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Kirsten Powers: How a Liberal Democrat and Former Atheist Came to Know Jesus Christ as her Savior
Gospel Light Minute ^ | 2 June 2013

Posted on 07/14/2013 5:59:59 AM PDT by Gamecock

She is a political analyst, blogger, columnist and commentator. She is a Democrat who regularly contributes to USA Today, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal among other publications. She formerly served under the Clinton administration from 1993-1998 and was appointed Deputy Assistant U.S Trade Representative for Public Affairs.

In an interview with Focus on the Family, she shares how she converted from atheism to Christianity. She said: “I was not looking to be a Christian. The last thing in the world I wanted to be was a Christian. I had grown up as an Episcopalian, but not evangelical, born again, or any of those kinds of things. It was very high church, kind of mainline, protestant, episcopalian. I did believe in God, but it wasn’t anywhere near what would come to happen to me later in life.

“When I went away to college, whatever little faith I had, I lost. I ended up graduating from college. I worked in the Clinton administration. All my friends were secular liberals. At this point, I really got even more deeply into an incredibly secular world because now, all my friends were basically atheists, or if they had any kind of spirituality, they were very hostile towards religion, Christianity in particular. So, I really didn’t have any interest in it.

“I started dating someone who went to Tim Keller’s church, Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. Out of curiosity, I went with him. But I told him upfront that I would never become a Christian; that it’s never going to happen. After about six or seven months, I began to think that the weight of history is more on the side of what [I was hearing at this church] than not. Tim Keller had made such a strong case, that I began to think it’s not even smart to reject this. It just doesn’t seem like a good intellectual decision.

“Really, it was like God sort of invaded my life. It was very unwelcome. I didn’t like it. Obviously, I started having a lot of different experiences where I felt God was doing a lot of things in my life. It’s kind of hard to describe, but I did have this moment where the scales just fell off of my eyes, where I was saying, ‘this is just totally true, I don’t even have any doubt.’ …I don’t really feel like I had any courage when I became a Christian, I just gave in. I wasn’t courageous; I didn’t have any choice. I kept trying to not believe but I just couldn’t avoid [accepting Christ]. If I could have avoided it, I would have. There is nothing convenient about it in my life or in the world I live in. It’s not like living in the South where everybody is a Christian. I live in a world where nobody is a believer. But God pursued me.”

Her name is Kirsten Powers



TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; Mainline Protestant; Ministry/Outreach; Skeptics/Seekers
KEYWORDS: bornagain; christianity; conversion; kirstenpowers; kirstinchristian; megachurch; nyc; timkeller
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To: JSDude1
Well maybe your cousin isn’t born again because Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly speak AGAINST belief in Christ as a work that we can earn.

I've had that thought as well and we've gone through The Gospel step by step (faith that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is all that you need to be saved) and he says he believes, "but" he must do good works and using govt to that end is good. I've told him his works are nothing but filthy rags but he doesn't want to hear it.

He claims he's a Born Again Christian and I think Jesus will be the judge of that.

81 posted on 07/14/2013 4:51:25 PM PDT by wmfights
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To: GreyFriar

Reminds me of “The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson.


82 posted on 07/14/2013 4:53:46 PM PDT by zot
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To: wmfights

All I know is thank God, that I don’t have to earn it!


83 posted on 07/14/2013 8:32:26 PM PDT by JSDude1 (Is John Boehner the Neville Chamberlain of American Politics?)
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To: albie
She’s still a liberal. Statements like this...”It’s not like living in the South where everybody is a Christian” show her true colors as a northern elitist.

It's too bad she's not perfect like you are, and learned everything all at once.

84 posted on 07/14/2013 9:51:21 PM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: metmom

Again. She’s “still a liberal”. You don’t have to be “perfect” to have common sense. Liberals are destroying my country and my family. I’m glad she found Christ. Now she needs to find her brain, which I doubt will happen.


85 posted on 07/15/2013 3:52:50 AM PDT by albie (t allowed)
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To: Gamecock
I know many Christian (capitol "C")Conservatives find this hard to believe, but Bob Beckel (Dem commentator on Fox) too has a similar story...and has become a born-again Christian. I've met him and heard his testimony in person.

Bob's good friend (very politically conservative collumnist) Cal Thomas reached out to him, when Bob was in a very low point in his life. He brought him to 4th Presbyterian of DC (in Bethesda, Maryland) where he heard the gospel clearly preached--and fairly quickly--after a similar "invasion" of the Lord, as Kirsten describes, made a commitment to Christ.

Like Kirsten too, Bob's support for abortion immediately disappeared. His conscience made him cancel fundraisers for "pro-choice" groups he had previously enthusiastically backed....

Now I know he's still a socialist...and backs the Democrats reflexively...none-the-less, OUR LORD IS AT WORK!!!!

86 posted on 07/15/2013 4:22:28 AM PDT by AnalogReigns (because the real world is not digital...)
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To: RBStealth

A liberal (mis)understanding of marriage, does NOT make one a “liberal Christian,” or “phony” in one’s profession of faith.

Individual Christians can be, and are all the time, wrong on any number of political opinions. So what? At least Kristen gives thoughtful reasons for her opinion, rather than the usual liberal vacuousness.


