Last night, I began reading Rosaria Butterfield's The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, and I finished the page turner today. Ms. Butterfield's story has gotten a great deal of attention since its publication five years ago, as it recounts her conversion (she prefers the term "impact," as in a "train wreck") to Christianity in 1999. Until that time, she was a lesbian activist and women's studies professor in Syracuse, New York. Being claimed by Christ turned her world upside down. In addition to telling of her own conversion, Ms. Butterfield, both in this book and in other forums, has been forthright in drawing attention to the way that various modes of Christian public and private moralizing, including insulting language toward those with whom we have moral disagreements, is unhelpful to the Christian cause.
These are themes that I care deeply about, and I appreciated the way that the author addresses them here..
Having said all of that, I found the most moving parts of the book to be the concluding chapters, which summarize events after Ms. Butterfield's conversion, and that center on family life as the wife of a Presbyterian minister. She and her husband have adopted four children ranging in age from new born to teenager, and they have been foster parents for a number of others, as well. Her passion for adoption and fostering children, with all of the hopes and heartaches entailed, was inspiring, and I wish that this aspect of her story would get more attention. I heartily recommend it to others.
This was a great read.
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