Rosaria Butterfield | |
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| Born | Rosaria Champagne Butterfield 20 April 1962 |
| Occupation | Writer, speaker |
| Education | PhD in English Literature |
| Alma mater | Ohio State University |
| Notable works | The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert |
| Spouse | Kent Butterfield |
| Website | |
| rosariabutterfield | |
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (born 1962) is an American writer, speaker, homemaker, and former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University.
Butterfield, who earned her Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in English Literature, served in the English Department and Women's Studies Program at Syracuse University from 1992 to 2002. During her academic career, she published the book The Politics of Survivorship: Incest, Women's Literature, and Feminist Theory as well as many scholarly articles. [1] Her academic interest was focused on feminist theory, queer theory and 19th century British literature. She was awarded tenure in 1999, the same year that she converted to Christianity. She married in 2001.
Growing up, Butterfield attended predominantly liberal Catholic schools. [2] She is most widely known today for her autobiography The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith, in which she details her transformation from a postmodernist into a Bible-believing [3] Christian. For nearly a decade, she lived as an openly lesbian activist. While researching the Religious Right and their "politics of hatred" [4] against the queer community, [5] she wrote an article criticizing the evangelical organization Promise Keepers. Ken Smith, the then-pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church, wrote to her regarding this article [6] and invited her to dinner. [7] Her subsequent friendship with the Smiths led to her re-evaluation of her presuppositions. [8] Two years later, Butterfield converted to evangelical Christianity. Following her conversion, she developed a ministry to college students. She now frequently speaks at churches and universities about her experience. She has taught and ministered at Geneva College. She now lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband, Kent Butterfield, a pastor, and their children.
In many of her books and interviews, Butterfield highlights what she calls "radically ordinary" Christian hospitality. [9] Having been a beneficiary of the practice herself, she writes, "To me, hospitality is the ground zero of the Christian faith." [10] She differentiates this from entertaining guests, saying that "In counterfeit hospitality, there is a very fixed relationship between host and guest. In Christian hospitality, it's a very fluid relationship." [11] In an interview, she has stated that "In the past, [Christians] have set [their boundaries] according to [their] checkbook and according to [their] calendar. In a post-Christian world, we are called to set them according to the blood of Christ." [12] Butterfield encourages Christians "to get close enough to put the hand of the stranger into the hand of the Savior,” [13] and that "it hurts, and it's good. And the Lord equips." [14] In her book The Gospel Comes with a House Key, she indicates that her hospitality is "not showy or fancy" [15] and that parting with the idols of consumerism and sexual autonomy is essential [16] to making room for other people.
One of the hallmarks of Butterfield's writing is the emphasis on repentance. She points to those of exemplary faith, especially Puritans like Thomas Watson [17] and John Owen, [18] [19] observing that the Puritans "knew how to hate their sin without hating themselves because they understood that Christ's grace is an ever-present Person, a Person who understands our situation and our needs better than we do." [20] Her writing often delves into her personal journey with repentance, and the nature of sin as she has come to understand it. [21] She devotes much time elaborating on the theology of original sin, describing it as a distorting influence on people that blinds them from seeing their true identities, which she deems are "image bearers of the holy God." [22] [23]
Butterfield also speaks of the necessity of daily repentance in the Christian life: "Our call is not to despair, but to hope in Christ and to drive a fresh nail into our choice sin every day." [24] In her autobiography The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, she writes,
". . .repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with our sin. How much greater? About the size of a mustard seed. Repentance requires that we draw near to Jesus, no matter what. And sometimes we all have to crawl there on our hands and knees." [25]
Butterfield identifies repentance as "the threshold to God" [26] and states that "good neighbors never put a stumbling block between a fellow image bearer and the God who made her." [27] "If you love your neighbors," she writes, "you would never deny them this threshold." [28]
Sometimes Butterfield describes repentance as "bittersweet business," [29] seeing the Christian walk as a dying to self. [30] She encourages Christians to embrace repentance, as it "proves only the obvious: that God was right all along.” [31] In particular, she warns that "God calls any heart that is not submitted to Jesus sinful," [32] and that sexual sin often transforms into a sin of identity. [33]
