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Fox News Kirsten Powers’ Reluctant Journey from Atheism to Christian
CrossMap ^ | Mark Ellis

Posted on 10/16/2015 10:00:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

She worked for the Clinton administration, became a liberal pundit for the Daily Beast and a regular Democratic contributor to Fox News. On top of that, all her friends were agnostics or atheists. So when God pursued and won her reluctant heart, she was more surprised than anyone else.

"If there was one thing in which I was completely secure, it was that I would never adhere to any religion-especially to evangelical Christianity, which I held in particular contempt," writes Kirsten Powers, in a first-person account of her conversion published in Christianity Today.

The daughter of archeologist parents, she attended the Episcopal Church in Fairbanks, Alaska, but never really believed. Whatever shred of nominal faith she possessed was due to respect for her father, a brilliant man who taught himself to speak and read Russian.

After her father began to express his own doubts about Christianity while she was in college, she fell headlong into unbelief.

"What little faith I had couldn't withstand this revelation," she noted. "From my early 20s on, I would waver between atheism and agnosticism, never coming close to considering that God could be real."

Powers worked in the Clinton administration for six years and rarely saw any open expressions of religiosity. Then she moved to New York to work in Democratic politics. "My world became aggressively secular. Everyone I knew was politically left-leaning, and my group of friends was overwhelmingly atheist," she observes.

The first crack in her anti-faith armor emerged when she dated a Christian man. Immediately before this, she told a friend the only deal breaker in her dating world would be someone religious.

[Video] Kirsten Powers: Atheism to Christianity

After they dated a few months, her boyfriend called to say he had something important to discuss. When he came over to her New York apartment he looked at her intently and asked, "Do you believe Jesus is your Savior?"

Her heart sank when she heard the question. She thought he might be slightly crazy. "No," she replied.

"Do you think you could ever believe it?" he asked. Then he told Powers he wanted to get married and felt that she might be the one, but he couldn't marry a non-believer.

"I don't want to mislead you-I could never believe in Jesus," Powers told him.

"Do you think you could keep an open mind about it?" he asked, hopefully.

"Of course; I'm very open-minded!" she replied, even though she knew it was not completely true in this instance. Inwardly, she found his faith "an oddity to overlook, not a point in his favor."

A few weeks later they went to church together, and a few things surprised her. First, she didn't realize a Presbyterian could be an evangelical. "When we arrived at the Upper East Side service of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, I was shocked and repelled by what I saw. I was used to the high-church liturgy of my youth. We were meeting in an auditorium with a band playing what I later learned was 'praise music.' I thought, How am I going to tell him I can never come back?" she writes in Christianity Today.

But when Pastor Tim Keller began to speak, she found herself completely engrossed in his message. "I had never heard a pastor talk about the things he did. Tim Keller's sermon was intellectually rigorous, weaving in art and history and philosophy. I decided to come back to hear him again."

She found herself returning for more, but one thing disappointed her about his messages - his mention of Jesus. She left each week with some frustration, wondering, Why did he have to ruin a perfectly good talk with this Jesus nonsense?

As Keller propounded the case for Christ, she began to question her atheism. "He expertly exposed the intellectual weaknesses of a purely secular worldview. I came to realize that even if Christianity wasn't the real thing, neither was atheism."

Soon Powers found herself reading the Bible. At the same time, her boyfriend was praying that God would reveal Himself to Powers. After eight months of listening to Keller, she concluded that the weight of evidence was on the side of Christianity.

Still, she didn't feel any particular connection to God. "I continued to think that people who talked of hearing from God or experiencing God were either delusional or lying. In my most generous moments, I allowed that they were just imagining things that made them feel good."

Encounter with Jesus

Then something very unusual happened to Powers on a trip to Taiwan in 2006.

"I woke up in what felt like a strange cross between a dream and reality. Jesus came to me and said, 'Here I am.'

"It felt so real. I didn't know what to make of it," she recalls. She called her boyfriend the next day, but before she could tell him what happened, he said he had been praying the night before and felt they were supposed to break up.

While she was upset by the break up, she was more "traumatized" by the mystical, mysterious visitation by Jesus. "I tried to write off the experience as misfiring synapses, but I couldn't shake it," she notes.

Powers returned to New York a few days later, but felt lost and confused as she tried to process her growing consciousness of God's presence. "I suddenly felt God everywhere and it was terrifying. More important, it was unwelcome. It felt like an invasion. I started to fear I was going crazy."

