Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. November 2025 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of conservative icon William F. Buckley. 2026 will mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Born Again, the account of Chuck Coulson's fall from grace in American politics and his life-changing rebirth to Christianity.
Buckley and Colson were two of the most significant public Christian figures of the latter half of the 20th century, and they continue to serve as models of Christian leadership today. Many remember Buckley as the author of God and Man at Yale and the host of the public television debate program Firing Line. Both on television and in print, Buckley was a provocative communicator with an erudite vocabulary. It's not a stretch to say that the 1955 founding of Buckley's magazine National Review launched the modern conservative movement. And in addition to being a prominent public figure, Buckley was also a serious thinker.
Of his many books, Keeping the Tablets showcased the depth of his political and philosophical analysis. Less well known were Buckley's deep religious convictions. As a Roman Catholic, Buckley took seriously the tenets of his faith. According to National Review writer Katherine Jean Lopez, Buckley's faith animated everything in his life and formed the worldview that shaped how he understood the corrosive effects of secularism and atheism. And Buckley discussed his faith in one of his final books, Nearer My God.
According to Chuck Coulson, the final chapter of that book alone was worth its price in gold. And this is where the lives of Buckley and Coulson truly began to intersect. They were contemporaries and allies in the culture wars of their era. Both wrote and spoke widely, deeply, and persuasively on key cultural issues. They often wrote in the same publications, and Coulson was gracefully profiled in National Review magazine, and he also made appearances on Firing Line.
In one of his famous introductions on Firing Line, Buckley acknowledged that Coulson's faith in Christ was authentic. He called it the illumination that transformed his life. The principled intellectual leadership of each man spawned multiple organizations, from Colson's Prison Fellowship to Buckley's Young Americans for Freedom, among many others. Even in the middle of the larger cultural decline they both fought against, they remained optimistic. Coulson understood the powerful role of restoration within the Christian worldview.
He exhorted his readers to live boldly yet joyously. Buckley understood that essential issues were rooted in eternal truth. The wells of regeneration are infinitely deep, he once wrote. And it's interesting that when Chuck Coulson died in 2012, the LA Times referred to him as the William F. Buckley of the evangelical movement.
Though one was Catholic and the other Protestant evangelical, and each understood and respected those differences, by the way, Buckley and Coulson shared a common understanding. They understood that only God and his truth can form the foundation for life and thinking. In other words, their worldviews were grounded on their Christian convictions.
Now, of course, neither man was perfect, but both were models of Christian statesmen that were led by principles and prudent in the implementation and defense of those principles. To a culture that now prizes influencers over leaders and outrage over thoughtfulness and divisiveness over strategy, Buckley and Coulson seem to represent a bygone era of a principled statesmanship rooted in Christianity. And that's serious about engaging in shaping the cultural and intellectual currents that are upstream from politics. That's why many ask where are such Christian statesmen today? Chuck Colson would often quote Sir Isaac Newton, if I've seen further than most, it's because I've stood on the shoulders of giants.
Well, today, this nation and the wider world is in desperate need of men and women with principled convictions who will stand on the shoulders of the likes of Buckley and Coulson. Both men establish institutions and programs to perpetuate such leaders. The program that bears Chuck Coulson's name, the Coulson Fellows, forms Christian leaders to think biblically, engage the culture with wisdom, and live out God's truth in every sphere of life. The vision there is not that anyone would ever be able to fill Chuck Colson's shoes, but that we should all follow his example and engage this cultural moment with faith, clarity, and conviction. In other words, that we all take our place standing on his shoulders.
Perhaps an even better question than where are such Christian statesmen today is a different question, one found in the title of Chuck's most significant book, How Now Shall We Live. Coulson and Buckley's examples both demonstrate that Christian influence should point not to grievance or arrogance, but to Christ. We can honor their legacies by continuing their work to renew and restore what we can in this cultural moment and to create the conditions where future leaders of principled conviction can live lives faithful to God. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Andrew Carico.
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