Citing scripture such as Genesis 1:27, [34] Butterfield argues that understanding that people are made in the image of God as male and female is key to understanding humanity correctly, especially during a time when there is a widespread acceptance of homosexual and transgender identities:
"In our post-Obergefell world, we now have two competing ideas of what it means to be human — and these ideas have collided. The Freudian/Obergefell idea is that sexual orientation is an accurate category of personhood; LGBTQ+ is who you are rather than how you feel. After Obergefell , laws quickly were put in place to honor, affirm, and celebrate being LGBTQ+. The biblical idea, however, is that bearing the image of God according to eternal and creational categories of man or woman determines who you are. It’s Obergefell or Christ: you either celebrate and affirm your sin nature, or you repent of the culpable and unchosen sin nature you inherit in Adam." [35]
As a former scholar of Freud and Marx, Butterfield repudiates the theological anthropology that she associates with the intersectionality framework, expressing that its implications clash with a biblical worldview:
"Originally, intersectionality dealt with material, structural oppressions — highlighting how race and class and the glass ceiling of sexism weigh heavy in a society made up of sinners. But when feminism shifted allegiance from Marx to Freud, when it turned from numbers to feelings, sexual orientation and gender identity took on new forms.
When ideas like “dignitary harm” (the harm accrued to your dignity by someone’s refusal to approve of your sin) found its place in civil law, intersectionality unleashed a monster. And with that monster came a message: homosexuality is not a sin; it is an aesthetic, an erotic orientation or way of looking at the world and everything in it. Today, the gospel is on a collision course with this message." [36]
Consequently, Butterfield rejects sexual orientation as a valid category of personhood, considering it a "19th-century invention" [37] and a "category mistake" [38] that goes against biblical anthropology:
". . .the 19th century ushered in a new measure of man, one for whom sexuality and sexual pleasure became a defining marker. Thus, the category of sexual orientation is what we in theology call a ‘neologism,’ and it creates fictional identities that rob them of the true one — male and female image bearers [of God's].” [39]
Due to such positions, Butterfield sees categories like "gay Christian" and "trans Christian" as false constructs, [40] explaining that "gay may be how someone feels, but [can] never be who someone inherently is." [41] She also does not identify herself as "ex-gay" and believes that Christians who struggle against same-sex attraction should not identify as gay Christians, as such labels are, in her view, a postmodern attempt to manipulate language and marry two fundamentally contradictory categories. [42] [43] Despite previously having approved of using preferred pronouns of trans-identifying individuals, she has since explicitly repented of [44] and retracted this position, saying that
"By affirming a lie, [our action] encourages people [with gender dysphoria] to break the tenth commandment [i.e. you shall not covet (your neighbor's anatomy)]." [45]
In 2023, Butterfield released the book Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, in which she identifies the affirmation of feminism, homosexuality, immodesty, unbiblical spirituality, and transgender identities as a culturally normalized form of assault against biblical truths. [46] [47]
Because Butterfield believes that Christian neighboring means not putting a stumbling block between a neighbor and God, [48] she calls Christians to love their neighbors enough to speak the truth about sin. [49] She also asserts that to support policies that codify sinful behavior into law is to believe that one is more merciful than God. [50] [51] In her view, affirming someone as gay or trans is actually unloving and un-Christian [52] since it makes it more difficult for that person to hate their sin and take on their true identity in Christ: [53] [54]
"[Affirming a person as gay] is, truly, truly, putting a millstone around the neck of young people. . . You do not need to wear whatever indwelling-sin pattern you have. And people who say you do, they should just be run out of town." [55]
Likewise, she has chided the Side B movement, gay Christianity, and broader evangelicalism for treating labels like "LGBTQ+ person" and "trans person" as reliable descriptors and affirming sexual orientation as an ontologically accurate category. [56] [57] She faults them for endangering people's souls and falsifying the gospel: [58] [59]
"The normalization of homosexuality came about through a couple of powerful social forces. [One is] well-meaning evangelicals ceding, or yielding, the moral language to the Left (using the Left's language): sexual minority, cisgender, etc. And as soon as you do that, you no longer have the moral language of the Bible, and the Bible has a moral language. And if you don't use that, then you're actually condemning people to hell; you are not proclaiming a gospel." [60]
