Politics

Ana Marie Cox Talks About Faith And Journalism

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Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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Daily Beast columnist Ana Marie Cox, who gained fame with her Wonkette blog, came out as a Christian this week — and I had a chance to talk to her about it earlier today.

“I had a very literal crisis of faith and conscience,” she told me when I asked about her move away from Washington, DC, and her acceptance of Christ. “I was in a deep, personal, dark hole.”

We discussed the dangers of defining your identity by your career — something that ambitious journalists do all the time. The problem is, if you define your worth based on your work, you’re only as good as your last column. “That’s where the concept of grace, and a belief in God, and a belief in Christ as my savior comes into play,” she told me, “it’s that I don’t have to do anything to really be worth something.

While this is good advice for journalists, Cox’s conversion story also serves as a good example of how Christians might win more souls by setting a good example (as opposed to overt proselytism).

“It wasn’t because someone talked to me about God, and tried to convince me to accept God,” Cox told me. “It was because I got curious…and I found a bunch of people to talk to me about their faith, and when they talked to me about it were able to simply share their joy — and share their happiness and peace…”

(Listen to audio of my full conversation with Ana Marie Cox here. Or download the podcast on iTunes.)