In the January/February 2013 edition of Christianity Today, I read the gripping story of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield’s journey to Christ entitled “My Train Wreck Conversion”. The subtitle further caught my attention: “As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then somehow I became one.” It was a fascinating testimony. The end of the article stated that she had written a book and was now living as a pastor’s wife in Durham, NC. So I just had to read the rest of her story in The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith” (Crown & Covenant Publications 2012).

Rosario did not just live quietly as a lesbian – in her words, she was “an ‘out’ lesbian in the same way that [she is] now an ‘out’ Christian”. She writes a very personal, gripping story of her journey to Jesus, and along the way shares some very insightful thoughts on the way Christians are perceived by the gay community. She also minces no words in exhorting us to intellectual integrity and truly loving the lost. “There is a core difference between sharing the gospel with the lost and imposing a specific moral standard on the unconverted.” (p. 7) “Sexual sin…won’t be ‘healed’ by redeeming the context or the genders. Sexual sin must simply be killed.” (p 83)

This book was enlightening as to how the gay community thinks and feels about Christians – as well as how the church might be more effective salt and light to those in that community. My only negative take from the book is that Rosario spends a good deal of time preaching reformed theology. But since Rosario came to Christ as the result of the loving witness of an RP (Reformed Presbyterian) pastor, and is now the wife of a RP pastor, it is understandable that she is now very zealous toward RP theology. I may disagree with some of her theological convictions – but applaud her honesty and transparency in sharing her full story, as well as her wholeheartedness in serving God today.

Rosaria Butterfield will be on the Southeastern Seminary campus this fall for a lecture and book signing scheduled for Friday, September 6 at 7pm in the Center for Faith & Culture (CFC) located in Patterson Hall. More information will be available on the CFC website (centerforfaithandculture.com) soon. (A Post by Penny)

Date of original post: 2013-06-19

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