We just finished reading the book The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. It was recommended to me by a friend during a conversation we were having, and I’m so glad to have read it. The book is written by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, and tells the story of her conversion to following Christ. She calls herself an unlikely convert because she was a tenured English professor at a liberal university, she was a proudly-declared lesbian, and was very liberal and feminist in her viewpoints. Her journey to God took her by surprise.
It started with a letter from a pastor she had gotten in response to a critique she had published in the newspaper on the gender policies of a Christian organization. This letter was different from the mass of other responses she had gotten to the editorial in that it didn’t seem to be hate mail or fan mail. Instead it questioned how she got to the viewpoint she did, and asked her to defend the presuppositions that held it up. The letter intrigued her. She didn’t know what to do with it, but kept reading it over and over. Finally she called him, and they arranged to get together to discuss the thoughts and questions more fully. Little did she know that this conversation would start her on a rough journey to a completely different way of thinking, thanks in large part to the kindness and love shown to her by that pastor and his family.
I would highly recommend this book. Rosaria has a lot of good insight and interesting viewpoints that apply to many areas of life, not just the issues that she faced in her own life story. It also shows how love and fellowship can be the best way to win a heart over, rather than shoving sins back in people’s faces or jumping straight into talking about Jesus without any evidence that Jesus is actually better than the life lived by those in the world.
Here are some other testimonials about this book from names you may know and trust:
As you read Champagne Butterfield’s incredibly poignant and vulnerable account, you can’t help but put yourself in Smith’s place…. Would you have reached out to a woman who thought Christians and their God were “stupid, pointless and menacing”?
Jim Daly, president, Focus on the Family, crosswalk.com/blogs/jim-daly/the-power-of-our-words.html
There are some stories that just need to be told—some testimonies of the Lord’s grace that are so unusual and so encouraging that they will bless everyone who hears them. This is exactly the case with Rosaria Butterfield, who recently authored The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert.
Tim Challies, challies.com
The conversion that deconstructed her life and worldview taught her a thing or two about how Christians fail homosexuals and post-moderns. One such failure is an unbelief in Christ’s power to transform people and the Bible’s power to captivate people.
Rev. Chuck Huckaby, worldviewchurch.org
Every now and then you read something that not only is a good book, but makes you want to have a meal with the author and get to know them better. This was one for me.
Aimee Byrd, housewifetheologian.com
It’s a fascinating, gritty glimpse into an intersection of unlikely worldviews.
Mike Duran, mikeduran.com
In the coming weeks, keep your eyes open for some of the lessons we’ve learned from this amazing story.
Note: the image above is the cover for the book. It is owned by Crown and Covenant Publications.