She sought out the advice of a friend, author and cultural commentator Eric Metaxas, whom she knew to be a Christian. "You need to be in a Bible study," he told her. He recommended a study taught by Pastor Tim Keller's wife.

When she walked into the Bible study she felt desperate, unsure how she would ever tell family or friends about her emerging faith. She thought no one would understand because she didn't really comprehend the changes unfolding in her heart. "I had a knot in my stomach. In my mind, only weirdoes and zealots went to Bible studies."

Powers doesn't recall what Kathy Keller taught on that day, but when she left the Bible study she knew everything had changed. "I'll never forget standing outside that apartment on the Upper East Side and saying to myself, 'It's true. It's completely true.' The world looked entirely different, like a veil had been lifted off it. I had not an iota of doubt. I was filled with indescribable joy."

In the next few months, a tug-of-war between faith and doubt returned at intervals. She did her best "to wrestle away from God," but found it was futile to run from Him.

"Everywhere I turned, there He was. Slowly there was less fear and more joy. The Hound of Heaven had pursued me and caught me-whether I liked it or not."


TOPICS: Catholic; Evangelical Christian; Religion & Culture; Skeptics/Seekers
KEYWORDS: atheism; christianity; conversion; kirstenpowers
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To: NKP_Vet
on’t know what type “Christian” she is. I don’t know any real Christians that believe sodomite “marriage” is a “civil right”. She does. She also remains in the democrat party, whose official stance on abortion is killing the baby up to the last day of the 9th month. To condone abortion is to agree with it. She’s too dumb to understand this.

She is okay with murdering God's most innocent and vulnerable.
She's not dumb
. She is, I would think, simply listening to her own "relative morality,".

The "Panzer Pope," Benedict DID say that relative morality is the worst danger of our times.
This woman DARES to think that she has ANY voice in deciding whom God chooses to allow to live and to die?
ARROGANCE. Well, pride IS the first of the seven deadly sins.

She probably would be okay with euthanizing the terminally ill. Sounds to me as if she would have made an excellent Nazi...the Perfect Aryan Princess.
The Austrian Hitler would have liked her. He learned his values in beautiful Austria and went to Germany when he was in his early twenties...having learned the Austrian ethos for his first 22-23 years of life. The hills are alive with the sound of...Ooom-pah-pah.

We won't even GO to the nauseating idea of same-sex marriage. Yuck and double yuck.

Am I being harsh?

41 posted on 10/16/2015 11:16:49 AM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: SeekAndFind

She has identified as prolife for a couple of years.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/02/kirsten-powers-i-don-t-stand-with-wendy-davis.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/07/21/planned-parenthood-abortion-fetus-parts-kirsten-powers/30426475/


42 posted on 10/16/2015 11:17:40 AM PDT by iowamark (I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy)
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To: iowamark

OK, one down... here’s another — Does she support gay marriage?


43 posted on 10/16/2015 11:19:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
RE: Yes, and she loves this Pope.
Doesn’t she realize that this Pope is NOT for gay marriage and anti-abortion?

It would be fun, albeit malicious fun, to listen to her trying to explain away those tiny bits of hypocrisy.

Pope Francis also put out HUNDREDS of portable showers and hired hundreds of barbers -- in VATICAN SQUARE -- for the men (mostly) who couldn't afford to spiffy-up to look for employment. Maybe THAT act of kindness sparked her liking of Francis.

44 posted on 10/16/2015 11:21:07 AM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: ican'tbelieveit
I haven’t read in depth her “conversion,” but I seemed to miss where she said she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

Pish, tush (rhymes with rush): details, details, details.

45 posted on 10/16/2015 11:22:12 AM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: ican'tbelieveit

[[I seemed to miss where she said she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.]]

Me too- I see she mentions she ‘found Christianity’ but doesn’t define what ‘Christianity’ is- many people ‘find’ a denomination, or religion, and decide to ‘join’ but never accept Christ personally- they simply ‘join a cause’ (like she said she felt Christians were being ignored and slaughtered’ so it’s possible she ‘joined’ ‘Christianity’ as a cause to stand with those who are being persecuted- but nowhere does she say, to my knowledge, that She accepted Christ as Savior-

The word ‘Christianity’ has taken on many meanings these days- all but one of which are false meanings-


46 posted on 10/16/2015 11:27:34 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: Jan_Sobieski

“Yes, and she loves this Pope”.

