One of the more strange aspects of the debate over Greg Johnson’s advocacy of “Side-B” homosexuality, the so-called “Gay Christian” approach, is that it has mostly ignored Rosaria Butterfield’s analysis of the issue and her experience. As one HB commenter wrote this morning, Johnson is essentially leveraging what Scripture says with his own experience and his interpretation of nature. Why then, given those parameters, does Revoice consistently ignore the experience of others, e.g., Butterfield? Why does not her experience matter? To be sure, the leveraging of Scripture with experience is a bad method, which, should the PCA choose to accept it, will come to grief. Of course, Butterfield has a confessional Reformed doctrine of humanity (theological anthropology), a confessional Reformed doctrine of sin (harmatiology), and a confessional Reformed doctrine of progressive sanctification and that is why we should listen to her. She analyzes her experience and the claims people make about their experiences in light of holy Scripture, which is what we should all be doing. Further, she does not set up and knock down straw men and she is not seeking the approval of the broader culture. Butterfield had all the riches of Egypt, as it were, in academia but she esteemed reproach of Christ more. She deserves our attention and this episode of the Presbygirls podcast deserves a listen. (or a viewing).
For more on Rosaria’s approach to same-sex attraction please check out the resources below.
Resources
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button
- How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Resources On LGBTQ And Revoice
- AGR Audio: Rosaria Butterfield—From Victim To Guest
- Rosaria Butterfield’s Alternative To Revoice
- Rosaria Butterfield: Believers Are Not Defined By Their Sins
- On Jesus, Assumptions, Temptation, And Speculation
- Resources On The PCA
Don’t pass this one up, folks. My wife and I listened yesterday. This is one of the finest interviews I’ve ever heard, from anyone in any format. There are at least half a dozen “notable quotables” that I need to write down as I listen again. Outstanding!
It’s no secret that Rosaria Butterfield has a brilliant way with words. One striking example: Speaking of the necessity to remove false teaching from the church, she remarked off the cuff, “Wolves roam in packs.”
This was a truly impressive treatment of the topic and strongly falls on the confessional side of the debate not countenancing Johnson’s side B. Listening to her, I suspect she’d say, shucks, that she’s just saying what reformed people should be saying. Her conviction that the church is the solution to the isolation of gay people is especially strong. Apparently this had the greatest impact on her after her conversion and her abandonment of the lesbian life. Seems like the gospel thing to do and cuts through the moralistic condemnation of gay people and the jump into side B because it will make the PCA acceptable to the progressives.
This is a single theme-reading of conceptual reversals.
15:07 Butterfield describes homosexuality as a promoted culture in the church as “corporate sin.” She is applying the concepts of CRT (systemic racism, structural racism) to queer theory.
32:17 From KS in comments: “I found it very interesting that Greg Johnson condemns homophobia (which starts as a thought) but would not categorize homosexual desires as sinful within themselves.”
Johnson himself equivocates on this but it’s an excellent reversal of a classic Side B tenet. Thank you, KS.
1:15 Butterfield mentions being against reparative therapy.
Please note that the bad guy in Still Time To Care is largely the ex-gay script. The bad guy in anti-Revoice sentiment is largely the gay script.
1:25 “Spiritual abuse is denying people the right to the Gospel in fulness and truth.”
Gospel proclamation in fulness and truth includes and sharpens the teaching on the law. Revoice proponents use the “Gospel” and Gospel “culture” to “make friends with sin.”
Johnson says the ex-gay script is spiritual abuse; Rosaria says his gay script is spiritual abuse.
1:27 “In the real church we don’t throw people away. The reason that you are so beloved is not that you have a voice in the church or need a voice in the church but because Jesus is your voice.”
Butterfield just revoiced Revoice.
Her writing here is should not be dismissed as cute or the crafstmanship of an English professor. It is also our hope and foundation.
RSC, thanks for the link.