Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

Too many Christians would see an outspoken liberal lesbian professor not as a human being in need of grace, but as the enemy. In Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's honest and revealing testimony we see a Christian pastor who was willing to engage with her as an equal, and the dramatic ways God used his quiet compassion to turn Rosaria's life upside down.

Rosaria Champagne was a lesbian activist and assistant professor at Syracuse university. She was working on a book about the Religious Right when she received a letter from local PCA pastor Ken Smith. She saw a perfect opportunity to interview an actual born-again Christian about his "silly ideas," but was surprised when Smith invited her to have dinner with him and his wife. Over the course of the next few years she began to read the Bible and continued to interact with Ken and his wife until, as she says, "the word of God got to be bigger inside me than I." Rosaria was brought to her knees in what she describes as a "traumatic conversion."

Interestingly, one of the most significant things Butterfield points to as drawing her to Ken Smith is the fact that, during her first meeting, he doesn't invite her to church. He had the wisdom to recognize that she would have only been turned away. It would have been a sign to her that he saw her only as a potential convert. Instead he brings the church to her through hours of fellowship, discussion and advice. 

Some have complained that the later portions of the book become too preachy. Butterfield is a wholehearted intellectual. As a liberal professor she wasn't one to do things halfway, and the same holds true now that she is a writer and a pastor's wife. Thus she can tend to wax poetic on the subjects of exclusive psalmody, marriage, and adoption. These should be taken with the understanding that they are new and exciting for her.

Her social justice background gives her a needed perspective for evangelical circles, and her story is a study in the ways Christians can drive unbelievers away through pride and lack of compassion. Hers is a story not of how she needed to be saved from sexual sin, but how she needed to be saved from all sin. She believes that sexual sin is a sin primarily of pride, and of identity. It was when her identity was rerouted into Christ that she was able to give up everything she thought was important. Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert is a relevant and timely book full of hard truths and, ultimately, grace.

Review by Lauren Shearer
Lauren Shearer writes words for fun and profit. She also makes films, but everyone knows you can't make a profit doing that. Her other hobby is consistently volunteering way too much of her time. You can read more of her reviews here.