So she has something in common with atheists, protestants and cafeteria Catholics.


47 posted on 10/16/2015 11:29:04 AM PDT by NKP_Vet (In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle,stand like a rock ~ T, Jefferson)
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To: SeekAndFind

Are you kidding? This Pope has opened the RCC to homosexual acceptance like no one before him. Additionally, Francis is conspicuously silent on baby parts sales while preaching a consistant message of socialism and global climate government control. What side are you on?


48 posted on 10/16/2015 11:29:15 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: SeekAndFind

She announced at the end of The Five last Friday that she was becoming a Roman Catholic the next day. And she’s now aggressively pro-life. Still don’t know about gay marriage, tho.


49 posted on 10/16/2015 11:29:27 AM PDT by Mach9
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To: iowamark

If someone condones abortion they are not pro-life. Sadly many cafeteria catholics are too dumb to understand this.


50 posted on 10/16/2015 11:32:07 AM PDT by NKP_Vet (In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle,stand like a rock ~ T, Jefferson)
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To: Mach9

As long as she remains a democrat she’s not “aggressively pro-life”.


51 posted on 10/16/2015 11:33:51 AM PDT by NKP_Vet (In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle,stand like a rock ~ T, Jefferson)
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To: tflabo

She needs to tell the rest of the story, as its quite important.


52 posted on 10/16/2015 11:35:09 AM PDT by G Larry (Vote Hillary! Pro-Abortion Socialist)
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To: SeekAndFind

My daughter may be able to meet Tim Keller and she is very excited. He’s friends with her roommate’s dad.


53 posted on 10/16/2015 11:35:18 AM PDT by luckystarmom
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To: cloudmountain
Maura is normal attractive looking. Regarding her hair, I always notice when Maura is due for a dye job. Those stubborn greys roots are stubborn. I feel her pain.

More normal looking FOX women: Jennifer Griffin, Catherine Herridge, and Laura Ingraham

And then there was the reign of Candy Crowley on CNN. And Rachel Maddow still darkens the TV screen.

54 posted on 10/16/2015 11:35:38 AM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: Paul46360
Most people are snared by the very first verse!

They have more knowledge and belief in the opening line of star wars 4, than they do in Gen 1:1.

God IS Love. He created all of this just to create US!

55 posted on 10/16/2015 11:36:51 AM PDT by rawcatslyentist (Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,)
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To: SeekAndFind

God bless her.


56 posted on 10/16/2015 11:40:37 AM PDT by jwalsh07 (.)
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To: SeekAndFind

God bless her.


57 posted on 10/16/2015 11:40:37 AM PDT by jwalsh07 (.)
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To: luckystarmom

RE: My daughter may be able to meet Tim Keller and she is very excited

So, she is in New York?

Tim Keller’s sermons at Redeemer are meant to feed both MIND (make you think through your assumptions) and Heart.

The New York Times made this observation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/nyregion/26evangelist.html?_r%3D1&_r=0

In the twilight of the biggest snowstorm in New York City’s history, the pews of a rented Baptist church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan were packed for the Rev. Timothy J. Keller’s fourth sermon of the day.

The 600 or so who braved the snow for the evening service got what they had come to expect — a compelling discourse by Dr. Keller, this time on Jesus’ healing of the paralytic, that quoted such varied sources as C. S. Lewis, The Village Voice and the George MacDonald fairy tale “The Princess and the Goblin.” It was the kind of cogent, literary sermon that has helped turn Dr. Keller, a former seminary professor whose only previous pulpit experience was at a small blue-collar church in rural Virginia, into the pastor many call Manhattan’s leading evangelist.


58 posted on 10/16/2015 11:46:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

And last Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. she became a Catholic!!! God Bless that boyfriend!!! If only more people talked that way to their friends. Wonder what happened to him.


59 posted on 10/16/2015 11:49:38 AM PDT by Ann Archy (ABORTION....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: NKP_Vet
> Don’t know what type “Christian” she is. I don’t know any real Christians that believe sodomite “marriage” is a “civil right”. She does. She also remains in the democrat party, whose official stance on abortion is killing the baby up to the last day of the 9th month. To condone abortion is to agree with it. She’s too dumb to understand this.

maybe she doesn't read her bible. There are a lot of feellgood Christians out there who want to be a member of the "club" but don't follow its rules and regulations. Or read their bible.

60 posted on 10/16/2015 11:50:04 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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