Chuck Colson Honored with Presidential Citizens Medal

Prison Fellowship Founder Recognized for 35 Years of Dedication to Prisoners, Ex-Prisoners and Their Families

LANSDOWNE, Va., Dec. 10, 2008—In an Oval Office ceremony, President George W. Bush presented Prison Fellowship Founder Chuck Colson with the Presidential Citizens Medal. The award was created by President Richard Nixon in 1969 to recognize U.S. citizens “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”

The Presidential Citizens Medal is one of the highest honors the President can give a civilian, second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Approximately 100 people have been awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal including Hank Aaron, Muhammad Ali, Archibald Cox, Senator Bob Dole, Elizabeth Taylor and Jeana Yeager.

Colson released the following statement about this honor:

“I am deeply humbled by this award for which I can take no credit. Whatever good I may have done is because God saw fit to reach into the depths of Watergate and convert a broken sinner. Everything that has been accomplished these past 35 years has been by God’s grace and sovereign design.

“I do not treat this medal as mine; It is, like in the military, a unit citation. The staff of Prison Fellowship, the thousands of volunteers and the hundreds of thousands of donors have made this possible. So while I am overwhelmed in gratitude to God, I am grateful to all those associated in this movement called Prison Fellowship.”

MEDIA NOTE: A White House photo of Colson and President Bush taken at today’s ceremony is posted at www.whitehouse.gov.

Chuck Colson is founder of Prison Fellowship, the world’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families, and BreakPoint, which equips Christians to live out their faith in the culture.