87 posted on 07/15/2013 4:25:56 AM PDT by AnalogReigns (because the real world is not digital...)
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To: JSDude1
Amen!

I can't see how we could ever do enough.

88 posted on 07/15/2013 6:36:40 AM PDT by wmfights
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To: albie; metmom
Her tweet about the Zimmerman verdict:

"It's scary that even one juror thinks following someone, getting in a fight w them and then killing them is "self-defense"

Fwiw, she seems to put her old liberal ways ahead of common sense, facts, or evidence.

89 posted on 07/15/2013 6:45:04 AM PDT by Lakeshark (I steal taglines - KILL THE BILL!)
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To: Lakeshark; All

If foolish opinions of Christians were a measure of salvation, not one of us is saved.

Again, the world abounds with foolish Christians....which is why we have trials in court, by juries, under law....NOT the “rule” of the mob.


90 posted on 07/15/2013 11:19:35 AM PDT by AnalogReigns (because the real world is not digital...)
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To: Gamecock

Is she is stauncly pro-life that’s great. However, she won’t get far in the Democratic party with that viewpoint.


91 posted on 07/15/2013 4:27:46 PM PDT by ReformationFan
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To: Gamecock

I would not. Because I know of no instances in the Bible where Jesus demanded that government force be used to redistribute income and wealth.


92 posted on 07/15/2013 4:45:53 PM PDT by ReformationFan
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To: Gamecock

I ain’t buyin’ it.


93 posted on 07/16/2013 6:09:01 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: onedoug

It ain’t for us to decide.


94 posted on 07/16/2013 6:17:13 PM PDT by Gamecock (Member: NAACAC)
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To: Gamecock

On the human scale it’s a question of Judeo-Christian values. I think God would want me to choose co-believers as those I put faith in and who’s word I can trust. True, we all have to carry God into the world with us. But we all need that reinforcement that hopefully family and friends provide us with.


95 posted on 07/16/2013 6:56:31 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: Kenton

Probably from hearing the true Word for the first time as opposed to her previous church she attended.


96 posted on 07/16/2013 7:56:47 PM PDT by shotgun
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To: RatRipper; Gamecock; SoFloFreeper
45 posted on 7/14/2013 10:09:49 AM by SoFloFreeper: “Wow. Has she changed political affiliations yet? Or is she like Zell Miller...Democrat but conservative...which is the rarest of breeds now? Praise God for His mercy in moving Kirsten Power’s heart.”

24 posted on 7/14/2013 8:21:23 AM by RatRipper: “Eventually, her libtard “friends” will force her to choose between her faith or her former life . . . unless God works a miracle in their lives, too.”

I agree that is a very good possibility she will be run out of the Democratic Party by her former allies.

The alternative is that she starts identifying with the remaining Christian groups in the Democratic Party, most of whom are either black evangelicals, Hispanic Catholics, or (older) white Southerners.

Regardless, I hope we can all agree that God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and there are all kinds of awful and anti-Christian things being advocated in the Republican Party, too. Modern politics is trying to decide which party is the lesser of the two evils.

I don't think there is a future for conservative Christians in the Democratic Party, but it is hard to deny that a hundred years ago many evangelicals would have said the same about the damage being done to the Republican Party by New England liberals.

God runs the world and we don't.

I understand cynicism about alleged conversions by political liberals. There's good reason for the concern.

However, for people who want a new convert living in an ultraliberal city like New York in an ultraliberal political context to change her mind on everything overnight — please consider the difference between conversion and sanctification.

By any definition today I'm a hard-right Christian conservative, and I've always been a political conservative, but I was continuing to advocate some really stupid liberal theology for at least a half-decade after my conversion. Things take time. Working out the political implications of conservative theology can be even more difficult.

Being willing to take stands at personal cost is a key part of the evidence of conversion. A liberal Democrat woman willing to be openly pro-life has already made a very major step that will antagonize many of her liberal friends. Let's be honest; morality is one of the biggest reasons many liberals reject Christianity because they understand Christianity will require radical changes in their lives, and they either reject the gospel because they don't want to change their lives or because they see hypocritical so-called Christians who say one thing but do something very different.

I know nothing about her personal life, and that is her own business unless she chooses to make it public. However, based on her own testimony of abandoning Christianity in college, it's a good guess that she has the typical moral background of a secular liberal, and that quite possibly means she's had one more more abortions herself, and almost certainly has had numerous friends who have had abortions. If she's willing to be openly pro-life, I'll give her a lot of credit, and a lot of benefit of the doubt.

I could think of a lot better churches in New York City than Tim Keller's church for her to be attending, but if Keller is preaching the gospel and the gospel is converting liberal Democrats, that's a very good thing, even though there are an awful lot of other things Keller says that I don't like.

97 posted on 07/17/2013 7:21:01 PM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: Gamecock

Look, I could repeat word for word that last paragraph as my own personal testimony. God persuaded me to become a Christian and He persuaded me very strongly. I can say with Miss Powers: “He pursued me.”

And thank God through Christ for that.


98 posted on 07/17/2013 7:25:49 PM PDT by thecodont
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