A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Kirsten Birkett
About the Author
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is an American writer, speaker, homemaker, and former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University.
Contents
Foreword by Kevin DeYoung
Preface
Introduction: We All Live in Babel Now
Lie #1: Homosexuality is Normal
1 Once Gay, Always Gay?
2 What Is Intersectionality?
3 What Are Homosexual Orientation and Gay Christianity?
4 Why Is Homosexuality a Sin When It Feels Normal to Some People?
Lie #2: Being a Spiritual Person is Kinder than being a Biblical Christian
5 Where Is God—in an Ancient Book or in Me?
6 The Bible Knows Me Better than I Know Myself
Lie #3: Feminism is Good for the World and the Church
7 Do You Know Yourself and How Do You Know?
8 Does the Gospel Need a Feminist Rescue?
9 The Power of a Woman’s Voice
Lie #4: Transgenderism is Normal
10 The Sin of Envy
11 The War of Words
12 Eternal Life Means More than Just Living Forever
Lie #5: Modesty is an Outdated Burden that Serves Male Dominance and Holds Women Back
13 In the Presence of My Enemies
14 Exhibitionism: The New Almost-Christian Virtue
Afterword: The Difference between Acceptance and Approval, or, How to Stay Connected to Loved Ones Who Believe These Lies without Falling for Them Yourself
Appendix: Guiding Principles for How to Read the Bible
General Summary
A discussion of the current confusion over gender and identity, and advice for how to combat it, written from the perspective of a former atheist lesbian academic who is now a pastor’s wife.
Foreword by Kevin DeYoung
The devil is a liar, using many techniques in many places, even Christian ones. Today the front lines of the war between good and evil are battles over sex, gender, and identity. Our weapon against the devil is to stand by the truth. This book is about truth.
Preface
This book is for Christians, especially women, all ages, single and married. It holds marriage between a man and a woman is sacred; it is for those wanting to help loved ones trapped in wrong relationships and gender confusion. “Strong Christian women need to know what the Bible says on this matter rather than what some famous almost-Christian feminist blogger says on Twitter.” Neglect of the Christian family is deadly. May we see those bewitched by “deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” restored to truth.
Introduction: We All Live in Babel Now
A civil war within Christianity has broken out. Culture considers heteronormativity abusive; gay advertising aims to manipulate children; “it feels like you inhabit the pages of a dystopian novel.” In Genesis 11:1–9, people tried to usurp God’s glory, and were scattered in confusion. But that confusion is entering Christianity, because we have failed to obey God and value his plan for men and women. We tried to have “personal piety and love” without doctrinal integrity founded in the Bible.
The creation ordinance of man and woman in God’s image is central to the gospel. It defines “human.” We reflect God’s image not by inventions based on our feelings, but by knowing Scripture and growing in knowledge of him. We reflect God’s image as men and women, differently.
We live in Babel, where lies have become encoded in law. We have exchanged the Creator for the creature, truth for lies, and natural (hetero)sexuality for dishonorable passions (Rom 1:21–28). Five lies require confrontation: that homosexuality is normal; unbiblical spirituality is kinder; feminism is good for the church; transgenderism is normal; modesty is outdated.
The author believed these lies. She defended the use of preferred pronouns, falsely believing this was missional and gracious. But it is lying to people and falsifies the creation ordinance. The author dismissed efforts to promote biblical sexuality, and called reparative therapy heresy, and she repents. Sin requires godly confrontation; we can’t agree to disagree.
2015 and 2020 (in the US) saw LGBTQ+ defined as who someone is rather than how someone feels. In the church, it makes those experiencing homosexual desire or gender confusion much less safe, no longer helped to repent of and flee sin. But sin requires repentance, not parades and civil rights. If you covet your neighbour’s gender, that desire is to be cut off, not your body parts. As we face suffering for Christ, pray for increased faith to endure.
Lie #1: Homosexuality is Normal
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Once Gay, Always Gay?
The author was once a gay feminist. Ps 113:9 about joyful homemaking was horrific to her, entirely against the worldview of feminist queer theory that she found inspiring and life-giving. Eventually she came to value God’s love and order and see its goodness. She realised she could not have both lesbian identity and Christ. She started to pray, broke up miserably with her partner, and slowly began to change. She saw lesbianism not as identity but “lack of righteousness and a willful transgressive action.” She married and adopted children and gave up professional life. It gave her “liberty and purpose.” Far from being patriarchal abuse, she believes “the only safe place in the world for a woman is as a member of Bible-believing church.”
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What Is Intersectionality?
In the 1990s intersectionality moved into the evangelical church, and is reshaping contemporary thinking. Deepest truth is someone’s political and social group. Failing to affirm LGBTQ+ rights is considered an act of harm. Intersectionality “maintains that who you truly are is measured by how many victim statuses you can claim.” But it is against the gospel, by offering an unbiblical view of human identity and producing social fragmentation. It conflates neutral categories (race and gender) with sin (homosexuality and transgenderism). It lacks repentance, redemption or grace, despite its good intentions, so it punishes good and celebrates evil. It increases division and anger. The “victimized identities that emerge from intersectionality are perpetually immature and in constant need of therapy and affirmation.” . . .
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