Butterfield stresses the importance of Christians' becoming a true family [61] and providing belonging to one another, especially to those who renounce their former way of life in the LGBT community to convert to Christianity. [62] She has pointed out that the Church ought to abandon the idea that singles need to be fixed up. [63] In her book The Gospel Comes with a House Key, Butterfield writes,
"Take, for example, our Christian brothers and sisters who struggle with unchosen homosexual desires and longings, sensibilities and affections, temptations and capacities. Our brothers and sisters need the church to function as the Lord has called it to—as a family. Because Christian conversion always comes in exchange for the life you once loved, not in addition to it, people have much to lose in coming to Christ—and some people have more to lose than others. Some people have one cross, and others have ten to carry. People who live daily with unchosen homosexual desires also live with a host of unanswered questions and unfulfilled life dreams. What is your responsibility to those brothers and sisters who are in this position in life?" [64]
She refers to Mark 10:28-31 [65] to demonstrate that the Church must become the new family promised by Christ for those who forsake their former loyalties and allegiances to follow him. [66] According to Butterfield, Christians belong to one another and to one Father, and thereby get their identity and calling "from God's image radiating in and through [them]." [67]
In the past, Butterfield held a categorically critical stance on conversion therapy for giving the impression that same-sex attractional patterns somehow meant that a person was not yet saved: [68]
". . . [conversion therapy fails] to see that repentance and victory over sin are God's gifts and [fails] to remember that sons and daughters of the King can be full members of Christ's body and still struggle with sexual temptation." [69]
For its presentation of heterosexuality as the main objective of Christianity, Butterfield had also called conversion therapy a form of the "prosperity gospel." [70] However, she has since qualified these statements [71] by clarifying that her critique applied to the type of therapy that prioritized sanctification (behavior modification) over justification (reconciliation with God). [72]
To be born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelicalism, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is distinctly and separately caused by the operation of the Holy Spirit, and it occurs when one surrenders their life to Christ. It is a core doctrine of the denominations of the Anabaptist, Moravian, Methodist, Baptist, Plymouth Brethren and Pentecostal Churches along with all other evangelical Christian denominations. All of these Churches strongly believe Jesus's words in the Gospels: "You must be born again before you can see, or enter, the Kingdom of Heaven". Their doctrines also mandate that to be both "born again" and "saved", one must have a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
From the earliest days of the Christian faith, Christians have viewed marriage as a divinely blessed, lifelong, monogamous union between a man and a woman. However, while many Christians might agree with the traditional definition, the terminology and theological views of marriage have varied through time in different countries, and among Christian denominations.
Confession, in many religions, is the acknowledgment of sinful thoughts and actions. This may occur directly to a deity or to fellow people.
Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of repentance for sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. It also plays a part in confession among Anglicans and Methodists, in which it is a rite, as well as among other Protestants.
Antinomianism is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms, or is at least considered to do so. The term has both religious and secular meanings.
John Stephen Piper is an American Baptist theologian, pastor, and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Piper taught biblical studies at Bethel University for six years (1974–1980), before serving as pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church (Converge) in Minneapolis for 33 years (1980–2013).
Sanctification literally means "to set apart for special use or purpose", that is, to make holy or sacred. Therefore, sanctification refers to the state or process of being set apart, i.e. "made holy", as a vessel, full of the Holy Spirit of God. The concept of sanctification is widespread among religions, including Judaism and especially Christianity. The term can be used to refer to objects which are set apart for special purposes, but the most common use within Christian theology is in reference to the change brought about by God in a believer, begun at the point of salvation and continuing throughout the life of the believer. Many forms of Christianity believe that this process will only be completed in Heaven, but some believe that complete entire sanctification is possible in this life.
