|
To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE
'Leave it at the Cross': Former Lesbian Professor on What Changed Her Heart"...My house was filled with anxiety and constant frenetic, political activism. At Ken's house, they would talk about hard things, but at a certain point, they would open the Bible. They'd pray and they would do this thing called 'leave it at the cross.' Then they would go on and laugh, feast, and have fun. I was intrigued by that..." -Rosaria Butterfield
During an episode of The Becket Cook Show, Rosaria Butterfield explained how converting to Christianity radically transformed her life, identity, and relationships. Butterfield noted that her story of coming to faith began while working on her 2013 book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into Christian Faith. She also met a Presbyterian pastor who played an integral part in opening her eyes and heart to the Lord. "I talk about what it was like to meet a pastor, who was my neighbor when I was a lesbian, feminist, activist, professor," Butterfield said. "I met Ken Smith, the pastor who the Lord used in my conversion. I thought this man is really smart. He and his wife Floy welcomed me into their world and they came into my world and they didn't act as though I was polluting them. Early on in our friendship, Ken said to me 'there's a difference between acceptance and approval and if you can live with that difference, I can live with that difference.'" Butterfield started reading the Bible and routinely met with Pastor Ken and Floy, which allowed her to discuss situations from a Christian perspective. "I met the entire church community," she recalled. "I saw the way his house functioned ... it was amazing. We would talk about hard and heavy things. We would read the Bible, we would pray, we would sing songs. I couldn't help but notice there was an aesthetic, palpable difference between my house and Ken Smith's house." She continued, "My house was filled with anxiety and constant frenetic, political activism. At Ken's house, they would talk about hard things, but at a certain point, they would open the Bible. They'd pray and they would do this thing called 'leave it at the cross.' Then they would go on and laugh, feast, and have fun. I was intrigued by that. I came to the Bible with a long list of things I was mad about that I needed to work through.
Butterfield explained that she came to a critical moment in her spiritual journey where the truth of the Gospel was visible and that frightened her. "At that point, Ken and Floy did not become stalkers but they came very close. They weren't going to let go of me," she said. "I stopped reading the Bible for research and started reading it for personal questions of truth, life, and death. It was at that point that I was convicted of a number of sins. I was convicted of the sin of somehow thinking that I had been on the side of truth, justice, diversity, reparations, kindness, and compassion when it was really Jesus who was persecuted the whole time. "I started going to church ... I just showed up one day," Butterfield said. "I discovered that sermons were this totally different thing and they would really force me to think about things that I hadn't thought about before. I realized that part of why I didn't understand how to be a godly woman was because I didn't understand how to be a woman, which was hilarious because I'm a professor of women's studies at the time," she pointed out. "I was a mess, and I committed my life to Christ because I believed He was true and real and I had no idea what He was going to do with a mess like me." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here Listen to the full interview with Butterfield by clicking here.
To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE
Other Recent Articles from Breaking Christian News America 250: Freedom Trucks Travel across US Celebrating American History Lowest Gas Prices Are in States with Republican Governors, Legislatures: Report MLB's Texas Rangers Shun 'Pride Night,' Host 'Faith and Family Night' Instead Resolution to Preserve Daughters of the American Revolution for Women Only Is Defeated Texas Institutes Bible Passages into Its Public School Reading List Justice Alito Torches SCOTUS Ruling in Mail-in Ballot Case, Warns of Voter Fraud SCOTUS Rules 5-4 to Permit Counting of Mail-In Ballots that Arrive AFTER Election Day America's Semiquincentennial Begins: Trump Launches Massive National Mall Expo Woman Removed from Detroit Tigers Game for Wearing 'Jesus Over Pride' Shirt Netherlands Does the Unthinkable: Euthanize a Young Child European Country Moves to Ban Islamic Call to Prayer (Video) Charlie Kirk Judge Denies Tyler Robinson's Attempt to Have Potential Death Penalty Removed The Reflecting Pool Vandalism Trump Wasn't Supposed to Be Right About Venezuelans Comb Quake Rubble in Search for Survivors: 'There Are Still People Alive in There' Samaritan's Purse Sending Help to Venezuela after Devastating Earthquakes Search the Articles Archives |
All articles on this site and emails from BCN are copyrighted property of Breaking Christian News. Permission is given to link to, or share a BCN story if proper attribution is given to both the original writer and summarizer of the story. Breaking Christian News 2005-2019. All Rights Reserved.
Breaking Christian News is a division of Elijah List Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: Articles and links, as well as the source articles linked to; do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Breaking Christian News.
| Home | Store | Subscribe | Facebook | Article Archive |