Capítulo 1
When Kingdoms Collide: Faith, Politics, and the Battle for Society's Soul
In a world where religious and political forces increasingly clash, Charles Colson's "Kingdoms in Conflict" stands as a profound exploration of Christianity's proper relationship to political power. Published in 1987, this work has become required reading in numerous political science and theology programs across America. Colson, who transformed from Nixon's "hatchet man" during Watergate to one of America's most respected Christian voices, brings unique credibility to this subject. Having experienced both the intoxication of political power and the humbling reality of prison, Colson's perspective bridges worlds few authors can. The book has influenced leaders from both political parties, with former Secretary of State James Baker noting that it "should be required reading for anyone entering public service." What makes this exploration so compelling is how Colson weaves historical analysis, theological insight, and personal experience into a narrative that challenges both religious and secular readers to reconsider their assumptions about how faith and politics should interact.
Capítulo 2
The Clash of Two Kingdoms
The book opens with a fictional crisis where Israeli extremists plan to destroy the Muslim Dome of the Rock to rebuild the Jewish Temple. As American officials debate responses, we witness the fundamental tension between political pragmatism and religious conviction. President Hopkins, a devout Christian, sees biblical prophecy unfolding, while his secular advisors focus on geopolitical implications. This dramatization introduces Colson's central theme: throughout history, two kingdoms have existed in perpetual tension-earthly governments operating by pragmatic calculations and God's eternal Kingdom guided by divine principles.
This conflict has troubled societies for centuries. In America today, religious conservatives fight to restore traditional values through legislation, while opponents insist faith must remain private. Both sides have become deeply entrenched, with invective replacing dialogue. Citizens feel forced to choose between extremes in what theologian Richard John Neuhaus calls a confrontation "severely damaging, if not fatal, to the American democratic experiment."
Yet both exclusivist arguments are wrong. There is another path recognizing the proper roles of both political and religious spheres. Throughout history, wise thinkers from Cicero to Augustine have recognized religion's indispensable role in providing society with legitimacy and moral cohesion. Christianity furnished Western civilization with its dynamic purpose and moral foundation.
The American experiment in limited government was founded on this premise. John Adams wrote, "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." Yet humans also need civic structures to prevent chaos. Religion isn't equipped to control political institutions; an independent state is crucial to the common good. The City of God and city of man must remain in delicate balance-when they're out of balance, society suffers.
This conflict intensifies because humanists fail to understand humanity's intrinsic need for God, while Christians often fail to accurately present Christ's radical Kingdom message. The result is a society increasingly divided, with both sides talking past each other rather than seeking common ground.
Capítulo 3
The Human Soul's Desperate Search
Ernest Hemingway's last summer in Spain exemplifies the emptiness of a life without transcendent meaning. His sixtieth birthday celebration in Malaga was extravagant-imported champagne, Chinese food, flamenco dancers, and fireworks. Papa danced through the house with champagne in one hand and shotgun in the other, entertaining guests by shooting cigarettes from their lips.
As the party ended, Hemingway confided while swimming in the ocean, "The thing about old friends now is that there are so few of them." Born to a religious family, he had escaped during World War I to drive ambulances for the Italian Army, where he was severely wounded. After recovering, he became a journalist and writer, settling in Paris among expatriate artists who shared his philosophy that God was irrelevant. Life was to be filled with experiences-writing hard, loving hard, eating and drinking well, war, hunting and bullfighting.
But beneath his vitality lurked depression-what he called "Black Ass." By 1961, Papa had high blood pressure, diabetes, liver damage from alcohol, and mental problems. "What does a man care about? Staying healthy. Working good. Eating and drinking with his friends. Enjoying himself in bed. I haven't any of them-none of them." Having once said that "retirement is the filthiest word in the language," he felt he had already died.
