant people
   probably do.

Politics as usual and the dummys got cought. Colson did some prison time but NOT for anything connected to watergate.

Actually, Colson was imprisoned for his attempts to cover up Watergate. If you don't believe me, google it. I was eleven or twelve at the time, and was, at that young age, glued to the tv hearings. This was the beginning of my disillusionment, I guess. I'd recommend reading "All The President's Men" for an as-it-happened look at the scandal. I remember that my parents, though democrats, hoped the accusations weren't true out of respect for the presidency and the country. That attitude seems to have gone by the wayside.

btw, I have a lot of respect for Colson these days. He's a deep, out of the box, thinker.

Quote from: marc on Sun Feb 07, 2010 - 21:34:55
Actually, Colson was imprisoned for his attempts to cover up Watergate. If you don't believe me, google it. I was eleven or twelve at the time, and was, at that young age, glued to the tv hearings. This was the beginning of my disillusionment, I guess. I'd recommend reading "All The President's Men" for an as-it-happened look at the scandal. I remember that my parents, though democrats, hoped the accusations weren't true out of respect for the presidency and the country. That attitude seems to have gone by the wayside.

btw, I have a lot of respect for Colson these days. He's a deep, out of the box, thinker.

Thanks Marc, and I agree with you about Mr. Colson. Was he an attorney during that time? Actually thanks everyone. Mr Walker what were you doing (LOL). Marc, you folks sound like very good people.

As former Special Counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973, he is noted for being the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges.[1] He was commonly named as one of the Watergate Seven, but was never charged with, or prosecuted for, any crime related to the Watergate break-in or its cover-up, although he did plead guilty to obstruction of justice in another case.[2] He converted to Christianity in 1973, and the following year served seven months of a one-to-three year sentence in Alabama's Maxwell Prison.[1]

He was indicted for the Watergate cover-up, although his plea bargain only included the Daniel Elsberg,  break in. The indictment , however, centered on Watergate, and he was allowed to plead to the other case only because he didn't believe he had committed a crime in the Watergate coverup, and would not plead guilty.

btw, that wikipedia article contradicts itself. Needs a bit of clean up.

not that the whole Pentagon papers thing was a minor flap.

 Marc, it is interesting that you were such a Young kid, glued to the TV, watching it all, I find that impressive for some reason.

One of my favorite all time books is The Body by Chuck Colson. It gave me new insight into the Body of Christ that I did not have before.

My thoughts on Watergate:  I've never understood why Nixon figured he had to cheat to beat the dog loving snot out of McGovern.

Quote from: Mere Nick on Mon Feb 15, 2010 - 10:33:14
My thoughts on Watergate:  I've never understood why Nixon figured he had to cheat to beat the dog loving snot out of McGovern.

Me too Nick. However, the young McGovernites have matured into the Pelosi, Reid, Obama bandwagon.

   My theory is that Mr. Nixon was given the wrong advice and foolishly followed it.

Supposedly this was driven by Nixon's fear of the Kennedys.

I can see the fear that would come anytime "driven" and "Kennedy" is used in the same sentence.  But why break in on McGovern because of it?

I don't think linear logic was Nixon's strong point. It's been awhile, but I seem to remember Woodward and Bernstein implying that Nixon thought that Ted Kennedy was somehow lying in wait. Maybe it was just spillover paranoia; who knows. 'course Ellsberg says this was all just spillover from the bugs directed at him.

One of these days i'd like to pick up a good overall history of the scandal. The last one I bought was just a Nixon apologetic, so I'm still looking.

Warren commission
Chappaquiddick
watergate
Lewinsk.. Bill and his total disregard for the office. meaning the room

I was still young enough to think it was way cool for Marilyn to sing HB to JFK   

I do wish real American history was tought.  Like how the Fathers prayed to God.


If my people .....

As a Christian, Watergate was one example among many demonstrating how Nixon's deviousness knew no bounds, and was certainly wrong and what happened to Nixon thereafter was another example of "you reap what you sow"

As an American, what Nixon did really doesn't bother me that much, to be honest (given the fact that he had nothing to do with the actual break-in, only the cover up.  A fact usually lost on the average citizen).  He was extremely devious and largely amoral, but if you look at his presidency as a whole he actually accomplished a lot, especially in terms of foreign policy.  And, really, I've always liked Nixon's personality 

So as a voter, I honestly don't care much about Watergate, but as a Christian I could never condone it

And regardless of anything else it was certainly a very difficult and shaming chapter in American History.

NIxon only found out about the tip of the iceburg of truth about it on his way to testify to congress.

He asked, "We didn't have anything to do with that did we?"

Answer, "Actually yes, we did...it was _____________'s idea and project"


He shoulda sold out the conspirators then and there and all would have been OK.

But...he didn't do that. And so...he got involved with a huge scandal.

And in the world of Washington politics...making as much of a mountain as a person can out of a molehill...it is of course a huge huge scandal.

Nixon was actually the first quaker president we had.
He emptied the mental institutions. Putting thousands of Bipolar people out on the street because the cost of housing them was exhorbitant.

He started a relationship with Communist China.

Also the starter of the EPA...the favorite agency of the Democratic party.

Richard Nixon's involvement with the Watergate break-in was either non-existent or very
superficial. He probably knew that the 1972 Committee to Re-elect the President was up to
certain intelligence-gathering schemes (not unusual in a presidential campaign).

But to suggest the President was the mastermind or that he was directly involved would be
inconsistent with his shrewdness (tricky Dicky). There was no possibility of George McGovern
winning the 1972 election. Thus RN was under no compulsion to attempt such desperate action.
His re-election was a fait accompli. So for him to have been party to the break-in seems ludicrous.

G. Gordon Liddy was surely the mastermind of Watergate and since he never "talked, " we can only
speculate as to what knowledge Nixon possessed prior to the debacle.

canuck