In the summer of 2024, while cleaning tables at Panera Bread, Rosaria Butterfield made me cry as her book “The Gospel Comes With a House Key” played through my earbuds and Butterfield’s own voice sang the words of Psalm 23. I was 20 years old. I had just returned from a mission trip, and cleaning tables at a chain restaurant felt like an insignificant interlude in my college education. I didn’t know that Butterfield would reshape how I thought about service—and what it meant to be a Christian.
Feb. 25–27, Union University hosted Butterfield for the Crabtree Family Lecture Series. Each morning from 10–11 a.m., the chapel filled to capacity with students eager to hear the speaker—and others curious about the growing buzz surrounding her visit.
Butterfield is a speaker, author and pastor’s wife, as well as a mother and grandmother. She is also a retired professor who was formerly tenured at Syracuse University, a celebrated academic and a former activist in LGBTQ+ advocacy before her Christian conversion.
Butterfield opened her lecture series with a line familiar to readers of her memoir “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert.”
“How do I tell you about my conversion to Jesus Christ without making it sound like an alien abduction or a train wreck?” she said.
The question set the tone for the rest of the series: lectures marked by her quick wit, candor and distinctive approach to discussing the Christian faith.
The first thing that struck me hearing Butterfield in person was her confidence and boldness. She did not shy away from the hard topics—the kind of conversations that sometimes get whispered uncomfortably in the halls of a Christian university. Students shifted in their seats as those abstract debates became immediate and personal.
“In a world that despises God, women who obey Him will be targets of wrath,” Butterfield said.
Her remarks drew a range of reactions from students—unsurprising for a speaker known for strong convictions.
“I would say struggling with hard things or facing problems is normal and good and helpful,” Butterfield said. “I also think a lot of the hard things I talk about are the hard things I’ve created in your life.”
She continued to speak about her past activism and why these issues are so close to her heart. Her testimony is no secret, and it drives her work and her heart for college students and academia.
“Worldviews have consequences,” she said. “Bad ones have casualties. And I don’t want you to be one of the casualties.”
Thursday afternoon, I walked up on the end of one of Dr. Butterfield’s coffee hours, notes in hand, phone ready to record our interview, and I found myself joining a silent, entranced gathering. Students sat on couches, pulled up chairs and stood in a circle around this tiny woman with her matching purple dress and purple Bible as she offered wisdom and advice, Scripture and prayers.
She was direct, but she was also warm.
“I never balance truth and grace,” Butterfield said. “It’s a hundred-percent truth and a hundred percent grace.”
And a little sprinkle of sarcasm.
“I know that sarcasm is not a fruit of the Spirit,” she added, “but it’s how professors keep you on your toes.”
Butterfield certainly kept the audience attentive, drawing audible reactions throughout the lectures. Yet in a university setting, students expect to be challenged with new perspectives. Why should chapel be any different?
“I think that it’s fundamental to education. If we’re not doing that, we’re not doing our jobs,” said Dr. Ray Van Neste, vice president for university ministries. “Within the bounds of who we are, we need people to make us think and to unsettle us.”
Senior electrical engineering major Patrick Baise agreed.
“Watching her, I finally understand what it means when it says, ‘The righteous are as bold as lions.’ She pulls no punches,” Baise said. “A university should be a hub of ideas and discussions and things we disagree with. The only way to foster what you really think about these things is to have your ideas challenged.”
There was certainly a range of reactions to Butterfield’s lectures, with gasps and mutterings rippling throughout the crowd as she spoke unapologetically about feminism and the progression of sin. Afterward, no one had neutral feelings about Butterfield’s lectures. She accomplished her goal: she made us think, and she made us talk.
“You need to remember that this is war,” Butterfield said.
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