The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, Crown & Covenant Publications, 2014. Link is to the author’s website.
This book recently came up in a discussion with my friend Clover. “You’d better not read that book if you’re not serious about your faith,” she said. How true. I had read it earlier when our pastor quoted from it in a sermon and kept thinking that I should include it in this blog. Clover’s comments spurred me on. There’s a new expanded version out now but I couldn’t find that image. The version includes some sections written by the pastor who reached out to Butterfield and was instrumental in her salvation.
I fell in love with this book when I read the following:
In his popular book, The Purpose-Driven Life, author Rick Warren represents conversion in these words: “Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you” (p. 59). There is a pit of false hope in placing our faith in our words rather than in God’s compassion to receive to himself. Warren falsely (and dangerously) assures us of our salvation. He writes: “If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations! Welcome to the family of God!” (p. 59). How do I judge my own sincerity? The saving grace of salvation is located in a holy and electing God, and a sacrificing, suffering, and obedient Savior. Stakes this high can never rest on my sincerity (35).
Jim and I have talked about this shallow view of salvation many times. We were especially distressed by a service in which the speaker read out a prayer, asking people to pray the words in their hearts as he read them aloud, and then had everyone who had done so raise their hands. Then he said basically what Rick Warren is quoted as saying above: “All of you raising your hands are going to Heaven,” in other words. I sat there thinking, Wow, I don’t know about this. How can he say that? Those people are going to walk out of here thinking that they’re saved and never need to worry about it again. That’s just not true!
Butterfield’s book has gained a fair amount of notoriety because of her open lesbianism prior to her conversion. She can therefore speak with authority about how the Christian community has dealt and is dealing with homosexuality. Her honesty and transparency are amazing. As she says in the FAQ section of the expanded edition: “I wrote the book so I could remember and keep close the details of the inner landscape of my conversion to Christ. I wanted to remember, and pass on to my children, the rugged terrain and sweet joys” (175).
As I often say at the end of these posts, Read this book!