Rosaria Butterfield rocked the Evangelical world when she shared her self-proclaimed “train wreck conversion.” “As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians,” she said. “Then I somehow became one.”
Butterfield recently spoke at Southeastern Seminary about gender identity and sexual orientation. In the first thirteen minutes, she talked with Mark Liederbach about her personal journey from lesbian feminist to Christ follower.
Later (starting at 13:15), she explained why homosexuality and gay marriage should matter to the church. Here’s an excerpt of that discussion.
When it comes to homosexuality and gay marriage, some Christians say, ‘This seems like it’s a private issue.’ Why does it matter, and why should the church care?
“Part of it has to do with an understanding of whether a sexual biblical ethic is central to the gospel or peripheral to it. Part of it is figuring out where this [issue] fits. I think that as Evangelicals became ‘New Testament only’ people, we lost the ability to defend the scriptural integrity of a biblical sexual ethic in the gospel. I personally don’t think you can defend biblical marriage on the New Testament alone because biblical marriage is a creation ordinance. So some of it really is just understanding that Christians are called to be good stewards, not only of the earth but of ideas.
Christians are called to be good stewards, not only of the earth but of ideas.
“And a Christian world- and life-view is a necessary lens for all people, in order for (among other things) a liberal democracy to thrive. We know that not everyone is going to come to Christ. We hope for that.
“But we also recognize that a biblical world- and life-view will be better for you even if you don’t come to Christ. It will be better for you. Life will go better for you. Now we hope for more than that. But we don’t short-change you at the very least. Those are the two things we need to keep in mind.
People are hungry for authentic Christianity.
“You know, I was recently on a secular campus under a slew of protestors and secular press. I’m the new face of hate speech on campus. ‘You can’t quote from the Bible,’ which made me ask, ‘Well what about To Kill a Mockingbird?’ That’s another story.
“But I think that people are hungry for authentic Christianity. I think they’ve heard a lot of other stuff. It’s important now to go and share the authentic gospel. And I think people are hungry for that.”
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2017-07-17 16:08:16
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[…] Butterfield recently spoke at Southeastern Seminary about gender identity and sexual orientation. In the first thirteen minutes, she talked with Mark Liederbach about her personal journey from lesbian feminist to Christ follower. Later, she explained why that “people are hungry for authentic Christianity.” […]
2018-03-15 22:31:30
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[…] Seminary. In the first thirteen minutes, she recounted her personal journey. Later, she explained why “people are hungry for authentic Christianity.” Next, she addressed the significance of the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay […]