The Resurrection …
a Leveler of Men
Published in Marietta Daily Journal March 27, 2916
Charles
“Chuck” Colson was a distinguished lawyer.
Anyone who remembers the Watergate scandal of the 1970’s will recall
that Colson was President Richard Nixon’s Special Counsel who went to prison
for his part in the Watergate cover up.
The much younger Lee Strobel is a
former Chicago Tribune investigative reporter and legal editor. An avowed atheist, he held disdain for all
people of faith. He was particularly
scornful of creationists.
Lit
Ursry was neither educated nor at the height of a profession as were Colson and
Strobel. He was a small cotton farmer,
always struggling to make ends meet. His
godly wife and two small children seldom missed church. But somebody usually gave them a ride because
Lit was too drunk to drive on weekends.
Easter is a good time to ponder how
different these men were and how the Resurrection message changed their lives,
rendering them far more alike than one could ever imagine.
I’ve never met Colson or Strobel,
but I knew Ursry and his small family.
From their very public lives and the books they have written, I learned
that both Colson and Strobel experienced a life transformation that was
undeniably real and continues to produce good fruit that affirms its authenticity. Because I was there when it happened, I can
affirm that Lit Ursry experienced a life change also, one for which Colson and
Strobel would rejoice.
In 1972 the break-in at the
Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Building kept
Americans glued to their newspapers and television. The break-in was eventually linked to Nixon’s
re-election committee. Nixon resigned
and several members of his administration were jailed.
Colson was the first member of
Nixon’s administration to go to jail, having pleaded guilty to obstruction of
justice. He was considered Nixon’s
“hatchet man” and was admittedly the keeper of Nixon’s infamous enemies’ list.
Just before he was arrested, Colson
joined a Washington, D.C. prayer group.
Because of the influence of men in the group and the book Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, Colson
became a Christian. Referring to the
Apostles and the effect of Christ’s resurrection on them, Colson declared that
no 12 men anywhere would give their lives for a hoax, but 12 men would and did
give their lives for one whom they saw alive, dead, and alive again. Time would tell whether Colson was genuine or
was having a pre-prison conversion.
Lee Strobel’s belief in the
resurrection resulted from two things: the transformed life of his wife who
became a Christian (“She changed; she became more loving, caring and
authentic”) and the strong belief of some West Virginia Christian
fundamentalists who were protesting science textbooks.
The same year that Colson was
jailed, Strobel was sent by the Chicago Tribune to cover the textbook battle in
Campbell Creek, West Virginia. Expecting
to find reporter-hating hillbillies, Strobel was surprised when he was welcomed
to one of their protest gatherings. Though
he banged out his newspaper article with as much disdain for anti-evolutionists
as ever, he was struck by one comment from a local businessman: “If Darwin’s
right, then we’re all just sophisticated monkeys.”
In time, after incessant reading and
discussions with his wife, Strobel abandoned his atheism, embraced the
resurrection and penned many books including the New York Times bestseller, The Case for Creation.
Lit wasn’t Lit Ursry’s real name. His real name was Holder. He was called Lit, though indecorously,
because he was more often drunk than not. He knew his wife’s church family didn’t look
down on him. They prayed for him and
often took food and clothes to his family.
It was the resurrection message that
changed Lit. Delivered by a young “preacher
boy” from a nearby Christian college on Easter Sunday, the sermon led Lit to
later remark, “I just had to believe it.
I don’t want no god that can’t overcome death.”
Far
from being a “poser” trying to influence his prison sentence, Colson became one
of America’s most well-known Christian writers and apologists. After his release from prison, he founded
Prison Fellowship which supports families of the imprisoned. Lee Strobel, no longer trapped in the purely
material, changed from a smarty atheist and evolutionist to a prolific
Christian writer, teacher and speaker.
Within months of that Easter Sunday, Lit Ursry’s nickname began to
fade. His drinking ceased and everyone
started calling him Holder.
That’s
what the resurrection did for these three quite different men who now have a
great deal in common. They are now
Christian brothers. In a sense all three
of them got a new name. All because of
an empty grave.
Roger
Hines
3/23/16
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