Lesbian Professor's Life Before Faith
Rosaria Butterfield was a tenured professor of English and Women's Studies at Syracuse University, specializing in queer theory. She was a leftist lesbian activist who advised LGBTQ+ student groups, co-authored Syracuse's domestic partnership policy, and actively lobbied for LGBTQ+ legal advancements alongside her partner.
Unexpected Friendship Changes Everything
In 1997, while researching the Religious Right "and their politics of hatred against people like me," she wrote an article against The Promise Keepers. Local Reformed Presbyterian pastor Ken Smith responded to that article—not with anger, but with an invitation to dinner.
Ken and his wife Floy became unexpected friends. They never preached at her or invited her to church; they simply treated her with genuine love and hospitality, encouraging her to read the Bible carefully. For two years, Rosaria read through the Bible multiple times under their care.
The Train Wreck Moment
Then came the moment she describes as a "train wreck."
"One Sunday morning, no different from any other Sunday morning, I rose from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later I sat in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. I went there very conspicuous of the fact that I didn't fit in. But I really had to confront this God."
Life Transformed Through Christian Conversion
In 1999, after reading through the Bible multiple times, Rosaria converted to Christianity. In embracing the biblical Jesus, she found herself "a single ex-lesbian with a now defunct PhD." Her conversion landed her into "a complicated and comprehensive chaos."
"This was my conversion in a nutshell: I lost everything but the dog."
Rosaria is now married to Kent, a Reformed Presbyterian pastor in North Carolina. She is a mother, grandmother, author, and speaker. Her memoir "The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert" has become one of the most influential conversion testimonies of the modern era.
