What is the Watergate scandal?
In 1972, when Republican President Richard Nixon was running for re-election, the United States was involved in the Vietnam War and the country was deeply divided. A forceful presidential campaign therefore seemed essential to the president. Their aggressive tactics included what turned out to be illegal espionage.
In May 1972, members of President’s Committee to Re-Elect the President broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters, stole copies of top-secret documents and bugged the office’s phones. However, the wiretaps failed to work properly, so on June 17 a group of five men returned to the Watergate building. As they were preparing to break into the office with a new microphone, a security guard noticed someone had taped over several of the building’s door locks. The guard called the police, who arrived just in time to catch the spies red-handed.
Nixon took aggressive steps to cover up the crime afterwards, but in August 1974, after his role in the conspiracy was revealed, Nixon resigned.
Charles Colson:
He was known as Nixon’s hatchet man. Colson’s early career in secular politics was successful. It led him to the White House as a senior presidential aide but ended in spectacular failure during Watergate. It was during this time when he was facing arrest that he was introduced to Christ. Colson’s repentance was authentic. The most dramatic sign of this was that he became so convicted of sin that against the advice of his own lawyer he decided to plead guilty.
During the time he spent in jail, Colson had to learn many lessons in humility and penitence. Blows rained in on him. He failed to gain the presidential pardon that he had been expecting. He was disbarred from practicing law. His father died. His son was arrested for narcotics possession. But Colson gradually began surrendering to God’s will. He immersed himself in Bible reading, started a prayer group with fellow prisoners. It was during these deep trials that he became closer to God.
What Charles Colson learnt from the Watergate scandal:
- God can use our biggest failure for his glory
Charles Colson was very powerful earlier. But God used his failure to bring glory. Through his failure, Colson came closer to God and started the prison fellowship through which he touched the lives of numerous prisoners. He himself quotes this:
“But all at once I realized that it was not my success God had used to enable me to help those in this prison, or in hundreds of others just like it. My life of success was not what made this morning so glorious — all my achievements meant nothing in God’s economy.
“No, the real legacy of my life was my biggest failure — that I was an ex-convict. My greatest humiliation — being sent to prison — was the beginning of God’s greatest use of my life; He chose the one thing in which I could not glory for His glory.”
- Resurrection is real- Cover- ups don’t work
Through Watergate scandal, Colson came to realize that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was real. The disciples, on the night Jesus was arrested ran away from him fearing for their own lives. But they all changed from cowards to men of faith after the resurrection. This change in behavior could not have happened if the resurrection was not true. Colson quotes:
“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”
Never underestimate what God can do in your life. Sometimes, things happen in our lives and it looks like it is the end of the world. As humans, we all are going to fail. Some failures might be really big. But it is during times like these that God works a change in our lives and it ultimately brings him glory.