The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: an English Professors Journey into Christian Faith.
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
I would have to say that this is one of the best biographies I have read in a long time. While I don’t agree with everything the author says there is a great deal in this book to encourage and challenge. I will review it under three headings which to me best capture the essence of the story.
Surprising conversion
Rosaria Champagne worked as a tenured English professor at Syracuse University. She was also a militant lesbian activist whose field of expertise was Queer Theory (a postmodern form of gay and lesbian studies). She was in a committed relationship, owned two houses, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church, she gave a great deal of time and energy to helping students and various community groups particularly gays and lesbians.
It was when she published an article in a local newspaper criticising the Promise Keepers that the steps toward conversion began. In response to her article she received a letter from the pastor of the Syracuse Presbyterian Church who challenged her with some questions – how do you know you are right; do you believe in God? This led to a meal with the pastor and his wife which in turn evolved into a robust and hearty friendship. She appreciated the warmth and hospitality, the thoughtful questions, the willingness to engage, the sincere spirituality, and the intelligent approach to faith. She left that initial meeting “needing to know a number of things: does God exist? If God does exist what does He expect from me? How do I communicate with Him? How do I know who He is and what He wants? What if God is dead? Do I have the courage to face the truth, either way?” Pg.11
How does a person who is the product of postmodern thinking embrace the truth – when as far as they are concerned there is no truth? Rosaria’s story reminds us of the amazing work of the Holy Spirit. This is true for every believer but is particularly evident in the context of such a radical lifestyle. Along with her interaction with the pastor and his wife she began to study scripture and the Spirit began to plough her heart. “I thought about how peaceful life would be if I really believed that there was a knowable, dependable, sturdy, and comprehensive idea of truth and a man-God who so loved His people that He endured the wrath of God the Father for the sins that I had to committed and those I would go on to commit” Pg.13
An article, a response, a friendship, so commenced an often bumpy, twisting, and uncertain two year journey which resulted in faith; no-one is beyond the reach of our God! It’s when describing her conversion that she makes some very memorable statements: “In this crucible of confusion, I learned something important. I learned the first rule of repentance: that repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with sin” pg. 21. “I’ve discovered that the Lord doesn’t change my feelings until I obey him………….I learned that we must obey in faith before we feel better or different” pg. 22. “How did the Lord heal me? The way He always heals: the Word of God got to be bigger inside me than I” Pg.25
Singular conviction
The expression “world turned upside down” is often used when someone is converted. It would be hard to find a better way of describing this conversion. Rosaria likens it to an alien abduction or train wreck. “When I became a Christian, I had to change everything – my life, my friends, my writing, my teaching, my advising, my clothes, my speech, my thoughts. I was in a tenured field I could no longer wok in” Pg26
As she embarked on a new life she clearly desired the real thing. She wanted to know Christ and to walk with Him in obedience. In her pre-conversion days she attacked the superficiality of much of modern evangelicalism; she despised the moralising and bigotry of the Christian Right. You could suppose that salvation softened her in this regard. Not so – her conversion was real and thorough. She is no less scathing as a Christian.
“Recently, on vacation in South Carolina, my husband and I went to a ‘community church’. [He] noted when we got back to the hotel room that we had just witnessed a service that contained a baptism without water, preaching without scripture, conversation about disappointment and pithy observations about financial responsibility without prayer, the distribution of flowers, trinkets without grace and a dismissal without a blessing. Everyone was smiling, though, when it came to walk out the door. This church’s conversion prayer was painted in the bulletin. It read like this: “Dear God, I’m so sorry for my mistakes. Thanks for salvation”” Pg35.
There are other similar observations. Her attitude to conversion and church life stands in stark contrast to much of what we see today. One area in which this is particularly evident is her conviction that the Regulative Principle of Worship necessitates unaccompanied exclusive Psalm singing (pp.85-94). While I do not agree with her conclusions I do appreciate her burden to worship God in a manner that pleases Him. It is refreshing to read of someone methodically working through an issue whose concern is obedience. It is refreshing to see someone take a stand on an issue because they believe it is right, rather than what is conducive to getting people in through the church door.
Selfless compassion
One may expect that in withdrawing from her former life she withdrew from her associates and friends. The book reveals however a Christian woman deeply burdened to minister to those around her. While no longer in the company of gays and lesbians in the sense of camaraderie she did not abandon them. She opened her home for Bible study and provided hospitality. It would seem the example set by the pastor at Syracuse shaped her own approach to evangelism.
The buzz words of evangelism today are “missional” and “contextualisation”. These often seem to mean that Christians must be like the world in order to reach the world. The power of Rosaria’s testimony is a life transformed by the Gospel. She reaches out to her peers not by being like them but by holding forth the Gospel through compassion, support, practical helps and dialoguing rather than simply imposing upon them the Christian world view. The Gospel for her is not in word only but demonstrated by a changed life and value system.
In 2001 Rosaria married Kent Butterfield the day after he graduated from Bible seminary. Unable to have children of their own they adopted and also became involved with foster care. The last third of the book is concerned with their home life – how she adjusted to marriage; their extensive hospitality ministry; church planting which eventually came undone; the process involved with adoption and fostering as well as its joys and disappointments; home schooling; finally receiving a call to a Reformed Presbyterian church in North Carolina (pp95-148). We may not feel compelled to serve in exactly the same ways as the Butterfield’s – and neither should we; we all have different gifts and capacities. But they will surely cause us to think about how we do serve the Lord.
There are many other interesting facets to this book that space will not permit me to include in any detail: the former Theological student turned transvestite who gave Rosaria her first taste of Reformed literature; the accounts of foster children some of whose circumstances are very moving. The sermon extracts, books, counsel, and scripture passages which helped Rosaria confront temptation and shape her thinking. The failed relationship with “R” and the refining process she went through. The challenges the Butterfield’s experienced in church planting.
I have read this book a second time since purchasing it. Some of Rosaria’s insights have been pinned to my study wall. Don’t buy a copy just for yourself, buy two or three & give them away.