On July 2, 1961, Hemingway rose early in his Idaho home, retrieved his favorite shotgun from the basement, and took his own life. With no God, he asserted control over the one thing he still could-his own death. As the quintessential twentieth-century man, Hemingway embodied the crisis of belief in Western civilization. His "ingenuous nihilism" created a Code Hero living by what "we have instead of God." If life is merely a glass to fill, when emptied, why not smash it?
Contrast this with CNN bureau chief Jerry Levin's transformation during captivity in Lebanon. Kidnapped by Shiite extremists and chained to a radiator for months, this lifelong atheist faced a spiritual dilemma: could he speak to God? After ten days of meditation, Jerry "crossed a spiritual Rubicon" from disbelief to belief. He learned to forgive his captors, seeing how they had inadvertently brought him to God. After escaping with the help of Syrian soldiers, Jerry reunited with his wife Sis, declaring, "I know now that He is always there for us whether or not we are there for Him."
Such conversions are often dismissed as "foxhole religion," yet they reveal a fundamental truth: humans need more than material existence. Without God's presence, we could not long survive together on this planet.
Capítulo 4
The Human Condition: Neither Beast Nor Angel
In Solzhenitsyn's "The Cancer Ward," terminally ill patients are discharged to die on the streets-logical in a Soviet system where God is officially dead. Without God-given worth, man's value is determined solely by usefulness to society. Contrast this with Mother Teresa's care for the dying: "They are created by God; they deserve to die with dignity."
Christianity can never be utilitarian because it holds every human being as precious, created in God's image. The Hebrew law codes emphasized essential human rights and obligations, while contemporary codes like Hammurabi's prioritized property rights. Jesus continued this tradition by affirming the dignity of society's lowest members.
Today's clamor for human rights becomes ironic when many activists reject belief in God. Without a divine standard, human dignity becomes tenuous. As Spinoza observed, man builds his kingdoms according to his concept of God. The rise of atheism has provided unlimited license for tyrants, as governments without moral standards above them become gods themselves.
The Judeo-Christian ethic also insists we're inclined toward evil-man is more than beast but not an angel. William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" powerfully illustrates this, showing British schoolboys descending into savagery when civilization's veneer is stripped away. When awarded the Nobel Prize, Golding described his work as "an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature."
This view contradicts Rousseau's notion that changing social structures alone can perfect humanity. From the beginning of human history, we see not innocence but betrayal and evil-human nature hasn't changed since Cain. Cuban poet Armando Valladares' memoir recounts his twenty-two-year imprisonment by Castro, where he endured showers of human waste and brutal torture. Such cruelty can't be explained merely as products of godless political systems-the problem is human nature itself.
Modern society struggles to acknowledge inherent evil in the human heart. Paul Johnson contends this stems from the loss of belief in individual responsibility. Collectivism encourages the belief that society bears collective guilt while personal guilt is merely an illusion. This misreading of human nature contributes to urban pathologies by denying personal responsibility and dignity.
Capítulo 5
The Revolutionary Kingdom
Two thousand years ago, Palestine was a land in turmoil, its inhabitants bitterly divided by religious, cultural, and language barriers. Rome did little to discourage this volatility, preferring that people's passions be spent on each other rather than their conquerors. Among these disparate groups, only the Jews had hope for the future, clinging to the promise of a Messiah who would free them and reestablish King David's throne.
While some Jews waited patiently, others known as Zealots plotted political strategies including terrorist plots against Rome. Amid this chaos, rumors spread about Jesus of Nazareth, a carpenter who had abandoned his tools to preach and gather followers, reportedly with supernatural powers.
When Jesus returned to speak in Nazareth's synagogue, He read from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then He declared, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
This humble message was Jesus' inaugural address, formally announcing His messiahship and God's rule on earth. The Kingdom of God had come-not as a geographical realm but as a declaration of God's absolute sovereignty. Throughout His ministry, Jesus consistently defined His work as ushering in God's Kingdom, with His miracles authenticating this message by demonstrating His rule over every aspect of earthly existence.
