At the Foot of the Cross: A story you haven't heard

Prison Fellowship Ministries ^ | January 6, 2004 | Charles Colson

[philsoc]

Angel Tree, our Prison Fellowship program for prisoners’ children, is one of the great unheralded volunteer outreaches in America. Over the Christmas holidays these past few weeks, approximately 100,000 volunteers delivered Angel Tree gifts to more than 525,000 children of inmates.

You didn’t read about this in the newspapers, nor would I expect that you should. It’s not really that newsworthy that Christians help people in need. But there are two of our volunteers, who delivered forty presents, that I think you should have read about but didn’t. For reasons best known to themselves, the media ignored the fact that two of the volunteers were President and Mrs. George Bush. And they delivered gifts to forty inner-city kids in a church basement three days before Christmas.

President and Mrs. Bush arrived at three-o’clock, Monday, December 22, at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. Now, presidents don’t move anywhere without a great deal of fuss. The police were out, the roads blocked, and Secret Service were roaming around the church. And when the president arrived, he was accompanied not only by his own team, but also by a pool of reporters, forty or so members of the press. For ten minutes they popped their flashbulbs, scribbled their notes, and then were ushered out.

I remember from my days with President Nixon what photo opportunities are: Get the picture and leave. So I thought the Bushes would shortly depart, but they didn’t. They stayed long after the cameras were gone to greet every child, to have their picture taken with them, their mothers, and their grandmothers, to talk with them, and to ask questions. Though the press didn’t report it, I noticed that both the president and Mrs. Bush talked to the Hispanic children in Spanish.

Just before the president left, I introduced him to Al Lawrence, a member of our staff. I told the president that I had met Al more than twenty years ago in a prison. Jesus had got hold of Al’s life, and he’s been working for us ever since. Then I told the president that Al’s son was now a freshman at Yale. At that point the president stopped, exclaimed, “We’re both Yale parents,” and threw his arms around Al Lawrence—an African-American ex-offender being embraced by the president of the United States in a church basement. The ground is indeed level at the foot of the cross.

I tell you this story because it’s a wonderful Christmas story, and you probably haven’t heard it. With all those reporters who crowded into that basement, the visit resulted in almost universal media silence.

I suppose there are many explanations for this, but I’ll offer mine. The president is a Christian who really cares for “the least of these,” who does this not for photo ops, but because he’s genuine. That is something that his detractors in the media simply can’t handle. Conservatives caring for the poor? Never. It dashes the stereotypes.

But surely Christians ought to be rejoicing that the most powerful man in the world and his wife, a couple of days before Christmas, had a wonderful visit with the most powerless people in our society.

After all, that echoes the Christmas message, doesn’t it? The most powerful came to be with the least powerful to give us hope.

[philsoc]

No matter what you think about GW, you should be willing to admit he's a good man! (w/ a good wife!)

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[Triple Word Score]

No, the media didn't say a freakin' word. Let Clinton trot around with a Bible and it's headline news. Let President and Mrs. Bush do something Christian (and not just for a photo-op) and there's silence.

It should make me feel good but I'm ANGRY! Why didn't this story make Fox at least????

[cyborg]

welcome to FR

[GeronL]

FOX?? No Kobe, no MJ no.... well you get the idea

[lizma]

This is the first I heard that W and Laura were involved. Guess I gottta spend more time on FR.

[Southack]

[onyx]

Welcome to FR. :)

Not surprising our left-wing media ignores so many GOOD stories, particularly when it's a heart-warming, down-home story about POTUS and First Lady, Laura.

[DesertDreamer]

ping! Because the gift of Christmas can make you warm every day of the year.

[Triple Word Score]

You know they didn't do it for the photo-op.

But I'm hoping that there's some comeuppance for the editors, etc., who sent someone there to do reporting, then spiked the story.

The White House has to have ways of punishing these fools. Who gets to be on Air Force One NEXT time there's a surprise jaunt somewhere?

[VxH]

Bookmarked. Thanks for the post.

[onyx]

Excellent points. I agree with you. They managed to bury it --- event took place on December 22, 2003. Damn agenda driven media.

You a Scrabble champ?

[Cultural Jihad]

A great post. Many thanks!

[Mo1]

I tell you this story because it’s a wonderful Christmas story, and you probably haven’t heard it. With all those reporters who crowded into that basement, the visit resulted in almost universal media silence.

Ping to a nice story

[Cultural Jihad]

And Chuck Colson is right. I did a search on Yahoo news and while maybe there were a lot of photos taken in that church on that day, none of them are being published, at least not on Yahoo.

[kayak]

I found this picture on the White House web site. I'm pretty sure it was posted on The Day in the Life thread for that date but it probably came from whitehouse.gov and not any of the media.

philsoc ~~~ Thanks for the story .... and welcome to FR!

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

"...he's a good man!..."

GW and Laura are good people. They do things like this because they ARE good people. Same is so for Chuck Colson, and Al Lawrence, both ex-cons whom our Lord chose for a very special prison ministry.

I met Chuck some years ago, I think maybe in the spring of '77 or '78 at a breakfast meeting in Akron, Ohio where he spoke. This was shortly after he began his prison ministry, and still a very much disgraced former member of the Nixon team.

The press has no regard, will refuse to publicize the activities of God's people like GW, Laura, Chuck and Al unless they have been tainted by showing human frailties. Let the dark side people like Ex-42 or Dr Diablo, er I mean Dean wave a Bible in their face and the Leftist Media is all over it, proclaming their "goodness". Hmmm, aren't we all glad that God knows!

[kcvl]

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 22, 2003

Remarks by the President in Visit with Angel Tree Children
Shiloh Baptist Church
Alexandria, Virginia



3:20 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Reverend Lee. Thank you so much for having us here. Lee, thank you very much. Merry Christmas to everybody.

We are so honored to be here to celebrate the Angel Tree Christmas. This is a program in which people who love you a lot want you to have a merry Christmas. And I want to thank Chuck Colson and Mark Earley of the Prison Fellowship program, which has been hosting and organizing the Angel Tree program since 1982. Six million boys and girls have received their gift on Christmas. And I want to thank you very much for doing that. (Applause.)

Our attitude is, I know the Reverend here at Shiloh shares this attitude, that we change America one heart and one soul at a time; that everybody matters, everybody counts; that every child has got a hopeful and bright future; and each of us has a responsibility of loving that child with all our heart and all our soul. And it's important that all of us during this time of -- joyous time, this holiday, recognize that probably the greatest gift you can possibly give is to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself.

And that's what we're doing today. We're honoring that call to love and the call to service. And so Laura and I are thrilled that you're here. We look forward to joining the good Reverend here as we pass out some of the gifts to the boys and girls.

REVEREND EARL: Absolutely. And thank you for the gifts that you provided.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. We're honored to be here. (Applause.)

We want to wish you a merry Christmas. And we've got some gifts to give out, don't we, Laura?

MRS. BUSH: Yes, we have a lot of gifts to give out.

THE PRESIDENT: Where do we want to start? Right over here? Okay, good.

END 3:23 P.M. EST

[kayak]

The president is a Christian who really cares for "the least of these," who does this not for photo ops, but because he’s genuine.

[pbear8]

Part of the media's effort to surpress the Christian celebration of Christmas.