By Emily Judd ‘19 M.A.R.
The remedy for the increasing division and polarization in the United States is the practice of grace, says CNN political analyst and USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers in the latest episode of the YDS podcast.
The author of the new book Saving Grace: Speak Your Truth, Stay Centered, and Learn to Coexist with People Who Drive You Nuts, Powers argues that the Christian idea of grace—“unmerited favor,” as she describes it—can reverse a culture of hate, judgment, and demonization.
“Grace isn’t about the other person. It’s about you and what you are doing to yourself by demonizing and dehumanizing other people. You give up your own humanity when you judge. Grace is seeing the possibility in another person,” says Powers, whose book prominently cites (among other sources) an interview with YDS Professor Willie Jennings.
Promoting grace during a time of division: Listen to the podcast interview with Kirsten Powers.
Powers, who is Catholic, also weighs in on the faith of prominent Catholic politicians coming under fire for their political stances on abortion, including President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Biden and Pelosi have been criticized by certain Catholic bishops and media outlets, who have argued that the two should be barred from communion because of their pro-choice views. Some have questioned the sincerity of their faith.
“It is so ironic that while someone is talking about whether Biden is a good Catholic or not, they are judging and bearing false witness,” says Powers. “It is injecting politics into religion in a way that I don’t think happens in other parts of the world.”
In the episode, Powers also reveals her spiritual journey from atheism to Catholicism, which she said began following a series of deaths in her family.
Searching for answers in the midst of her grief, Powers attended an evangelical church in New York City. She had “a very radical spiritual experience” and became a Christian. Her friendship with Catholic priest and television commentator Jonathan Morris–who has since left the priesthood–caused her to seriously think about converting to Catholicism.
“I pretty quickly found that I just felt more at home in Catholicism. It was helpful for me to move into something that I felt like was more nuanced and included the idea of mystery,” she says.
In the interview, Powers also discusses her interest in theology and in attending divinity school.
“A place like YDS is very alluring, because I am at a stage in my life now where I just want to have deep conversations,” says Powers, who visited YDS in 2017. “I want to be thinking deeply about things, and I want to be helping other people think deeply about things.”