Posted on 03/26/2013 11:54:57 AM PDT by T-Bird45
As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.
The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
That was one of the most powerful lines in the article. It's precisely how all of us, if we are honest, come to Christ.
Fascinating read.
Llesbiah Christian???
Isn’t that an oxymoron?
This may be slightly off-topic, but, as it deals with struggle, acceptance, and conversion, Gordon Prange’s book, “God’s Samurai” might be of interest to some of you.
It is the story of Mitsuo Fuchida’s WW2 career, including his leading the attack on Pearl Harbor, thru the defeat of Japan and his conversion to Christianity; for decades after the war, he criss-crossed Japan and the US as an evangelist.
His conversion began in earnest when he was participating in war crimes trials; in looking for examples of American cruelty to POWs he could use to expose American hypocrisy, he instead came across tales of respect, love and generosity told him by returning POWs. This was entirely alien to his upbringing and the Japanese mindset prevalent at the time which focused on revenge, not forgiveness.
As I said, some of you might find it interesting...
There is a reason that we pray: “Lord, lead me not into temptation.”
There are many temptations and we are all visited by temptations which our love of the Lord, our families and our fellow man enable us to resist. It may not be easy, but it is necessary.
I wonder how long she will be able to keep her job. She will be denounced and branded a loony. No college—save for a Christian One—could accept her now. Her old life is over—BUT Jesus must have other plans for her!
Actually, she left her job years ago. She is a pastor's wife and as far as I know she is a stay-at-home mother.
Being a pastor's wife in the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, a very conservative denomination which practices exclusive psalm-singing with no musical accompaniment, will complicate matters further as far as college faculty positions. The RPCNA is not a moderate denomination in any way, shape, or form. On the contrary, the RPCNA is one of the strictest and most conservative denominations in the entire Reformed world.
My guess is that sooner or later Geneva College (the RPCNA college) or maybe Covenant College (the PCA school) will ask if she is interested in a faculty position, which would have to be coordinated with a call to her husband to pastor a church within driving distance. Otherwise her options are probably nonexistent.
Questions sometimes exist in both liberal and Christian circles about whether "ex-gay" stories are real.
However, those who know just how conservative the RPCNA is will appreciate that there can be absolutely no question that the RPCNA has thoroughly, completely, and in great detail examined virtually every facet of her current and former life for a long period of time before admitting her to communicant membership, and the premarital counseling for her and her husband must have been even more in-depth. The RPCNA is not known for being loose in any way, shape or form. "Cheap grace" and "Covenanter" are not words that can be used in the same sentence.
BTW, this isn't any sort of criticism of the RPCNA. While I never joined the RPCNA, I attended one of their churches for a number of years when I lived in a community where the two local Reformed churches were both RPCNA congregations. They are too conservative for me (which says a lot since I am a **REALLY** right-wing Calvinist) but I have tremendous respect for their denomination and their convictions.
In this case, there is a good possibility that God brought Rosaria Champagne Butterfield into one of the most strictly conservative denominations in the entire world of conservative Christianity to eliminate any reasonable doubt that her conversion is something other than what it appears to be.
I'm pinging this out to the Great Reformed Ping list due to the RPCNA reference.
You are absolutely right. I hope reading this pre-conversion article by Dr. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield reminds conservative Freepers that the people who are today our bitter enemies can sometimes still be won over for the truth.
We need to remember that and treat our enemies accordingly. Yes, we need to fight with passion and fire, knowing that the people fighting us truly **ARE** fighting to destroy what we value, and need to be opposed with every tool at our disposal.
However, we need to use those tools appropriately and wisely. Sometimes we use a meat cleaver when we need a surgeon's scalpel, and we do tremendous damage as a result. Some of the things said in conservative circles simply are not appropriate and go beyond what should be said by Christians.
There are times that hating those who hate God -- not hating those who hate us, but those who truly are the sworn enemies of God -- is appropriate.
Psalm 139:19-22 is clear about this: "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies."
But the simple fact of the matter is that those who hate God are sometimes converted by the God they hate. When we forget that, we are no longer Christians but Pharisees. We need to remember that God converts sinners, and every one of us, even so-called "good conservative Christians," did nothing to deserve God's grace. We all deserve eternal damnation in hell.
Here are some quotes from the Harvard Crimson article which show just how radically leftist her views once were. Dr. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield once hated God. A pastor in one of the most conservative denominations in the conservative Christian world reached out to her and God used that for His glory. More of us should follow that model.
Pre-conversion comments by Dr. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield:
“The Promise Keepers are not run by a decent bunch of family-oriented white guys trying to revive their faith in Jesus Christ,” Champagne said.
She said that as an academic leftist, a feminist and an out lesbian, she felt compelled to speak out against what she saw as the repressive philosophies of the men's group.
Champagne said that the group's members have a strong male-dominated view of the world that represses the rights of women.
“The Promise Keepers’ vision of gender relations within the family looks like this: men submit to god and women and children submit to men,” she said.
Champagne criticized her university's decision to allow the Promise Keepers to use the Syracuse campus for a weekend.
Suggesting that her university's decision was financially motivated, Champagne said that allowing the Promise Keepers to use Syracuse facilities “tacitly condon[es] the manipulative practices and repressive thinking of the Promise Keepers.”
(SNIP)
Champagne's previously published book, The Politics of Survivorship, discussed incest in the context of feminist and queer theories and psychoanalysis, her three main fields of study.
Here is a podcast on her conversion.
She is quoted as saying that her conversion turned her life into a complicated and comprehensive chaos” and that This was my conversion in a nutshell: I lost everything but the dog.
Praise God from who all blessings flow.
In this case, there is a good possibility that God brought Rosaria Champagne Butterfield into one of the most strictly conservative denominations in the entire world of conservative Christianity to eliminate any reasonable doubt that her conversion is something other than what it appears to be.
It is interesting to me, how she jumped from as doctrinaire academic left as it is possible to be, straight to the hardcore. But, "these were the people God sent for her." (quoting from memory.)
Just guessing, but her old friends and associates probably class her as "never a real lesbian". Every group has a way of dealing with apostates.
Here is a podcast on her conversion.
There's a lot of buzz about her now, in our own very small little bit of the Christian world. I hope she doesn't end up a celebrity on the conference circuit.
TV is an artificial world, we have to remind ourselves of that sometimes.
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