In 1999, a tenured English professor at Syracuse University was teaching Queer Theory, a post-modern form of Gay & Lesbian Theory and in a committed lesbian relationship.
Today, she’s a mother of 4 who homeschools her children, a homemaker & wife of a Presbyterian pastor and has taught at Geneva College. What the heck happened?
In 1997, she was working on a book exposing the religious right from a lesbian, feminist viewpoint. For her book, she decided to read the #Bible with an agenda to tear it down as she believed it to be threatening, dangerous & irrational. She already had a very negative view of Christians as being narrow minded and intellectually stunted. As #Promise Keepers came to town, she wrote a very critical article about them. She got many pro & con responses but one from a local pastor that was neither. It intrigued her. She wrote him back. This started a friendship that lasts to today. Eventually she was invited to his house for dinner with him & his wife. She was shocked when they didn’t ask her to come to his church or try to convert her right there. They kept corresponding and visiting. She would bring up spiritual topics and he would give her answers. Some she contested but some actually made sense.
As she continued to read the Bible, it began to change her and made her reject certain presuppositions about the Bible and Christianity. Eventually she started going to his church just to hear what he had to say in his sermons. Then one day, an in-depth reading of Romans 1 with Genesis 3 convinced her that her problem wasn’t being a lesbian but was an unrepentant sin nature. The more she celebrated this unrepentant sin nature, the deeper it ingrained itself in her. But the light of #God’s Word and the lives of these new #Christian friends shone thru this deep darkness.
One thought stood out to her….that God wants obedience before understanding all things. She realized that she wanted to understand all things before deciding whether to obey. Then it hit her…she was playing God. She was the Judge…she was Eve, who wanted to understand all things. That night she prayed to Jesus and asked Him to reveal Himself to her.
The next day, she still felt like her ‘REAL’ sexual identity was lesbian, but now she began to question if her ‘REAL’ identity was her ‘TRUE’ identity or just a distortion of it. One Sunday, the congregation was singing Psalm 119:56. It was so powerful. God was speaking directly to her. She realized that all her views were based in her pride and were in rebellion against God. When God revealed this to her, all she could do was fall down and worship him. It was then that she asked Jesus into her heart, to forgive her sins. As she grew closer to God, she gradually realized that her lesbianism was sin. Even though her emotions wanted it, she would no longer live according to her emotions. For her, her sin was pride in not wanting a man to rule over her. Lesbianism was just one expression of that sin. For others, it may be early childhood molestation, a sexual addiction or something else.
For some people, the gay desires may never go away. But are you willing to have your heart and mind choose God (who will give you a fulfilling life) or will you let your emotions run your life? For most people, those sinful desires will subside and for many, go away completely. People ask her if a person who struggles with homosexuality can be a Christian? Absolutely! But can a person who unrelentingly identifies with their homosexuality and doesn’t repent of it, be a Christian? NO! The Puritan John Owen says of Romans 8:13 that grace changes the nature of man but nothing can change the nature of sin. Are you a child of Adam or a child of God? Sin is not just an enemy of God (as sometimes enemies can reconcile), it is at enmity with God (they will NEVER reconcile). Galatians 2: 20 says this is why we must die to sin. The world defines ‘personhood’ one way, the Bible defines it another way. The question is, who’s right? I’ll go with the one who created me…God!
When she became a believer, she could no longer teach what she taught before. She also lost many friends, who felt betrayed by her new found faith. But she found a new family…of believers. Mark 10:28-31 promised us the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit comes a whole new family, a new peace no matter what is going on around us, etc. What we put on the altar, we receive back 100-fold. But we must love the LBGT people, even though we disagree with them. It was the love of this pastor and his wife that completely disarmed her and made her realize that she had met a Christian that she couldn’t put in the ‘hateful’ box.
As she has now said…Make no mistake…we are in a WAR.
Original sin distorts us…
Actual sin distracts us…
Indwelling sin manipulates us…
This is a battle for our souls.
Her name is….Rosario Butterfield
Her book is…The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English professor’s journey into the Christian faith
Her website is….rosariobutterfield.com
Her video testimony is at https://vimeo.com/143656103 It’s 65 minutes long, but well worth the viewing. I felt the presence of God while watching it.
For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard
