Review of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, Pittsburgh: Crown & Covenant Publications, 2012.
It is all too rare that we read a book wherein there is so much refreshment and encouragement. Until her conversion, which she describes as a train wreck, Mrs Butterfield was Dr Champagne, an associate professor in English and also Women’s Studies at Syracuse University, and a practising lesbian. The beginnings of her conversion might be traced to a series of questions posed to her in a respectful manner by a Reformed Presbyterian pastor. The story from there is a fascinating one, full of depth, honesty, and struggle. Mrs Butterfield writes of ‘the first rule of repentance: that repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with our sin.’ (p.21) When Christ first gave her the strength to follow Him, she did not immediately stop feeling like a lesbian (p.22). Later, she writes: ‘Some people are smart enough to learn lessons the easy way. Not me. I always need to fall on my face.’ (p.72)
Mrs Butterfield has some strong things to say against modern seeker-sensitive services, and the watering down of the gospel (pp.34-36). She also records what she had written concerning her Women’s Studies 101 syllabus (pp.87-88):
NB: Students are expected to write all papers and examination essay questions from a feminist worldview or critical perspective. In Spanish class you speak and think in Spanish. In Women’s Studies you speak and think in feminist paradigms. Examination essay questions written from critical perspectives outside of feminism will receive an automatic grade of F. Papers written from critical perspectives outside of feminism will be allowed one revision. Any student who is unable to write and think from a feminist critical perspective or worldview with a clear conscience should drop the class now.
As in Australian universities, there are few things more totalitarian than a fashionable way of thinking.
When she was a lesbian, Rosaria rejected same-sex marriage: ‘Why add good people to a sick institution?’ (p.96) But as a Christian, she married Kent Butterfield in 2001 and went on to adopt four children and to offer foster care to others. In becoming a Christian, she did not lose her capacity to think. On the contrary, she has some strong things to say on the issue of ‘cultural sameness’ (p.115), and is discerning on how a Christian is to deal with an unsympathetic world (e.g. p.127). In the end, the wonderful lesson is that God is in heaven, and still at work in this world.
– Peter Barnes