The Jews missed Christ's message because they were conditioned to look for salvation in political solutions. They wanted freedom from Roman rule through a military messiah, not understanding that Jesus spoke of a Kingdom both present and future-like D-Day guaranteeing eventual victory while the fighting continues. Christ's death and resurrection assured ultimate victory, though the final establishment of God's visible rule awaits His return.
Jesus defied expectations of kingship-He served others first, spoke to the marginalized, touched the untouchable, and had no throne or crown. Instead of coming as the expected lion of Judah with chariots and armies, He came as "the Lamb of God"-a sacrifice that purchased His Kingdom at great price.
In announcing His all-encompassing Kingdom, Jesus was expressing the literal theme of Jewish history-that God was King and the people were His subjects. This tradition dated back to Abraham and the patriarchs, when God made His original covenant with the Jews to be His "holy nation." While God's rule is authoritarian, it is also voluntary-the Good News is that the price has been paid, and His Kingdom is open to all who desire admission.
Capítulo 6
Living Between Two Worlds
Jesus set forth radical standards by which Kingdom citizens are to live. His lifestyle would be both costly and complex, but would witness to God's Kingdom values even amid worldly evil. Christ wasn't suggesting that obedient Christians could usher in God's Kingdom on earth-only Christ Himself would do that upon His return.
For this period between the Kingdom's announcement and final consummation, God has provided structures to restrain evil. The state is ordained to wield the sword when necessary, and Christians are commanded to obey the state as God's instrument. Christians therefore follow two commandments: to live by Christ's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, modeling Kingdom values, while supporting government's role in preserving order as witness to God's authority over present kingdoms.
So while Christians aren't to return evil for evil (instead exercising forgiveness), they may participate in God-ordained structures that restrain evil through force. God has provided three institutions for ordering society: the family for propagation of life, the church for proclaiming God's Kingdom, and the state for preserving order.
The family is the most basic unit of government, establishing society's fundamental values and serving as an alternative focus of loyalty to the state. The state was instituted by God to restrain sin and promote just social order. When Pilate questioned Jesus, Christ told him he wouldn't hold political authority if God hadn't granted it. Government originated as God's ordinance-not a remedy for sin, but a means to restrain it.
The church administers worship, meets spiritual needs, and proclaims the gospel. Though not itself the Kingdom of God, the church reflects God's love, justice and righteousness within society. Its most potent social weapon is commitment to love one's neighbor.
Unlike worldly politics, Kingdom politics operates through faith, hope and love. While Jesus didn't come to establish a political kingdom, His Kingdom announcement had profound political consequences. Which is more threatening to a ruler-external foes with visible armies or an eternal king ruling the souls of men and women? The latter commands will and affections, demands absolute obedience, imparts unlimited power, and radically changes values. This is why God's Kingdom has had such astonishing effects upon human empires.
The crucial distinction: human politics assumes society must change to change people, but in Kingdom politics, people must change to change society. Through those who recognize its authority and live by its standards, God's Kingdom invades history, breaking cycles of violence, injustice and self-interest.
Capítulo 7
When Kingdoms Fail Their Purpose
The confrontation between the Nazi regime and German churches intensified as Hitler's true intentions became clear. When rural pastor Schollen sought Niemoller's counsel about reading anti-Nazi statements, Niemoller warned him bluntly that Hitler would replace crosses with swastikas and imprison dissenters. Niemoller forcefully rejected the cautious approach of other church leaders: "Justify yourself to the Lord Jesus!" he shouted, calling Hitler "a coward and a bully" who would terrify those willing to be terrified.
By 1935, Hitler's new Ministry of Church Affairs had declared Confessing Church organizations illegal and used bureaucratic harassment to fragment resistance. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, approaching seventy, brought an unusual background to his leadership position. His Unitarian roots instilled a dedication to public service and belief in the universal goodness of men. This religious background fostered his conviction that reasonable, fair-minded men could work together to solve any difficulty-a belief that would shape his approach to the growing German threat.