Hyper-Calvinism is a branch of Protestant theology that places strong emphasis on supralapsarianism, or salvation from eternity, where the atonement of Christ was and is difficult for the non-elect to understand, where man has little to do with his salvation, there being nothing man can do to resist being saved, wherein evangelism was given lower emphasis as compared to traditional Calvinism, and where assurance of salvation was felt within a person, identified by introspection.
In Christian hamartiology, eternal sin, the unforgivable sin, unpardonable sin, or ultimate sin is the sin which will not be forgiven by God. One eternal or unforgivable sin, also known as the sin unto death, is specified in several passages of the Synoptic Gospels, including Mark 3:28–29, Matthew 12:31–32, and Luke 12:10, as well as other New Testament passages including Hebrews 6:4–6, Hebrews 10:26–31, and 1 John 5:16.
The law of chastity is a moral code defined by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to the church, chastity means that "sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife." Therefore, abstinence from sexual relations outside of marriage, and complete fidelity to one's spouse during marriage, are required. As part of the law of chastity, the church teaches its members to abstain from adultery and fornication.
Absolution is a theological term for the forgiveness imparted by ordained Christian priests and experienced by Christian penitents. It is a universal feature of the historic churches of Christendom, although the theology and the practice of absolution vary between Christian denominations.
Imputed righteousness is a concept in Christian theology proposing that the "righteousness of Christ...is imputed to [believers]—that is, treated as if it were theirs—through faith." It is on the basis of Jesus' righteousness that God accepts humans. This acceptance is also referred to as justification.
Free grace theology is a Christian soteriological view which holds that the only condition of salvation is faith, excluding good works and perseverance, holding to eternal security. Free grace advocates believe that good works are not necessary to merit, to maintain or to prove salvation, but rather are part of discipleship and the basis for receiving eternal rewards. This soteriological view distinguishes between salvation and discipleship – the call to believe in Christ as Savior and to receive the gift of eternal life, and the call to follow Christ and become an obedient disciple, respectively. Free grace theologians emphasize the absolute freeness of salvation and the possibility of full assurance that is not grounded upon personal performance. Norman Geisler has divided this view into a moderate form and a more radical form. The moderate form being associated with Charles Ryrie and the strong form with Zane Hodges.
Soteriology is the study of religious doctrines of salvation. Salvation theory occupies a place of special significance in many religions. In the academic field of religious studies, soteriology is understood by scholars as representing a key theme in a number of different religions and is often studied in a comparative context; that is, comparing various ideas about what salvation is and how it is obtained.
Repentance is a stage in Christian salvation where the believer acknowledges and turns away from sin. As a distinct stage in the ordo salutis its position is disputed, with some theological traditions arguing it occurs prior to faith and the Reformed theological tradition arguing it occurs after faith. In Catholic theology, Lutheran theology, Orthodox theology and Anglican theology, repentance plays a key role in Confession and Absolution.
This is a list of all published works of John F. MacArthur, an evangelical Bible expositor, pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church, and president of The Master's Seminary, in Sun Valley, California. In addition to more than 150 individual books and monographs, MacArthur has also contributed to more than 30 multi-author works. His publications have been translated into more than two dozen languages, including ten or more titles each in French, Spanish, Romanian, German, Korean, Russian, Portuguese, and Italian.
Jackie Hill Perry is an American poet, writer, and hip hop artist who initially garnered popularity for her performances of spoken word pieces such as "My Life as a Stud", "A Poem About Weed", and "Jig-a-Boo" at the Passion 4 Christ Movement (P4CM). She has written for various Christian ministry organizations, such as The Resurgence and John Piper's Desiring God, on the topic of Christianity and homosexuality. She signed to the Portland, Oregon-based Christian hip hop label Humble Beast in January 2014, and released her debut album on November 4, 2014, available both commercially and for free. Hill married fellow spoken word artist Preston Perry in March 2014; the couple currently have four children.
Jennifer Lynn Hatmaker is an American author, speaker, blogger, and television presenter.
Sides A, B, X and Y are names for theological positions on homosexuality, which are used by some Christian churches and communities. In general, those who affirm same-sex marriage as valid fall under "Side A," while those who do not affirm it fall under "Side B," "Side X," or "Side Y".
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