Chuck Colson defends Catholics against Bigotry

One of my favorite books is by Colleen Carroll Campbell entitled, The New Faithful. in which she describes the yearning of Generation X and Y for more traditional faith and morality. It reinvigorated my will to fight the culture wars because Colleen's yearlong research has shown that the youth in this nation are more pro-life, and more traditional than their Baby Boomer parents. Colleen hosts an interesting TV talk show on EWTN called Faith and Culture. which airs on Wednesday nights at 11PM EST. It's one of three shows a week which I will stop blogging to watch.

The latest show is an interview of Chuck Colson, co-author with Fr. Richard John Neuhaus of the 1994 document Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission for the Third Millenium Chuck became infamous as one of the Nixon Administration who served time in prison for Watergate, but he turned his life over to Christ, and founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, and is the radio personality in the popular series Breakpoint.
I have long known of Chuck's outspoken leadership on family issues, as well as his respect for the Catholic faith. What I learned during the show, is that he is also married to a Catholic wife.
Here's a recent statement Chuck made in defence of the cartoon in the Philidelphi Inquirer, and the resulting torrent of anti-Catholicism.
"Protestants have a special duty to condemn anti-Catholic bigotry. Shamefully, at one time many Protestants accepted the vile teachings of Paul Blanchard, author of American Freedom and Catholic Power. They supported the anti-Catholic agenda of the group for which he was general counsel: Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Our Catholic brethren should not have to wait to hear our voices forcefully raised against the bigotry now directed against them.
That’s why I am circulating with some other Christian leaders a statement calling on Protestants to join us in condemning this bigotry.
We also call on groups that present themselves as the enemies of prejudice to join us as well. And in particular, we invite Americans United to do so. Let us know once and for all: Are they selective opponents of prejudice? Do they regard anti-Catholicism as an acceptable form of bigotry?"
Chuck Colson has a blog which links back to many of my favorite Catholic blogs, including Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, and is a contributing writer at Catholic Exchange.