As tensions with Germany escalated, Chamberlain maintained his commitment to peaceful negotiation. When Hitler began threatening Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain made two desperate visits to Germany in September 1938, believing he could establish an understanding with the Fuhrer through reason. Despite Hitler's increasingly aggressive demands, Chamberlain clung to his belief that war could be averted through concessions.
After signing the Munich Agreement, Chamberlain returned to adoring crowds. During his final meeting with Hitler, he secured a brief communique stating their mutual desire "never to go to war with one another again." Waving this paper to the jubilant crowds at 10 Downing Street, Chamberlain declared, "This is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor... I believe it is peace for our time." Only Churchill stood solemnly before the House of Commons to warn: "All is over. Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken, Czechoslovakia recedes into the darkness... We have sustained a great defeat without a war... This is only the beginning of the reckoning."
On November 9, 1938, violence erupted against Jews across Germany in what became known as Crystal Night. While the world expressed outrage, the German government announced that damage would be repaid by appropriating Jewish bank accounts. The official German church remained silent, with only isolated voices like Father Lichtenberg and Pastor von Jan daring to speak out-both were imprisoned for their courage.
The roots of World War II were in a sense theological. In England and Germany, the state and church failed to fulfill their God-ordained mandates. And whenever that happens, evil triumphs.
Capítulo 8
The Kingdoms in Deadly Opposition
"If you will not have God (and He is a jealous God), you should pay your respects to Hitler and Stalin," wrote T.S. Eliot. Nietzsche had heralded the creation of a new type of man-a heroic individualist no longer bound to traditional "slave" morality but creating his own rules. Today, one-third of the world's population lives under states that attempt to fill the vacuum of values with secular ideology or the cult of personality.
Lenin, the architect of Soviet Communism, pursued his enemies ruthlessly, but reserved special hatred for Christians. "There can be nothing more abominable than religion," he wrote, particularly despising seriously committed believers who owed allegiance to a power greater than the Communist state. By 1980, twenty-eight Marxist regimes worldwide were persecuting approximately 250 million Christians-one-fifth of all Christians.
Christianity and Communism remain irreconcilable enemies for fundamental reasons. First, they operate from opposing premises: Christians believe history's dynamic is spiritual and culminates in Christ's reign, while Marxists believe only in material reality and historical determinism where individuals count for nothing. Second, both function as expansive, evangelistic religions-Marxism offering its own comprehensive worldview, saints, martyrs, and millennial vision of a classless society.
In Poland, the Catholic Church embodied resistance to Communist control. When the desperate Communist regime negotiated with Solidarity in 1981, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski skillfully brokered a deal between church, state, and Solidarity. Christianity possessed the hearts of Polish people, evidenced when striking workers knelt to receive communion in the Gdansk shipyards. The church's strength came from its thousand-year history and tradition of resistance to secular power.
In March 1984, in the Polish town of Garwolin, a Communist school administrator removed crucifixes from lecture halls despite the government's agreement not to enforce the ban on religious symbols. When parents rehung crosses, they were removed again. Two-thirds of the school's six hundred students staged a sit-in and, when forced outside by riot police, marched with crucifixes held high to a nearby church. They were joined by 2,500 students from other schools for prayer while soldiers surrounded the building. The priest's message that day resonated worldwide: "There is no Poland without a cross."
Capítulo 9
The Western Compromise
While Polish students successfully defied their government's attempt to remove crucifixes from classrooms in 1984, Americans quietly accepted a similar ruling when the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a Kentucky law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in public schools in 1980. What a repressive Communist regime couldn't force on Poland was quietly accepted in the indifferent West, symbolizing a growing movement in American courts narrowing religious influence in public life.
