By Charles Gardner —
A feminist English professor at an American university, steeped in left-wing ideology as part of the LGBT+ community and a lesbian herself, could surely not have then believed that she would one day become a pastor’s wife.
But Rosaria Champagne Butterfield was, over time, totally transformed from the unbelieving sceptic she once was.
She was in the process of researching a book designed to expose the frailties of the Religious Right as judgmental, out of date and irrelevant to modern life when the challenge came.
After publishing a critique of the Promise Keepers¹ movement in a local newspaper, she held her breath for the usual hate mail when, quite unexpectedly, she received a kind and enquiring letter from a pastor.
He didn’t berate her, or hit her over the head with Bible quotes, but simply asked some questions. Gently and kindly, he wanted to know where she was coming from, how she had arrived at her conclusions about life, and did they stand up to scrutiny?
He left his phone number, and Rosaria called him. She was invited round to the home he shared with his wife, and over a series of subsequent meals and discussions, eventually came to see things from a very different perspective. Holy Spirit-inspired hospitality, too often neglected these days, clearly had much to do with it.
Gradually, as she opened herself up to the Bible and its teachings, her entire lifestyle and worldview was turned upside down.
As she writes in her book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Expanded Edition, Crown & Covenant Publications, 2014), it was a very costly and traumatic process during which she lost many friends.
Describing herself as “a bastion of leftist political activism”, she candidly admits that “conversion put me in a complicated and comprehensive chaos”.
But, in the end, she gained the greatest friend of all – Jesus! The formerly staunch advocate of so-called alternative lifestyles became an ardent follower of Christ who, in time, aged 39, married a pastor!
And to complete her social revolution, the happy couple began fostering and adopting children abandoned to their fate, pouring out love and compassion on kids who would otherwise have had little chance in life.
Rosaria was truly the ‘new creation’ the Bible portrays of those who have allowed Jesus into their hearts and continues, with husband Kent, to encourage other budding disciples along the way of service and proclamation of the gospel which alone has the power to change the world.
Sadly, in her previous life, Rosaria got used to receiving hate mail from ‘Christians’ denouncing her views, which could well have turned her off to considering faith in Christ.
Thankfully, the Christlike Pastor Ken Smith was of a different hue, and her lesbian friends had to learn that not all Christians are bigots.
Among her many challenges in this profoundly honest account is how Bible characters like Mary Magdalene are rightly held up as examples of what Christ can do for sinners, yet ‘messed up’ people today are not so readily accepted.
She adds: “Even though I’m no longer a lesbian, I’m still a sinner. I’m redeemed, but still fallen. And sin is sin. I believe that the Lord is more grieved by the sins of my current life than by my past life as a lesbian.”
Now, by God’s grace and as part of the Reformed Presbyterian movement, she has found truth, wholeness and fulfilment through a life of sacrifice dedicated to Christ.
¹ A call for men to take on their God-given responsibilities as fathers and husbands.
At the time her book was published, Rosaria and Kent were living in North Carolina, having earlier spent time in Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York State.