In the small Oklahoma town of Collinsville, Marian Guinn's church membership became a national controversy when she sued her church for invasion of privacy. The Church of Christ had initially welcomed the divorced mother of four when she moved to town in 1974, providing childcare, food, clothing, and even a car. After joining and being baptized, Guinn's attendance slipped as she began a romantic relationship with Pat Sharpe, the former mayor. When church elders learned they were sleeping together, they met with Guinn three times, asking her to break off the relationship. After she refused, they announced the withdrawal of fellowship from her during a Sunday service, following what they considered biblical mandates. Guinn filed a $1.3 million lawsuit, and a jury awarded her $390,000, with one juror stating, "I don't see what right the church has to tell people how to live." The case represented a clash between religious community standards and modern notions of personal autonomy.
Beyond the Guinn case, numerous other conflicts have narrowed religion's influence in American life. Zoning cases restricted home worship gatherings. In Los Angeles, God was removed from high school commencement programs. Even Zion, Illinois faced a challenge to its city seal containing religious symbols. In the Pawtucket creche case, the Supreme Court allowed a nativity scene only because it served a "legitimate secular purpose" and was "devoid of any inherent meaning."
The judicial revolution against religion's public role reflects broader cultural shifts since 1945. The 1960s began optimistically but quickly deteriorated with assassinations, street protests, and the Vietnam War. Simultaneously, relativism gripped American intellectuals, questioning all moral distinctions. Universities abandoned the pursuit of truth, instead teaching that each student must determine truth individually. The youth culture embraced autonomy as its god.
By the 1970s and 80s, "utilitarian individualism" dominated American life, with self-fulfillment becoming the ultimate goal in marriage, work, and even church attendance. This cultural revolution has rendered God irrelevant in Western media, which tolerates religion only when it poses no threat.
Capítulo 10
The Kingdom's Transformative Power
The Kingdom of God manifests in unexpected places-even within America's toughest prisons. At Washington State's Walla Walla penitentiary, a facility so dangerous it was nicknamed "Concrete Mama," God's transformative power emerged amid violence and despair. What began as a potential riot during Colson's first visit in 1979 became a six-year journey of reform through unlikely partnerships between inmates, officials, and Christians in positions of influence.
After Colson's initial visit, Prison Fellowship staff members George Soltau and Al Elliott began shuttling between prison officials and inmate leaders, mediating tensions and preventing violence. Their efforts led to political action when Christian politicians Bob Utter and Skeeter Ellis arranged for Colson to address the state legislature about prison conditions. A committee of prominent Christians developed reform legislation, while attorney Dan Van Ness proposed significant amendments. After a federal court ruled Walla Walla's conditions unconstitutional-with even the warden testifying it should be "closed down"-newly elected Governor John Spellman appointed Amos Reed, a committed Christian, to head corrections. By 1981, the legislature passed reforms establishing alternative programs for nonviolent offenders and allocating millions to refurbish the prison.
When Colson returned to Walla Walla on Easter 1985, he found not just a physically transformed facility with clean floors, fresh paint, and recreation areas, but transformed lives. Bobby, once a fearsome biker gang leader who had lived with a transvestite, greeted Colson as a brother in Christ, smiling broadly and clutching a well-worn Bible. The story culminated with Fred, a former Walla Walla inmate whose victim's family had led him to Christ. Though Fred had confessed to additional crimes after conversion, a judge suspended his sentence, requiring only restitution and drug treatment. The courtroom erupted in the Doxology-"Praise God from whom all blessings flow"-marking the first time a Seattle Superior Court case had closed with a hymn.
Reflecting on Walla Walla's transformation, Colson realized he couldn't definitively say how the changes had come about or who was responsible. Though many individuals played vital roles-Prison Fellowship staff, converted inmates, Christian lawyers, legislators, and politicians-the real transforming miracle had been accomplished by God's unseen hand. Like Jesus's parable of seeds growing mysteriously, humans do their part while God makes the growth happen.
Capítulo 11
The Indestructible Kingdom
Northern Ireland, a small nation of less than two million people, has been torn by "the Troubles" for centuries. The conflict stems from the clash between two deeply rooted traditions: Roman Catholics (40% of the population) and Protestants (60%). Catholics tend to be Republicans wanting Northern Ireland united with the Republic of Ireland and free of British control, while Protestants tend to be Loyalists determined to keep their British allegiance. The struggle is more political-a contest for power-than religious.
On September 25, 1982, twenty-year-old Karen McKeown was shot in the neck by a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) while at her Protestant church in Belfast. The bullet tore through her spinal column, leaving her paralyzed and fighting for her life. Despite her condition, Karen maintained remarkable faith, telling her mother Pearl, "The only thing that matters is that we trust the Lord and never give the Devil a victory."
Meanwhile, Liam McCloskey, a Catholic Republican paramilitary, had been a prisoner on "dirty protest" for years, living in squalid conditions as part of the IRA's campaign to regain political prisoner status. Following the failure of the dirty protests, IRA leaders turned to hunger strikes. Liam volunteered for the strike after his cellmate died. By his forty-second day, his eyes began rolling uncontrollably, he vomited green digestive fluid, and he went blind. As he approached death, Liam questioned the meaning of his life and his involvement in Republicanism. Though the hunger strike was falling apart after ten deaths, Liam continued, praying "Not mine, but Thy will be done."
David Hamilton, a Protestant inmate in another Belfast prison, was praying for Liam McCloskey's recovery. Growing up in Rathcoole, Europe's largest government housing project, David had once played football with Catholic boys before religious differences became violently important. At fifteen, he joined the Ulster Volunteer Force. After another arrest in 1978, David encountered Trevor, a Christian inmate in the prison laundry. Initially resistant, David eventually knelt in prayer: "If you want this life, it's yours." His hatred of IRA men disappeared, and he began accepting Catholics as people rather than faceless enemies.
When Liam McCloskey woke on the fifty-fifth day of his hunger strike, he was blind and rapidly losing his hearing. His mother arrived, telling him tearfully that she would have him fed intravenously once he went into a coma-but by then his blindness would be permanent. Trapped by this situation and unwilling to burden his mother's conscience, Liam decided to end his strike. As his strength returned in the prison hospital, Liam began to question his involvement with the INLA. "I was ripping myself apart inside," he says, "thinking about the men who had died, thinking about God, and the truths I had begun to discover on hunger strike." He realized he couldn't follow both Republicanism and Jesus simultaneously. "I had reached the crossroads of life, and I took the way of Jesus."
During a Bible study at Magilligan Prison, the men prayed for Karen McKeown, the young Protestant girl shot by the INLA. Liam felt special responsibility for her suffering and had written to her mother Pearl. The former terrorists-Catholic and Protestant-joined hands and prayed for Karen and her family. Despite Karen's eventual death from meningitis, Liam continued writing to Pearl: "Pearl, we make strange friends in this troubled land. It is to the glory of God and He who makes it possible."
At Prison Fellowship's first international conference in Belfast in 1983, with the theme "In Christ, Reconciliation," Liam and Jimmy (both furloughed from prison) shared their testimonies. "My hope is to believe that God is changing the hearts of men like myself and Jimmy," Liam said. "Before, if I had seen Jimmy on the street, I would have shot him. Now he's my brother in Christ." Pearl McKeown was then introduced, and she embraced Liam on stage, explaining how Karen's death had been to God's glory and how Liam had shown her "how to love God again."
Though the cycle of violence continues in Northern Ireland, with casualties mounting among paramilitaries, soldiers, and police, the cycle is weakened every time someone chooses peace over war, forgiveness over retribution, love over hate. As Chips McCurry articulates: "Politics can't bring any lasting solutions. The only thing that will make lasting peace, the only thing that will bridge the gulf between Catholics and Protestants here is for people to give up violence and learn forgiveness. The only way that can possibly happen is through Jesus Christ."
